I am currently a Linux only user and have been for around 8 months now.
However, I'm going through a crisis of Linux faith, if you will. At least on the gaming side of things.
I have an AMD R9 390, and love it. The problem is, AMD's support for linux drivers is absolute garbage. I was able to get it running on my Arch install, but I'd say a select few games actually run "well" on it.
Also, I am now missing out on at least hundreds of dollars worth of games that I've bought that only work on Windows.
For games, I feel like on Linux that my amazing, expensive hardware is not being used properly at all.
Games like Shadow of Mordor, XCOM 2 somewhat and others run like garbage. Chivalry, CS:GO and a few others I've had no issues with.
I also wanted to use solely Linux to support the platform to make games better for it, but it's certainly a challenge.
In all of your eyes, if you were in my situation, would you feel fine installing Windows on another partition solely for games, and not work? Would that be 'ethical' etc?
Of course it's fine. Why shouldn't it be? It's your PC after all and you decide what to do with it.
I have a dual boot too, but I rarely use windows, it's not even updated to threshold 2 or whatever it's called. The games I'm interested works fine on Linux, and I only buy Linux compatible games.
I'd say do whatever you want that works best. In this case, its hard to dispute that Windows is still the PC gaming OS of choice. I'm a huge Linux fan, but I don't use it currently at home because of this very reason. This isn't some "pick your religion" choice here - just do whatever helps you best get the job at hand done. In this case, dual boot would be a perfect solution. Use the best tool for the job :D
I think my hesitation comes from wanting to make a sincere effort on using EXCLUSIVELY Linux, which for my graphic/web development work I can use it exclusively, but games are still rough for sure.
If you are worried about the hassle of needing to interrupt your work in a dual boot configuration, consider just getting a dedicated system for Windows gaming. Or rather, if your current system plays games, dedicate it to Windows and get another system that is power efficient that can be your always on Linux dev and general use machine. This is what I do and works very well. There is an added benefit of not needing to muck with partitions and boot loaders.
This isn't a bad idea. If you do this a laptop would probably have more advantages.
However in my case I have a couple games on linux that I can play for 10-30 minutes but the rest are on windows with a windows only programs. I reboot into windows while getting a drink or something, play a game or make a song or something and then reboot back into linux right after.
Have you considered using Win10 as a base OS and run Linux in a VM. I do that myself as I do mostly game but for example my Sophos UTM router is a Hyper-V VM with a dedicated NIC to the FTTC modem.
It's what I do. Windows 10 for gaming and some other programs that only run on Windows like Photoshop and the like, Linux Mint for everything else. Works like a charm. But I do that because it's currently the only system that I have. Like previously suggested, buying a laptop and running Linux on it would probably be a better idea. Then you can just leave Windows on your main gaming rig.
I sympathise, whilst others on here think AMD cards work great on Linux, I have always been greatly disappointed. I think your choices can be summed up as;
1) Run a dual boot system 2) Virtualize windows and pass through the gaming card (complete faff and might not work, personally I wouldn't bother.) 3) Run Linux as a VM inside Windows (can work quite well, VMware Workstation is probably the best hyper-visor for this, Oracle Virtual box is free abut Opengl support is weak, hyper-V isn't as desktop friendly and needs > Windows 8.1 Pro,)
or, if you are determined to stay Microsoft free;
4) Sell your AMD card and get something Nvidia, use WINE to run as many of your Windows games as you can directly on Linux.
I have a windows amd machine upstairs and I Linux machine downstairs amd/nvidea. Anything using the Source engine works great on Linux and fairly cheap hardware. I went this route when I was looking forward to BF4 after work and my wife was so happy playing Candy Crush on the new PC I ended up watching tv.
Great thoughts guys, and it's interesting to hear what you all do for your own solutions.
I do actually have a laptop in addition to my PC, and it's quite powerful.
Problem in my case is that I have an AMH A409u, and the laptop can't output 4k at 60 FPS with the hdmi connectivity that it has.
I do luckily have 2 SSD's, albeit only 120 GB ones for my OS's. I would like to get rid of one and have at least a few games on one SSD, so I'll work on a solution there.
I thought I chime in again. KVM switch, bad idea. GPU gets confused through the USB driver, and it won't be true 1080p. There will be a loss in quality, and increased frame latency.
Haha, that'd be worse in my situation as I run a 4k monitor.
But that's cool with me, I've figured out a good system of having 2 SSD's, one for each OS, and a leftover 1TB mechanical hard drive for game/misc storage. Think it'll work fine.
I just wrote about my AMD issues. The problem is they stopped supporting their crappy propitiatory driver before they finished amdgpu, so theres literally nothing to use. :/ Who thought that was a good idea.
XCOM2 runs shit on windows btw, just so you know. Its not a Linux issue. But yeah, the current open drivers for AMD work decently for some games but not all by far.
NVIDIA as much as they have their issues, works. And I switched..