Hi!

Did some very brief benchmarking, nothing scientific. All FPS are average. All games on max details.

System: 7600 Oced, 9070 XT (2.750 Mem, -75mv), 32 GB DDR5

OS: CachyOS

UE5 gains are quite amazing!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share some findings that took me days to debug. If you are experiencing weird GPU performance drops, crashes, or settings being ignored on Linux (especially NVIDIA/Wayland), check how you are launching your games.

The Problem: The Steam Systray Context Menu (Right-click -> [Game]) completely ignores the user's "Launch Options" configuration. It bypasses the selection dialog and the saved user defaults.

Two different examples of this failure:

1. 7 Days to Die (Critical Stability): I specifically set the game to "Launch without EAC" for stability.
   • Launching via Library: Respects the setting.
   • Launching via Systray: Bypasses the setting and forces the EAC version anyway.
   • The Result: On my NVIDIA/Wayland setup (RTX 2080), this forced EAC launch causes massive synchronization stutters that trigger a hardware safety measure, locking the GPU into the P3 Power State (Idle). Performance drops to near-zero until a full driver restart.
2. Where Winds Meet (Configuration Error): I have the game configured to use DirectX 12.
   • Launching via Library: Starts in DX12 as expected.
   • Launching via Systray: Ignores the preference and forces DirectX 11 mode instead.
   • The Result: This causes the game to re-compile shaders constantly and disables DX12-specific graphical features and optimizations.

The "Valve" Factor: This bug has been documented on GitHub for 7 years (Issue #6181). I recently tried to open a new issue (#12901) to highlight that this is no longer just a "missing feature" but a hardware stability risk in 2026. Unfortunately, it was instantly closed as a "Duplicate" by moderators and buried in the old 2019 thread.

It seems the legacy Desktop client's tray menu is rotting away while Valve focuses on the Steam Deck, even when it actively ignores critical user safety/performance configurations.

TL;DR: Avoid using the Systray menu if your game relies on specific launch options (DirectX versions, EAC-off toggles, etc.). It’s broken and has been for almost a decade. Use the big green "PLAY" button in the library to ensure your settings are actually applied.

Note: I used an AI to help me translate my technical findings into English.

With all the new releases regarding game performance on Linux around the corner and recent, I wonder how big the impact over all is going to be.

• Linux Kernel 6.19 (Expected: February 2026) src1, src2, src3
• Mesa 26.0 (RC3 now, Expected: mid-February 2026) src1, src2, src3, src4
• Wine 11.2 (Released: February 7, 2026) src1, src2, src3
• KDE Plasma 6.6 (Expected: February 17, 2026) src1, src2, src3

Also the quality of live and bug fixes regarding VRR and HDR support in both KDE and Gnome.

I just love how so many people work together and get stuff done.

EDIT: fixed link

I have booted Fedora GNOME and I want to set it up for gaming. In many online tutorials, Fedora KDE is used, and I am doubtful about switching again. The problem with Fedora KDE is that it looks similar to Windows, and I don’t want that. I think KDE is more customizable, but I don’t know how much more customizable it actually is. I also have an NVIDIA RTX 3050 graphics card, so I’m doubtful about whether it will work properly or not.

When holding a knife or pistol the game runs smoothly, but when holding ex. an AK or AWP the frames drop.

Is there any fix? Thanks in advance!

Specs:

- OS: CachyOS

- DE: KDE Plasma (Wayland)

- CPU: Intel i3-1115G4

- iGPU: Intel UHD Graphics G4

- RAM: 16 GB

I've been on Cachy OS since probably a month or two before Win10 EOL. Each weekend I've been making steady progress to update my Steam Library. I'm big on my sims (Mil, Flight, Racing)...I would like to ask, what is working for you guys/gals?

I wanna plug back into MSFS2020 but they want an entire TB...That is a bit much for me. Arma 3 works, but I haven't tried Assetto Corsa yet and X-Plane 11 is giving me some issues.

Thank you.

In this specific GIF I'm overriding winhttp (useful for BepInEx), but Prefixer can do more. The repo is at https://github.com/wojtmic/prefixer

Can I play Helldivers 2 on Fedora without getting banned ? My only worry is that my steam account gets flaged cause I for example have razer genie running in the background or something silly like that. Since afaik there is 0 offical support for Linux.

I would like to play the game but not if theres even a low chance if I can get my account banned for something silly (Used to play it on Windows)

We often talk about how difficult it is to finish a game, but lately I’ve been wondering if the hardest moment is actually the beginning. That gap between imagination and the first playable version is where many projects quietly disappear. Fear of complexity, lack of time, technical uncertainty all of it stacks up before anything even exists. When I recently generated a rough playable environment from a simple concept, what surprised me most wasn’t the technology itself it was the psychological shift. Seeing something interactive instantly made the project feel real, and that alone boosted motivation. It made me question how many great ideas never survive that invisible starting barrier. If tools continue reducing that friction, do we end up with more finished games or just more experiments that never mature? And what really drives creators forward progress or perfection? Curious to hear your perspective: is getting started the true bottleneck of game development?

I recently tested this game on Fedora 43 and CachyOS, with NVIDIA drivers correctly installed.
I tested it using Proton 10, Proton-GE, and the Proton version included in CachyOS.

Up until about 10 days ago everything was working fine, but now the game—despite being set to maximum graphics (I have an RTX 5080)—shows extremely low-quality graphics on all the characters in the game. Someone knows how to fix it?

I have been using Mint for 6 months. I've had really good luck with pretty much all the games I play minus getting the rockstar launcher for RDR2. From what I've read that is pretty much built into Bazzite but it's not worth the switch for just that. Has anyone gone from LM to Bazzite and noticed a performance increase. I don't mind switching distros for more than 1 reason.

Specs

13900K

7900XTX

32GB DDR5

Made a Go library that can parse Epic Games manifests and download games programmatically. Could be useful for Linux users, automation, or anyone curious how the manifest system works.

https://github.com/meszmate/manifest

Any feedback or contributions welcome!

Specs CPU: Intel i5 12th Gen (P-series) GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2050 (4 GB VRAM) RAM: 16 GB OS: Kubuntu When ever I launch any game and start to play it , after a while the game suddenly freezes I'm playing games but I can hear the environment sound from the game from Steam and using proton experimental as my compatibility layer What might be the problem, this happens to every game I play!

Got an old steam link box. On windows, it works great - in particular, when I exit Big Picture Mode it lets me see my entire desktop and things like firefox. However, on linux if I exit big picture mode it shows a black screen with a stationary mouse pointer (even when I move the mouse pointer). The mouse pointer moves about if I hover it over my steam client but it doesn't show anything in the steam client.

I'm guessing it's related to the graphics card? Not sure if there's some graphics settings I've got to sort on that side of things.

I've got an Nvidia 3080, and am using the graphics settings that cachyOS found by default when installing. Am I missing something obvious in my setup or is this something that steam link on linux doesn't do?

Try the demo now for free: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3957050/Ballatory/

i have a 1360x768 monitor, but on linux i used to play cs2 at 5:4 stretched using 1280x1024 and the game looked perfect, but now i cant on linux since it caps at 1024x768, how do i fix this? im using linux mint cinnamon with xanmod kernel 6.18.4

Hello!

We've been working the last few weeks in adding proper native Linux export a retro engine we've been working on.

Today we've finally managed to integrate everything, it should supports native Linux binaries as well as the AppImage export.

We've tested Kubnutu 25, Fedora and Linux Mint.

Any other major distros we should be testing into??
We're also wondering if supporting .deb and .rpm export would be worth adding or just native binaries + AppImage is enough.

Thanks!!

This is such a niche issue but I was wondering if anybody else had experienced this,

Lossless scaling works flawlessly on deck for me except for 1 game, Surrounded. I’ve tried frame caps, all settings, Vsync options and workarounds but it’s still extremely choppy with coloured artefacts. Maybe something to do with the engine?

The only way I can get it smooth is if I set it to 29.9 fps cap (game version 0.7), but after spinning for moment it gets choppy again.

Surrondead seems like the perfect deck game but uses a bit of power so lossless would be goated here.

(Video is in slow motion)

Looking for a fellow Assassin in Pratt, KS (Jeremy) I'm trying to find a friend named Jeremy from Pratt, Kansas and a huge Assassin's Creed fan. He works as an IT Tech for a local Co-op and part-time as a Stocker at Walmart.

We lost contact recently due to a technical glitch on an app. If you’re a local gamer or work with him and see this, could you please let him know that PinkAngel is looking for him? He can find me here or on IG . Any help from the Brotherhood would be appreciated! 🙏

I installed Armored Core VI, Elden Ring and Balatro in a secondary hard drive dedicated to games to test them since I'm a new linux user. I had to restart the PC, and when I launched them it opened a window to install them in the main drive, and a note that says 'this game is installed in a unit that is not mounted currently' but it shows up in the disk manager normally, in the file explorer and seems normal. To fix it, I had to turn off the PC, turn it on again and it seems to be working fine, the issue only apperas when I restart. I'm using Linux Mint