Background

I use Mac as my daily driver for my work and personal machines, but for gaming I use my Playstation 5 for online or supposedly AAA games (think Call of Duty or Helldivers 2) and I use my Steam Deck for more indie titles. I’ve got some Linux experience, primarily via my old Mac Mini running Proxmox with mostly Debian VMs and messing around briefly with NixOS.

I love our Steam Deck, but it does feel a little underpowered, the battery isn’t as strong as it once was and I don’t love the docking experience with the official dock.

My wife is really into Civilization and similar games and I’d love to setup a desktop connected to our TV to use with a keyboard and mouse on our LG CX. Although I’m tech savvy, I’m not great with knowing what hardware/software to get. It’s especially more complicated with the looming tariffs and trying to make sure I don’t overspend on something I don’t need.

Question

Looking for some guidance on hardware and software to setup for this living room gaming desktop. It’s only purpose is to play games, primarily from Steam and it should have hardware which would benefit speed and performance for the type of games I’m going to list. Obviously we want the graphics to be good, but I don’t need a beast RTX 5090.

What are some hardware and software recommendations in today’s financial climate for playing these games on Linux?

What other accessories would you recommend for couch based keyboard and mouse gaming?

Honestly the game I’m most eager to get into is Dwarf Fortress, but for my wife it’s having a smooth experience with Civ6 (she was playing the Switch version for far too long!)

Games

  • Civilization games
    • My wife loves 6 and I’m a fan of 5, but we do want to eventually try 7, hoping it’ll improve with DLC updates
  • Dwarf Fortress
  • Rimworld
  • Battletech
  • Into the Breach
  • Brotato
  • Vampire Survivors
  • Balatro
  • FTL
  • Caves of Qud
  • Persona 5 Royal (although I’m struggling to get into it, pushing through)
  • Blue Prince
  • ANIMAL WELL
  • Factorio
  • Return of the Obra Dinn
  • Anno 1800
  • Project Zomboid

This is a partial list of some of our libraries and wishlists. As you can see, some of them are more graphically, memory and processor intensive, but a lot of them are low performance indies.

  • gradual@lemmings.world
    1·
    9 hours ago

    I highly recommend getting a gaming laptop. You can buy a 4070 lenovo laptop at Walmart for $1k (at least in the US.)

    Otherwise, check out https://old.reddit.com/r/LaptopDeals/ until you find something that fits your needs and budget. (sorry for linking to the other site)

    You should use bluetooth controllers instead of ones that take a dongle simply because the dongle is unnecessary. Playstation controllers work well, but they’re expensive and I haven’t been able to find a 3rd party variant that works properly.

    I also recommend getting a wireless keyboard + mouse combo.

  • Termight@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    18 hours ago

    When choosing a graphics card, I’ve generally found AMD/Radeon to be a reliable option. I’ve used several different Radeon GPUs in various builds, and they’ve consistently performed well. Nvidia users sometimes encounter compatibility issues, though that isn’t universally the case. Vulkan is a strong API and provides a good experience.

  • lorty@lemmy.ml
    2·
    18 hours ago

    Considering you play a lot of simulation and strategy games, the CPU you pick will probably influence your experience a lot more than usual. This chart can give you an idea of how they stack.

    I will say, other than Civ7, you’ll probably have a good time with whatever build people have linked here.

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    9·
    21 hours ago

    Check ProtonDB, e.g. https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Civilization and that, even though very useful initially started for the SteamDeck it is also a very reliable source to know if a game will work well on Linux. Overall the vast VAST majority of games do work unless there is a kernel level anti-cheat which is mostly for competitive online games only.

    Now in terms of performances, get the GPU you can afford but overall its comparable with other OSes (not to name them) and sometimes even better, so on average, you can trust whatever the publisher is recommending.

    Source : been gaming on Linux, in VR and on “flat” 3D for years now, pretty much daily.

  • Logh@lemmy.ml
    31·
    1 day ago

    I have a T14 gen1 ryzen 7 (only 16G of ram for now), with integrated graphics running bazzite. Civ 5 and 6, rimworld, FTL run flawlessly. Anno 1800 is a bit laggy, but playable. I also do some sim racing and no complaints there either, if graphics are set just right, so I think that the bar for hardware is pretty low. As for hardware, not sure what I’d go with, but I’m sure there is no need to go overboard. For software bazzite is amazing if you want near hassle free gaming.

    As for accessories I have a keychron keyboard which was a worthwhile investment and a Mionix 3200 mouse that’s over 10 years old, still amazed at the build quality and value for money. A good keyboard mouse combo is invaluable.

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
    51·
    1 day ago

    If you feel most familiar with Debian, I recommend looking at Mint. It has great compatibility and is otherwise easy to use, and it handles GPUs well (including Nvidia). In terms of hardware, I’ll agree with the others here–used is the way to go, you’ll get a lot more for your money than buying new.

    That being said, you can also look for clearance and/or refurbished PCs. This one would probably be powerful enough.

    • Crabhands@lemmy.ml
      3·
      1 day ago

      Anecdotal, but Mint stuttered in games occasionally for me and I had the odd audio blip. I switched to EndeavorOS and its been flawless.

    • async_amuro@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Thanks for the advice! I feel like I will have some flexibility with distros and can switch things out as long as game data is backed up and it works with the hardware.

      Unfortunately the Amazon link doesn’t seem to work for me. Can you give me a brief description of what it included?

  • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
    31·
    1 day ago

    An AMD GPU and Bazzite would be great for you. The AMD GPU makes installing any Linux system easier, cause the drivers are already there.

  • hlqxz@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 day ago

    Few months ago I built a gaming PC and chose to not use Windows for multiple reasons. I would suggest sticking to AMD as it would better supported on Linux. For the OS I’m using Arch Linux which is base for a lot of gaming Linux distributions. 99% I have never felt like I was missing out by not using Windows. Wine/Proton works really well OOTB. I highly recommend it if you want to get into Linux gaming. Like others have mentioned, ProtonDB is also a great resource for finding game specific information.

    Build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qzwbFs

    • async_amuro@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Thanks for the link to your build, that’s super helpful. The beauty of Linux is that I have some wiggle room as far as distro, as long as the save data is backed up, I can switch it up as long as it supports the hardware.

      • hlqxz@lemmy.ml
        1·
        1 day ago

        Yes, you have a lot more options for Linux distributions which in my opinion is a pro and a con. Honestly I would suggest that you stick to one distribution probably the one that works with your hardware the best (most annoying to troubleshoot). All distributions are going to have some issues and you’ll need to prioritize what you need and stick to it. I’m saying this because I feel I wasted a lot of my time switching distributions rather than just working on trying to fix the issue or finding a workaround. Good luck and don’t forget Linux is beautiful <3