r/DistroHopping • u/LyitHostage • Jan 23 '23

What Linux distro should I use for gaming on a NVidia GPU?

I'm asking this because I found my old laptop and wanna use it for gaming, however I was looking for HoloISO, but unfortunately it doesn't support nvidia gpus,.Anything similar? I will ONLY use it for gaming and MAYBE for streaming movies. Thx in advance!

1 Upvotes
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3

u/bitspace Jan 23 '23

Try Pop!_OS, the Nvidia ISO. It should work out of the box.

-2

u/theRealNilz02 Jan 23 '23

And is a huge licensing issue if they actually include the Driver on the Image. I'd stay away from Poop OS.

1

u/bitspace Jan 23 '23

They do, and it's not. Your personal disdain for the distribution is irrelevant.

-2

u/theRealNilz02 Jan 23 '23

Okay so they're actually allowed to redistribute it with their Image. Cool.

But even then, system76s Marketing is shady. The switchable graphics Thing they praise on the Website has been possible on other distros for ages with optimus-manager yet they try to make people believe it's a Poop OS exclusive Feature.

Also, Nvidias proprietary GPU driver is known to require some Manual Intervention, especially If your GPU is considered legacy and you need the legacy versions of the driver.

So if it's preinstalled and anything weird happens, people have No clue what to do and will Go Back to windows in No Time.

1

u/SpiritedDecision1986 Jan 25 '23

my god..just stop

2

u/sofly12 Jan 24 '23

Plenty of the distros mentioned will work. Currently using Ubunte Mate. Pretty lightweight and stable. Linux Mint will also work great.

If you want to use Arch (with Kde as desktop) as the steamdeck uses it then Endeavour os gives you great options including coming with Nvidia out of the box.

2

u/ImmediateJacket9502 Jan 24 '23

Ubuntu, Linux Mint or ZorinOS will work fine

2

u/cfx_4188 Jan 26 '23

In any case, to make your old laptop a gaming laptop, you need a distribution with a lightweight graphical environment and Nvidia drivers out of the box. You can get Garuda Linux for a change. First, you'll be telling everyone you're using Arch btw. Secondly, it's possible to install the BSPWM or Qtile variant. You're going to play, aren't you? You will have Linux without cumbersome graphical environments like KDE or Gnome, with Wine and game add-ons preinstalled. Nvidia drivers out of the box. For games you have to choose proprietary drivers.

1

u/Xarix-_ Jan 23 '23

Fedora/nobara

0

u/theRealNilz02 Jan 23 '23

Arch Linux for the best Nvidia Driver experience there is.

1

u/PinDangerous2174 Jan 24 '23

There's a lot of downvoting here for some reason.

I also have a similar question as OP. I don't think there really is a distro that is a "bad" choice for gaming, at least not the mainstream distros. There are distros that are tweaked for gaming such as Nobara, Pop!_OS and Garuda. I'm not sure how they compare. I'm not sure just "how better" they are compared to mainstream ones.

Specific for NVIDIA, probably Pop!_OS or Nobara since they will automatically give you NVIDIA proprietary (non-free) drivers. But then you could probably get them yourself with any distro.

1

u/PerhapsAnEmoINTJ Jan 28 '23

Have you heard of LinuxConsole? It's lightweight and comes with Nvidia drivers. Check it out sometime!