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submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

I use KDE Neon on my laptop and I'd prefer to have KDE as a DE on this one too (if possible) but I don't mind a non Ubuntu base. Basically I'd just like to be able to play games on it without much hassle but I know how to paste commands into the terminal if the need arises.

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Any, honestly. That PC has good specs.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

With a 10 series cards, dx12 performance will be terrible. Nvidia already has issues with dx12 on newer cards but Pascal is beyond worse. You'll have to enable dx11 on games that support it.

I decided on installing debloated windows for my 1070ti media machine. Plugs into a 4k tv and runs modern games well enough at 1440p on medium.

This is my experience and your mileage may vary. I still use linux (cachyOS) on my main machine with a 3070ti but Nobara or Bazzite are also good as others have mentioned.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

CARD READER: Card Reader

What cards are we talking about? If it's punch cards, you might be out of luck.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago
  1. This PC is not old.
  2. Literally every Distro works on such new hardware
[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Nobara doesn't because the GPU is too old, that's why I asked. But Bazzite has a legacy version so it's fine.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This can't be. I am using a GPU from the same Pascal generation and just installed the newest availabe Nvidia 570 driver. I also use a Laptop with intel 4770HQ and Nvidia 950m GPU running with the same driver under the same Nobara 42 version with KDE.

You should switch from the open driver to the closed one, if your gpu is in one of the lists: https://wiki.nobaraproject.org/graphics/nvidia/supported-gpus

[-] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago

They explicitly mention the GTX 10xx series not being supported due to being too old. I'm sure there's a workaround but bazzite works out the box so I'm set.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

In that case you can just use fedora itself and install the drivers that way

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

You Cheapo pc outperforms my scrap

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

It's my one and only rig too so don't worry 😅

[-] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago

Bazzite would be my suggestion. Throw the full install on the ssd then format the HDD for general storage. I'd be a little concerned about the 1060 3GB GPU though. Drivers will likely be fine, but the "10 series" have notoriously awful async compute and take a much larger penalty when running games/apps under proton/vulkan if I recall correctly.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Ok cheers that's definitely worth a shot

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Yeah, Bazzite had dedicated installers for NVdia GPUs. Considering that Neon is being left to die by KDE, it's sensible to switch distributions anyway.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Latest drivers and packages?

  • yes: Arch, Fedora, Bazzite
  • no: Debian

Want to do maintenance work, set it up and learn?

  • yes: Arch
  • some: Fedora, Debian
  • none: Bazzite

Note: Bazzite is so established that Marvel Rivals' developer Netease has released game patches targeting that distro specifically. It's the current most recommended gaming diestro.

I use Aurora on my laptop & Bazzite on my desktop.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Bazzite, really? I had never really heard of it before now! Very interesting.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Bug Fixes

All Platforms

General

  1. High-end computers running the Bazzite (Linux) system were mistakenly tapping into low-quality UI resources. Fear not—this issue has been rm'd!ll

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2767030/view/523083139556311044

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

It’s fantastic. If you are completely gaming-focused, there isn’t a better distro.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Debian is still and option for updated drivers if you use the backports repo

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago
[-] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago

This is faster than my computer :(

I use Ubuntu studio with KDE but I'm not necessarily recommending it.

I heard popos is good with games.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago

There's already a thousand comments, but I'll give my opinion anyway. Debian is by far the most reliable distro I have ever used. It's easier to install than arch in my opinion, and is completely rock solid. However, if you have at least a year experience with linux and you like tinkering, nothing beats arch. I don't recommend using distros like pop_os, endevour os, or manjaro, simply because once you have a bit of experience, it just introduces more points of failure.

TLDR;Debian, or if you are experienced, arch.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Building off of that:

I recently discovered PikaOS, which is a Debian based distro that... more or less is as Nobara is to Fedora, highly streamlined, tons of optimizations for gaming built in, closer to, but not literally bleeding edge to keep up with driver optimizations, as well as comes pre packaged with a number of common, useful apps and packages.

I have seen some benchmark videos of it actually outperforming Nobara in gaming performance on older hardware... maybe not as old as OP's, but like, 10% to 20% more frames.

Downsides for this use case, seemingly a relative linux noobie, are that... well its still arguably in the experimental/development phase, it is fairly new, and of course, as compared to something like Bazzite, it doesn't come with guardrails via sandboxxing everything into flatpaks and making it more difficult to do something destructive to the core OS.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

This should run pretty much every distro just fine.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

That PC is quote good Even Today. You can run whatever you want. Have you tried endivourOS?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

We have a similar machine and it has openSUSE Leap for nearly 2 years. It's been fine so far.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Those are really decent specs! Which I had this kinda hardware sitting around. I'd probably try arch. Its kinda fun if you don't break it.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Steamos might be cool as a gaming rig too arch based so you get the best of both worlds

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

SteamOS doesn't support NVidia

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Kubuntu would run just fine on that machine.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

I use Nobara, moved to it from Neon myself after the debacle that was the rebase to 24.04. It's Fedora based and you can get it with regular KDE or their own customized version. It's Fedora with special mods made by GloriousEggroll (the dev behind Proton-GE) to improve performance mostly for gaming though the improvements can be of benefit to other applications as well. It was probably the most popular "gaming" distro until Bazzite became the hot new thing. Give it a try and see how it runs on your hardware.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

I don't think my GPU is recent enough for Nobara. That's what I wanted to use initially. Haven't actually tried it yet though.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Grab the Pop! OS nvidia image and you're in business.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'm currently installing bazzite but if that gives me any trouble I think I'll try pop. I've just never really used gnome or its derivatives before. But it hardly matters for gaming anyway.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

I ran into problems with bazzite recognizing that second hard drive where I wanted to store my game files. Had to jump through some hoops to make sure Steam had the correct path. Just FYI

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

The bazzite project website has an explicit "how-to" for extra drives. Worked for me with no issues, though I am definitely more experienced with tinkering with that kind of thing.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Wish I'd known this a month ago xD.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I'll also throw in my vote for Bazzite. I've heard a lot of good things about it in terms of its default included packages and configurations for gaming. It sounds like you may not be advanced enough to mess with settings to make gaming run smoothly, so bazzite would do all of that for you. They have a KDE version. And it is what's called an "immutable" distro where the main systems files can't be modified easily by the user. That will make it safer to those who aren't sure of what they're doing. You can also easily set it up to run Big Picture Mode by default, so if you decide to use that pc more like console connected to a tv, bazzite would be great for that. Like others have pointed out, Bazzite has good support for nvidia cards out of the box, and that's a key feature to note. Bazzite is kinda like an unofficial version of Steam OS that's ready for widespread use and supports a lot of hardware. They're doing what Steam is not ready to do yet.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

I just wiped Bazzite in favor of Tuxedo OS. I liked Bazzite a lot until I wanted to do the faintest wisp of development (setting up a new DIY keyboard with QMK). At that point I realized I’m in a very specific doughnut hole where I will occasionally want to do things that are still not mindlessly simple on an immutable distro, but I’m still untutored enough to need the walkthroughs that never include how to properly layer or sandbox stuff without just fucking up the very immutability that made it a good idea in the first place.

Shame though, as it was dead easy to install and use for basic productivity and especially games. A person with different needs and/or more skill would do very well with it. In the meantime, Tuxedo seems like a good snap-free Kubuntu alternative, and I’ve been floating around in KDE-running Debian derivatives (off and on) for decades.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Yeah, that makes sense. I guess you "outgrew" Bazzite. That's what's awesome about Linux, there's a distro for every use case. If I were to setup a HTPC/pc gaming console connected to a tv, I'd use Bazzite. But, for my desktop, I run Arch cuz I tinker so much with it.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

To Realy harness every single BOGOMIP, there is only one: gentoo with cpu specific compiler flags. Distcc helps.

For everything less it does not really matter. Use the one you feel good with.

And to be honest, gentoo is my daily driver. But on a threadripper... i would just put a fedora on it and call it a day

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Bazzite has been the winner for all of my old windows pcs but all of my pcs are AMD cpu/gpus. There is and nVidia specific version of Bazzite but I have no experience with it so I can't verify if it works well or not.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

I’ll second Bazzite. It’s secure, it stays up to date, and it “just works”.

If the immutable system becomes a problem for any reason, try Endeavor. openSuse Tumbleweed is also a good alternative.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I would just toss in my experience w Bazzite as a warning - I don't recommend, unless you're already a fedora devotee or really cool with how an atomic distro works. The 'it just works' was exactly NOT what I experienced - had to constantly manually set Xwindow compatibility with Flatseal (apps just ... wouldn't open... no explanation! Yay! The wayland is buggy? Took a few threads on Bazzites official discord to figure that out). It wouldn't mount secondary drives... would take a fuckton of work to get them recognized, mounted, and then it would 'forget' them again! Discord NEVER functioned properly (no streaming, even on Canary fork, etc. etc. etc.) It come's with things 'preinstalled' and if those are exactly what you need its probably fine, but its a handheld/steamOS facing project... I don't see any reason to recommend it here. For me (prefer GNOME environment, despite limitations), I've settled on a slightly tweaked version of Pop!_OS and s76's cosmic environment... but y'know, as others mention, this will run most popular stuff. I always love to go w a Debian fork for stability and familiarity. YMMV. Good luck!

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks for the warning. I am currently running Fedora (because "it just works") and I'm drowning in bugs and incompatibilities.

I was considering Bazzite because of all the recommendations, but considering my luck (and probably my hardware combination) I'd probably end up just like you described.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Could try Nobara, too.

its Fedora based, as well.. and I am a blithering idiot and had almost no issues with it.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I have found it won't mount internal drives on boot except for the main OS drive and its a real pain in my ass to fix otherwise it's been fairly good. definatley much better than any other distro I have tried.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I faintly remember having to deal with that. There’s a built-in “Device Auto-Mount” app that may be able to help with that without messing with fstab, assuming the drives are recognized.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

If you happen to remember what it is called it would be appreciated. I had to install Gnome Disks in order to get it to work because the default KDE disk manager wouldn't do it even though there was an option for it (greyed out).

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

That's what I decided to try and so far everything works as expected

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I have arch kde on a similarly spec'd computer, and it runs great. Fairly easy to install with archinstall. Not sure about the 10-series GPU, but the nvidia drivers work fine on my 3070 under arch

this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
89 points (95.9% liked)

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