FULL AMD build on Linux?

So In a few days I’ll be building a new PC and I’ve been wanting to switch to Linux for awhile and i think with this new build I’m going too.
The PC specs are
-Ryzen 5 3600
-GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5700 XT GAMING OC
-ASRock X570M PRO4 Micro ATX

And I’m wondering how gaming will be(can i run the games are 1080p, med/high settings at 144fps? Will swithing to Linux as a gamer be a simpleISH change? And how would drivers work for the AMD parts? I hear AMD works really well with Linux.

I’ll probably go with either Mint, or Elementary(i like how it looks).

And How would updating drivers for GPU work? I’m very new to all this and i really dont want to use windows anymore.
THanks for the replies!

If you’ve never used Linux before then you’re setting yourself up for failure. While AMD generally does work well with Linux, there’s a few caveats with modern hardware that require you to be on a modern kernel. Game support is spotty even with proton.

Plan on dual booting windows and linux while you learn.

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I’ll have a second PC that i can use(my old one) with a ryzen 7 1700 and a gtx 1660, so would that be good to learn on?

That would be a better pick in my opinion.

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As far as updating your drivers goes, just updating the system will give you the latest offering. This won’t be the latest driver but it’s often better to not use the latest for a few reasons.

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I’m running a Vega 56 and not a 5700 because when I built mine last July I knew the Linux drivers weren’t going to be good for a while.

But now it’s been almost a whole year and I think if you use something up to date like Fedora 32 or Ubuntu 20.04 you’ll be fine. I am not real sure where Mint or Elementary are at on their kernel and Mesa versions.

My 3900X with Vega 56 can game really well at 1080p and decently at 4K depending on the game and settings. So your system with the 5700 XT should manage just fine.

One thing about 144Hz gaming on Linux is that, to the best of my knowledge, there’s no working VRR / FreeSync support. So if you want to game at 144Hz you will want settings that keep up with that frame rate without drops.

As for AMD drivers I would just use what’s included in the newer Linux kernels and not worry about trying to install any AMD drivers. It isn’t like with Nvidia. AMD has very good quality open source drivers.

Almost all of the games I run through Steam and they work pretty well. Even the ones where I applied an override to run them with Proton even though they aren’t officially supported. Doom 2016 needed some extra Vulkan drivers installed on Ubuntu that weren’t automatically pulled in by Steam but after that it worked in Vulkan with much better performance than its OpenGL mode.

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I am full AMD, nothing bad to report. I had few issue in December but because the hardware was bleeding edge, like I just bought it on day one!
But luckily, after 1 month, linux kernel was catching up and no more issue to report since then.

I am not gaming though, at least not the AAA games as those are missing on linux and no, i don’t want to mess with proton/dxkv.

But day2day, video and 3d are working very well!

I would suggest an install on the new rig. 20.04 should be out of the box ready to game, just get steam up and play.

Im running ryzen 5 2nd gen, fury x, gtx1060, and 32gb of ram.

1st before the switch you need to understand AAA games and most highly popular games are not officially supported

to check if your game is supported : https://www.protondb.com/
games like cod warzone you will need to dualboot or use virtmanager w/ a gpu to bypass (my 1060)
i basically have to switch screens and plug in my extra keyboard and mouse w/o mirroring software.

yes this is a good experience but it takes sometime to learn and setup.

summary: dont expect all your games to work on linux

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True.

Proton, Lutris and other projects allow most games to run perfectly fine these days but AAA just likes to make all the money in the world with competitive “live-services” because fuck content. And if online play is the only content you have, you try to get rid of people that cheat. Which is why games are now monitoring every program running on your system. And if anti cheat stuff can’t even recognize what it is running on, it goes into panic mode.

“Huh? HUUAARGH? … WHERE AM I? Why is there no Explorer here? CHEATER! CHEATER! Shut everything down, NOW!”

It is only a handful of games each year but it exists.

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Fedora 31, 3900X, 5700 and 1440/144Hz monitor.

Open source driver for 5700 has been solid (in Fedora 31) since late fall.

Games that install natively (Tomb Raider (2016), Doom (2016), City Skylines) run well enough I would probably fail an “identify the OS” test 50% of the time. Proton/Wine work really well for less intensive games; indies or older AAA (Deus Ex Series, Endless Legend).

The games I have run into that don’t play well in Linux are Path of Exile and Heroes of the Storm. Friends keep bugging me to play those with them, I end up dual booting or using KVM/LookingGlass to play most online multiplayer games.

In general online games are tough to get working well in Linux, and if you do they then get updated and break. Also I don’t play a lot of brand new AAA titles. If you are playing online multiplayer games or brand new AAA titles expect issues, be prepared to dual boot or get a second GPU for KVM/LG. But the pain of Linux gaming is a fraction of what it was 5+ years ago. There are now 100s of quality games that will play really well in modern Linux, and next to no tinkering with wine tricks etc.

Expect general pains in switching OS. The switch from Windows to Linux/BSDs is way; bigger than Windows to Mac or viceversa. Having 2 systems or dual boot for the first while is highly advised. Push yourself to use Linux more and more, try to solve a new problem every day. Play the how long can I go without booting windows game. At first you will maybe go a few days, but if you keep at it, keep learning and solving problems that come up in Linux, you will end up with better solutions than what you had in windows and before you know it you will be counting the months since you last booted windows.

Okay reading comments kind of bums me out haha, Modern warfare(mostly multiplayer(not warzone)) is what i play, Overwatch and WoW. All online AAA games hahaha. But idk, ive wanted to try Linux for so LONG and its not Windows, ive had to many issues with windows in the past year to year and a half that I dont even wanna use it. I’m fine with the growing pains/learning/researching, We’ll see… i may try linux on my main system for… a month? 2? and see how it goes. TRY and not boot windows(keep windows on my, now spare, PC for when/if i need it. AND maybe someday buy a 5700(non xt) and a second SSD for a windows “system”. thanks everyone!

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Mmm… Not really.

Build a new computer and install Windows. Or use your existing computer and install Windows

so in my PC new PC i’ll have a 2TB HDD, a 1TB HDD im taking from my current PC and a 250 gig SSD as a boot drive, would i be able to have my main OS on the SSD+the 2TB HDD and have a secondary OS on the 1TB HDD with the files and stuff and choose which one i boot into? and eventually have a SSD/larger HDD in the PC as a secondary OS, so 250gig SSD+2TB HDD for windows and then the same for Linux and just choose which one to boot into

Edit - I dont play ANY games with Anti-cheat so thats not a big deal tbh

Full AMD here (2700x/Vega64)

Proton is hit/miss, I’d strongly suggest reading the reports/comments on protondb.com for fixes and learn how the custom settings work. It can be the difference between a game not starting or running extremely poorly or being pretty close to windows (or rarely, superior performance to windows).

Just checking the box in steam to “run in proton” quite frequently is not enough.

Two thirds of the top 1000 games on steam are rated gold or platinum on protondb or run natively on linux. Just over 6500 overall of the almost 13000 listed titles. Looking at indie games we are at 70-90% of the most popular games because so many are linux native already. And that’s just proton.

Effectively the majority of games are running fine on linux. Today.

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its a battle man… honestly i’ve switch my pc to a gaming system and just use my laptop 90% of the time w/ linux and switch the screen. but this only works because i switched to an ultrawide. Also im mostly working/taking care of my kids. so i get to game about 3-4 hours a week. once you get the linux bug, its really hard to work on windows… its very annoying actually how much it slows you down

If your main use case is AAA online games, I suggest that you dual boot to get the best of both worlds.

Also might I suggest Manjaro Cinnamon which has the same interface as Mint but with newer drivers that Debian-based or Ubuntu-based distro. Its also user friendly.

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What about Elementary? I REALLY love how it LOOKS. Tho i assume most distros i can get a theme/skin to make it look like MacOS

I love elementary as well. If GNOME went away, I would use Elementary. But its not ready for primetime yet. A lot of their homebrewed Vala apps are not usable in my use case (I use protonmail bridge and etesync).

GNOME is a close second to Elementary but has better usability. Elementary is well refined but its not quite up to par. Their Nvidia driver is way behind as well. It works well and doesnt crash but I play modern games that depends on optimizations found in their more recent drivers. I’m looking at you Kingdom Come: Deliverance.