First year on linux gaming, and the windows is two step from his coffin.

Hello!

I've been playing under Linux for years. Mostly on the Steam platform.

I just noticed that there is a yearly summary under Steam.

I'm thinking about upgrading my GPU for a while now, i'm just unsure because i wanted to wait for Radeon UDNA but it may be better to buy now since the GPU Prices will go up soon.

My System: i7-8700k, 32GB DDR4, RTX 3080 10GB (the first one), CachyOS, 3x 4K Monitors/TV (2x HDR, 2x 60Hz, 1x 120Hz(TV))

What do i play most: Cyberpunk on 4K 60Hz with Raytracing VRChat (Valve index, Steam Frame)

I wanted to upgrade to the RX9070 XT

Since 4K and VRChat uses a ton of VRAM that might be a good upgrade and AMD also runs better on Linux than Nvidia. Do you think it's worth the upgrade? Should i upgrade or wait a few more years?

(Upgrading CPU is not easily possible because of DDR5 Prices) Do you think that GDDR6 is also going up in cost? Afaik is only DDR5 or GDDR7 the issue.

And also Chivalry 2 lol. Chiv 2 does work on Linux but OOTB input latency is much worse on Linux, so switched to Windows. However with a few workarounds it’s actually better on Linux so now I’m back baby. Next year gonna be 90%+

https://preview.redd.it/8xwnkjcwxq7g1.png?width=2267&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8acbb15b6587bce2f12f7c4264814e8bd9cf5b7

sadly i only started using linux in september and its 55% this year, in 2026 its going to be 100% :D

STEAM REPLAY 2025

Another year of Linux-only gaming. How did I do?

- - - - - - - -

Most played games this year:

Deep Rock Galactic (19%) (100% on Steam Deck)
Skyrim (19%) (100% on Steam Deck)
Oxygen Not Included (11%) (100% on Desktop)
Deep Rock Survivor (7%) (100% on Steam Deck)

When you encounter an issue while using a linux distro here's what you do first:

1. Check for system and driver updates
2. Search the internet (community forums, blogs, reddit etc...) for solutions
3. Change gpu drivers to proprietary ones and test it again.
4. Check with other versions of Wine, Proton, Proton-GE, etc... (for games/windows softwares) and tweak in-game settings.
5. Check with another Kernel (choose another kernel while booting)
6. Boot into previous btrfs snapshot and test it again (if you setup snapshots)
7. Go to Archwiki-https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main\_page and you'll find a lot of useful info on a huge number of packages, desktop environments, window managers, etc.......
8. If Nothing fixes the game issue, wait for the game update. A Game update might fix the issue.

These are the things I did when I was a beginner and it helped me and my friends save a lot of time. Please do suggest some changes if I missed any.

Coming to "asking for help" in this subreddit, it'll be helpful if you follow the template that is pinned in the community highlights - https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/16d7gj7/need_help_heres_how_to_get_it/

Whenever you post for help, include system specs, steam, proton, wine, gpu driver versions etc..... if possible attach logs as the above template suggests. It will become easy and saves a lot of time for everyone if you put some effort and explain the issue in detail and tell us what fixes and what else have you tried to fix that issue. Please don't just directly come to reddit and post here without doing any basic troubleshooting and do include detailed specs & explaination of the issue.

If you are using a linux distro, you have to invest your time and effort. That is the reality. We are happy to help and you have to put some effort when you post.

Linux Distros are not "Free". The Price of a Linux Distro is your "Time" & "Effort".

I wanted to get mangohud working for minecraft but prism launcher won't let me enable mangohud in its settings menu. I also tried a wrapper command to force it to launch mangohud but it says mangohud not found despite me having installed mangohud via both sudo apt install and also with flatpak commands. I am on linux mint.

https://preview.redd.it/zou63epkmq7g1.png?width=796&format=png&auto=webp&s=11dec1287998c408bc150ca737d12356024055e9

Only made the migration a few weeks ago and my entire Red Dead Redemption 2 run was on Linux (CachyOS - Hyprland). I rate this graph will look completely different next year!

I'll believe it when I see it. It would be interesting if they made it a Linux exclusive though.

Linux gaming is going strong, but anticheat is still a big obstacle.

But is there something the linux advocates (like Valve, the FOSS community, or anyone) are doing to overcome it in the long run? Is there even something that I can do to help?

Or are we just hoping that devs will be forced to adapt once linux's market share becomes big enough?

https://preview.redd.it/3pwr1jczaq7g1.png?width=1450&format=png&auto=webp&s=18f37333bcf0a5e2998b0d8d4eb09e68a2b3a26d

BTW: I don't have a steam deck, could be the fact i was using game scope session for a while.

Since I've switched, games honestly seem to crash less for me than they did on windows and I haven't had to compromise too hard on performance to achieve that. However, when a game does happen to crash for whatever reason, it can sometimes lock me away from inputting anything that might expedite the process. This was a rarer problem on windows where most crashing games could be alt-tabbed out of and killed. On Linux however, a crash can lock me out of all function for 1-3 minutes unless I bite the bullet and force restart my system. I don't mind crashes since it's what I've come to expect from my pc. I just want the process to be as quick as possible.

Distro: Mint
Games in Question: Deadlock, Arc Raiders, The Finals (thus far)

It used to be possible to change the default installation location of Steam from /home/user/.local/share/Steam by moving the folder or deleting it. The next time Steam was launched, a message would appear asking "Couldn't find Steam content, did you move it?" Apparently this is no longer the case- it just downloads new files into ~/.local/share/Steam without prompting. I've searched everywhere to find a way to do this, but they all use the now-defunct method or only describe how to download games to a separate location from within the Steam client. Why did this method stop working? Is there any other way to achieve this?

My system is set up with the main filesystem (/bin, /usr, /opt, etc) on a large, fast NVME drive and /home on a small, slow SATA drive mounted at boot. Previously I placed my Steam directory in /opt/Steam, but I moved it to a btrfs subvolume mounted to /opt/games to exclude it from system snapshots. Unfortunately Steam didn't prompt me for the new location when I launched it.

I'm running Garuda Linux (based on Arch btw) using steam package from official repositories.

Hello, good afternoon. I have a fairly important question regarding NVIDIA drivers. I’d like to know to what extent they differ and whether each type of driver performs better. I’m referring to the proprietary driver and the Open Kernel one. I’d like to know how they differ and why people say the Open Kernel is better. What changes compared to the proprietary driver?

Thanks.

There is no audio. Every other game works perfect. Tested different proton version. Tested different kernels and mesa drivers. Same thing, every other game works flawless except resident evil.

How do I troubleshoot audio issues in Proton/Wine?

Hello, I’m new to gaming on Linux.

I’m trying to play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice using Lutris. The first time I run the .exe, the game launches without any issues. However, after closing the game and trying to run it again, I get the following error:

“This game has no executable set. The installation process did not finish correctly.”

Additionally, when I try to manually set the executable path again (the same .exe I used before), Lutris becomes unresponsive and I have to force quit the application.

I don’t understand why the game runs the first time but not afterward. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a known issue?

I’m using Zorin OS 17.3. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I recently bought MH Wilds on sale and waited until today to play it bc of the performance patch.

The game froze as soon as I got to the language selection screen. Trying different versions of Proton didn't help, and it eventually got me banned for 24 hours by th Denuvo DRM anti-tampering. So I wasn't able to keep troubleshooting.

I'm using a 5070 Ti and 9800X3D and am running the latest drivers on CachyOS. Has anyone been able to play the game after the TU4 update or is it just 100% borked on Linux now?