I'm new to Linux and was hoping for a snappy experience, but so far, it's not what I expected. I have a powerful setup with a Ryzen 9 7950x CPU, an RTX 4080 SUPER GPU, a 990 Pro NVMe drive, and 32GB of Hyper-X RAM. I started with Ubuntu, but Firefox took 3-4 seconds to open, which felt slow compared to the instant load times on Windows. I then tried Arch Linux with KDE, but it hasn't improved much. Dolphin (the file explorer) is still sluggish, and overall app loading has noticeable delays. Boot times aren't great either. As I'm completely new to Linux, I'd appreciate any advice on how to speed things up. Thanks!
5 Answers
You might want to run `systemd-analyze blame` to check what's causing delays during boot. Uninstalling programs like Snap can help; it slowed my boot by a good 6 seconds when I had it. Also, if there are services you’re not using, like printer or dial-up modem services, disable them to free up resources. If you’re a Firefox user, there are also various speed tweaks you can tweak in its settings. Just a few things to start with!
It sounds like Ubuntu might not be optimizing your hardware to its full potential. Just a heads up, KDE is just a desktop environment, not a full distro, so that might not be the main issue. You could try using Nobara, which is designed for new hardware and has tons of optimizations right out of the box. I recommend checking some YouTube videos about it to see if it suits you.
I’ll look into Nobara, thanks for the suggestion!
Just to clarify, 16GB refers to your GPU memory, right?
I’m running Arch with KDE, and for me, Dolphin opens pretty much instantly. Maybe there’s something else contributing to the slow performance on your setup. You might want to check if your graphics driver is functioning properly, which can sometimes impact responsiveness, even if boot time seems okay.
How can I check if the graphics driver is working properly?
You can run `nvidia-smi` in the terminal to check your Nvidia driver status.
It’s tough to diagnose remotely, but did you install the proprietary Nvidia drivers? They can help with performance. Also, try launching Firefox and Dolphin from the terminal to see if any errors pop up during startup. Checking `journalctl` or `dmesg` could also reveal system issues affecting performance. Good luck!
Sorry, I’m not sure what info would be helpful. I did install the Nvidia drivers, so I assume they're correct. I’ll try the analyze command next.
Just keep in mind that Linux can feel a bit slower than Windows sometimes, depending on the browser you’re using. I found that on Arch + KDE, Firefox scores lower in performance benchmarks compared to Edge on Windows, but that can vary widely based on setups. It’s all about optimization!
I’ll give this a go, thank you!