Linux distro hopping adventure this week: switched from Kubuntu to Garuda and instantly got a massive GPU performance boost. Starfield was playing between 30-50 FPS on Ultra in key game areas like New Atlantis and Cydonia. Now it's breezy as hell, easy 80 FPS in the areas it used to struggle with, and happily reaching 120 in less dense areas like the ship and Constellation HQ. This is the first time I've seen Windows-level stability and performance for a AAA game on a linux distro. Might be the one 💕
i switched to garuda dr460nized to play my video games better. it did not do that but i don't want to go back and install mint Again so ig im a baby arch user now
Or: It’s Not You. It’s Not Me. It’s Fucking Nvidia. AGAIN.
I had been eyeballing Garuda Linux for a while. I really dug the colorful, dragon-y aesthetic, I liked the idea of the Zen kernel and the gaming focus (gaming being one of the big reasons I bought the laptop I have in the first place), and I thought the automated snapshots were extremely clever. I’d been using Linux Mint as a daily driver for the better part of the year, and having used Ubuntu off-and-on in the past, I was a bit hesitant about leaving the Debian/*-buntu realm and heading into the shadowy depths of the Arch world, but the Live version of Garuda didn’t seem too intimidating. So I made a full backup of my Mint system just-in-case, and in November, I did a full install of Garuda Linux onto my laptop.
I loved Garuda. KDE Plasma constantly impressed me with how sleek and functional it was, and using it on the daily put it easily at my #1 Big Favorite Desktop Environment. I’m a tinkerer by nature and the auto-snapshot feature saved me many times when I managed to break something. The built-in tools helped me navigate some of the more unfamiliar parts of using an Arch-based distro, and the fact that you only had to type in one command to update the entire system made the near-daily updates barely noticeable. If not for one thing, I would definitely still be using Garuda.
The one thing, of course, is the Nvidia GPU in this laptop. The drivers kept breaking, and because gaming is one of the things I do the most, not being able to play games was a deal-breaker. Turns out the cutting-edge software often has bugs in it that make the Nvidia card unusable for days or weeks at a time. In the end, having a constantly half-functional system just wasn’t worth it. So I fired up that full backup and reinstalled Mint, to mend the broken GPU drivers with a slightly broken heart.
I don’t regret having used Garuda. I feel like I learned a lot, and it was interesting to spend time in a distro that was very different from my usual stomping grounds. And like I said, it has so many cool features that in a better world, I’d probably still be using it.
So what’s next? I think my next move is going to be switching to Linux Mint XFCE, and then installing KDE Plasma and removing XFCE. Going from Plasma to Cinnamon definitely feels like a downgrade at this point, and none of the other Ubuntu-based KDE distros fill me with great confidence. In the near future, I plan on installing more RAM on this laptop and replacing the SSD with a larger one as well. Not sure what order I’ll do these things in. Watch this space for more (eventually).
And as for Garuda, I guess there's only one thing to say:
🎵 Follow the official 7clouds playlist on Spotify : http://spoti.fi/2SJsUcZ
🎧 Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You (Lyrics)
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Okay at your shining recommendation I have installed Garuda Dragonized on a spare SSD and have been tinkering with it a bit. It's been... frustrating at times, but for the most part I've been able to find solutions online.
My question for you is: Have you discovered any way to get Epic Games Store titles to run in Garuda? Lutris is failing to load EGS games when I click the Play button, but EGS is clearly trying to load it since I get a shader compilation window before everything just... goes blank.
I'd love your thoughts. I feel really close to being comfortable with just abandoning Windows for 90% of my work, but EGS titles are important for me to get working.
Oooh. I have to admit my entire PC gaming library is on Steam for this exact reason, I fear. I do wonder if compatibility software like Bottles or similar would help with this though...I haven't tried that yet 🧐 But you're on the same troubleshooting track I would be on. Of course now I'm finding that CatchyOS and Manjaro might be even better options for gamers since they're more widely supported...😅
Though solutions for Catchy and Manjaro should also work for Garuda since they're all Arch-based so keep an eye out for that. If I come across anything that might help I'll send it your way!
I reformatted the drive, installed Garuda Linux, entirely because there's a Warframe Garuda. The entire install was not pain free, but I got Warframe running reasonably well. I don't really need much else any more.
