I use KDE Neon on my laptop and I’d prefer to have KDE as a DE on this one too (if possible) but I don’t mind a non Ubuntu base. Basically I’d just like to be able to play games on it without much hassle but I know how to paste commands into the terminal if the need arises.
Alright I’ll throw in my experience since I’m sort in the same boat as OP: I have a 6 year old Gigabyte PC with a 1070 TI (still chugging). I replaced the old Ryzon 7 CPU i had with a 5. It’s like a low-end chip though. I also have 32GB of RAM and on a 1TB SSD card. Linux Mint has been my best go to Distro. I’ve tried Garuda Dragonized with KDE DE and it runs fine. I just find Garuda to be too much bloat and unneeded programs/software.
I should stress I don’t play a lot of up to date games that demand a better card than the 10 series. I play a lot of older titles that can run on a Toaster oven if I tried it. World of Warcraft Retail runs fine for the most part on this thing under Mint using Lutris. I think like what others have said is that once you get into games that require D12 is where I’ll probably run into performance issues.
I’d say Manjaro is pretty good as well with KDE Plasma. I just prefer Cinnamon really.
Bazzite has been the winner for all of my old windows pcs but all of my pcs are AMD cpu/gpus. There is and nVidia specific version of Bazzite but I have no experience with it so I can’t verify if it works well or not.
I’ll second Bazzite. It’s secure, it stays up to date, and it “just works”.
If the immutable system becomes a problem for any reason, try Endeavor. openSuse Tumbleweed is also a good alternative.
- This PC is not old.
- Literally every Distro works on such new hardware
Nobara doesn’t because the GPU is too old, that’s why I asked. But Bazzite has a legacy version so it’s fine.
This can’t be. I am using a GPU from the same Pascal generation and just installed the newest availabe Nvidia 570 driver. I also use a Laptop with intel 4770HQ and Nvidia 950m GPU running with the same driver under the same Nobara 42 version with KDE.
You should switch from the open driver to the closed one, if your gpu is in one of the lists: https://wiki.nobaraproject.org/graphics/nvidia/supported-gpus
They explicitly mention the GTX 10xx series not being supported due to being too old. I’m sure there’s a workaround but bazzite works out the box so I’m set.
I’ll also throw in my vote for Bazzite. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it in terms of its default included packages and configurations for gaming. It sounds like you may not be advanced enough to mess with settings to make gaming run smoothly, so bazzite would do all of that for you. They have a KDE version. And it is what’s called an “immutable” distro where the main systems files can’t be modified easily by the user. That will make it safer to those who aren’t sure of what they’re doing. You can also easily set it up to run Big Picture Mode by default, so if you decide to use that pc more like console connected to a tv, bazzite would be great for that. Like others have pointed out, Bazzite has good support for nvidia cards out of the box, and that’s a key feature to note. Bazzite is kinda like an unofficial version of Steam OS that’s ready for widespread use and supports a lot of hardware. They’re doing what Steam is not ready to do yet.
I just wiped Bazzite in favor of Tuxedo OS. I liked Bazzite a lot until I wanted to do the faintest wisp of development (setting up a new DIY keyboard with QMK). At that point I realized I’m in a very specific doughnut hole where I will occasionally want to do things that are still not mindlessly simple on an immutable distro, but I’m still untutored enough to need the walkthroughs that never include how to properly layer or sandbox stuff without just fucking up the very immutability that made it a good idea in the first place.
Shame though, as it was dead easy to install and use for basic productivity and especially games. A person with different needs and/or more skill would do very well with it. In the meantime, Tuxedo seems like a good snap-free Kubuntu alternative, and I’ve been floating around in KDE-running Debian derivatives (off and on) for decades.
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess you “outgrew” Bazzite. That’s what’s awesome about Linux, there’s a distro for every use case. If I were to setup a HTPC/pc gaming console connected to a tv, I’d use Bazzite. But, for my desktop, I run Arch cuz I tinker so much with it.
