Hey fellow gamers! I’m thinking about making the switch to Linux for both gaming and my daily activities. I’ve been running on Windows 11 up until now, but I’m curious about how well Linux can handle everything I need. Here’s a quick rundown of my setup: I’ve got a Gigabyte Aorus B550 Elite motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5800x CPU, an AMD RX 9070XT GPU, and 32GB of DDR4 RAM. I’m currently gaming on a 2TB NVMe SSD, while I have another 2TB SATA SSD sitting empty. My peripherals include a Logitech G915 TKL keyboard, G502 Lightspeed mouse, SteelSeries Arctis 7P+ headset, and I even have my Xbox One controller handy. I play games like Elden Ring, Monster Hunter Wilds, Cyberpunk 2077, and a couple more, typically through Steam, Epic Games, and Battle.net. I’m also looking to do some web browsing, media consumption, manage my Apple devices, and handle some light productivity tasks. I’d love any distro recommendations and insights about: 1. HDR support on OLED monitors in Linux? 2. Support for my peripherals? 3. Compatibility of my H100i cooler? 4. Managing iPhones/iPads on Linux? Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
5 Answers
From my experience, I recommend going with the Fedora KDE Edition. It’s a decent bridge from Windows to Linux. The setup can be a hassle at first, but Fedora balances up-to-date software with stability quite well. KDE feels familiar to Windows users which helps with the transition, and it’s good for gaming too. Steam runs smoothly, especially with AMD hardware. I did have to use a workaround for Monster Hunter Wilds, but ProtonUp-QT made managing Proton versions easy.
Honestly, I’d suggest trying out Fedora KDE spin. It comes equipped with a kernel that supports your 9070XT well, but if you want an easier option, check out CachyOS with KDE. Everything should work right out of the box with the latest driver updates, reducing those stressful custom kernel installations for a newbie.
I usually tell folks to just go with Ubuntu since it’s the most supported Linux distro out there. HDR should be alright, but I’m not so sure how well it’ll handle your Apple devices. A little tip: make sure to check out their resources for help!
I’m currently using Nobara with KDE Plasma and I think it’s a great fit for you! It should handle your setup nicely and give you a fantastic gaming experience.
HDR support is pretty good with KDE or the latest version of Gnome, but I found KDE has the edge. For your peripherals, SteelSeries might be a bit tricky, but everything else should work. I can’t really speak for the H100i cooler, though. As for iPhones, I’ve had mixed results, but they should work to some extent.
But keep in mind, Ubuntu may not fully support the 9070XT out of the box! Just a heads up.