this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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I used linux in the past, both privately and work-related, but the last time was over 10 years ago, so I'm a bit out of touch. I am in need of a new PC, but it'll be a good year before I have the funds, so for now I am making due with an i5 7500 and a gtx 1660. I do have 32 GB so there's that. I finally feel confident enough to make the permanent switch to linux from windows as all of the programs I use are either available on linux or have a good/better equivalent. The only thing I fear will hold me back is games. I know Steam has Proton now which will run most games, but how does it compare? The games I play most are Skyrim (heavily modded) , RDR2, Witcher 3, Transport fever, Civilization, Crusader kings 3 and Cities Skylines (uninstalled atm waiting for 2). I'm on the fence to either wait until I can afford a new PC and dual boot or make the switch now and deal with a few gaming problems. Thing is, what kind of problems may I expect? Anyone able and knowledgeable to give me some advice?

EDIT: Wow, those are a lot of replies; thank you everyone! You really helped me. I will make the switch sooner rather than later.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If your pc doesn't support vulkan you're fucked, unless you use steam

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What does supporting Vulkan entail?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Steam Proton (which does the heavy lifting of running windows games on linux) includes DXVK/D9VK/VK3D3 which translates Windows DirectX games (don't work on Linux) into Vulkan (which works on Linux)

not having Vulkan will result in falling back on the way older DirectX -> OpenGL translation which not many actually care about nowadays and hasn't been opti.ized to run well in years (awful performance)

[–] NotchPersona 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How do I know if my PC supports Vulkan?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

depends on how old your graphics chip is
typically anything newer than 10 year old will support some level of Vulkan

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My msi GF63 thin laptop doesn't...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What graphics card do you have? I think you'd have to have a really old card for it to not support Vulkan. Or perhaps integrated graphics might not support it very well, I'm not too knowledgeable on integrated graphics currently.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Vulkan isnt that new though so a 1660 should be fine, right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use a 1650ti and it's not supported

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

1650ti most certainly does support Vulkan. However there may be problems if you have switchable graphics.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Indeed, i have to use optimus manager in X11 in order to let my graphic card process games and other things