I use Linux Mint on my main PC for media and it works well. I'm now setting up an older computer as a dedicated gaming machine, replacing its current Windows installation. It has an Intel processor and a GTX 1060. Would a gaming-focused distribution provide noticeable benefits over Mint, such as better performance, driver support, or easier setup for Steam, Proton, and other gaming tools? The main game I'm interested in at the moment is Vintage Story.
4 Answers
You probably don’t need to switch. Gaming distributions mainly provide newer packages, kernels, drivers, and preconfigured tools, but those changes don’t automatically make older hardware faster. Mint should run your games just fine if Steam, Proton, and the NVIDIA driver are working properly.
Your GTX 1060 is still usable, but it’s considered legacy hardware and NVIDIA support may become more limited over time. Most conventional distributions can still install the appropriate driver. Check the exact driver availability before choosing a specialized distribution, since some newer or immutable gaming systems may not support that GPU well.
I’d install Mint first and use it for a while. If your games work through Steam and Proton, there’s no strong reason to rebuild the system. You can always move to something like CachyOS or another gaming-oriented option later if you specifically want newer packages, performance tweaks, or preinstalled gaming utilities.
A gaming-focused distribution can save some setup time by including tools for Steam, Proton, Wine, non-Steam games, performance profiles, and newer kernels. The tradeoff is that you may get a less conservative system and have to troubleshoot more often. On a GTX 1060, the performance difference is unlikely to be dramatic, so convenience is probably the main reason to choose one.
That makes sense. I’ll start with Mint and see how everything performs before changing distributions.