Hey everyone! I gave Arch Linux a shot back in January, but I ran into some driver issues, especially when I was switching away from demanding apps like Firefox and Steam – my whole PC would freeze on X11. Wayland was even worse; I could barely get any Source games running smoothly. I'm considering giving Linux another go, but I'm torn between using the open-source drivers and the proprietary ones. Have others faced similar problems, and have those been resolved? If Arch isn't the best for NVIDIA support, could you recommend some other distros that handle this better? Additionally, I'm open to switching to an AMD GPU if need be, so what's the best AMD graphics card that pairs well with an i5-12400F CPU for gaming, particularly for titles like Minecraft and some Source games? Sorry if this veers off-topic; I'm new to Reddit!
3 Answers
Always mention your distro, hardware specs, and any error messages when asking for help! That's key to getting useful advice. Good luck!
It's tough to say without knowing more about your system, but many people have set up NVIDIA with great results. Unfortunately, the proprietary drivers still tend to perform better than the open-source ones. If you follow the Arch Wiki guide for setting up your NVIDIA GPU, you should see decent performance. If you're seeking an easier experience, consider Pop!_OS, which supports NVIDIA out of the box, or Mint and Zorin, which have driver manager apps. For AMD, your CPU might have slight bottlenecking with something like the 7900XTX, but for the games you mentioned, that likely won't be a big deal. Just make sure you're checking CPU and GPU requirements for your games!
If you like Arch, you might want to try CachyOS. It's pretty simple to install and comes with an NVIDIA ISO! I've been using it along with Wayland for a while, and aside from the known NVIDIA issues with DX12, it's been solid. As for AMD, it has its quirks too, but many gamers successfully use it with Linux and NVIDIA cards.
Thanks for the detailed response! I'll check out the Arch Wiki for sure. If I hit any snags, I might just go for Pop!_OS.