Why Are My Steam Games So Slow on Linux Mint?

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Hey everyone, I’m pretty new to Linux and just installed Linux Mint today. I was excited to dive into gaming, but when I tried playing CS2, it was a disaster—only hitting around 20 FPS! I also checked out a couple of other games: The Forest and Factorio. Only Factorio ran smoothly, and I suspect it has something to do with 3D game performance issues since Factorio is 2D and worked fine. I’m using an RTX 3050 mobile with the 565 driver, running on an i5 12450H and kernel version 6.8.0. I’ve messed with a bunch of settings, including reinstalling Steam, trying different Proton versions, and adjusting the Nvidia prime profile to performance. I even tried adding -fullscreen to my Steam launch options, but I don’t have extra monitors. If you need more details, just let me know!

Why Are My Steam Games So Slow on Linux Mint
Counter-Strike 2

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3 Answers

LinuxWarrior99 -

I’ve had a similar experience with the 3050 mobile on Linux Mint. Most of my games struggled with low FPS too. I suggest updating your kernel if you can. I switched to Ubuntu and with a newer kernel, my games performed almost as well as on Windows 11!

L33tGamerX -

It sounds like your system is trying to use the wrong GPU. Since you have dual GPUs, make sure your games are running on the RTX 3050. Try adding ‘prime-run %command%’ in the game launch options to force it to use the right one. That might help boost your FPS!

GamerZ3nith13 -

I tried ‘prime-run’, but the game wouldn’t launch. It just goes through the initial loading and then gives up, going back to the “play” button.

PixelPilot -

Have you tried disabling the compositor? It’s a long shot, but it might help improve performance for some games!

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