Best Linux Distro for Vintage Story gaming (Nvidia RTX)

[Lingam]

Hey Vintarians,

I'm a bit tired of Microsoft and how they are forcing everyone into Windows 11 which also eventually they are removing all ability to create local accounts. Because of this I am seriously considering jumping the Microsoft ship and defecting to Linux. There are lots of Linux distributions out there and I'd like to know the best one for reliability, speed, simplicity and compatibility with Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics cards for Vintage Story mainly.. honestly this is all I play now!

My machine: Dell Precision 7820, Dual Xeon Silver, 256gb Ram, RTX 3060 GPU.

Looking forward to a few good suggestions though I am already considering: Nobara OS, Bazzite or Pop! (Nvidia edition)

Thank you!

Edited October 23, 2025 by Lingam
left something out

[Lollard]

Distros run the same family of kernels and NVIDIA drivers so there shouldn't be a significant difference between them when it comes to gaming. With some distros, you'll get newer versions, which you'll want if your hardware is very new, but since your hardware is several years old, you should be fine with any mainstream distro. Don't let gaming be your deciding factor on picking one.

From my experience, I would consider the safest bet for a newcomer to be Linux Mint Cinnamon. Pop_OS should also be a good contender if you like the desktop it ships. Nobara is a lot newer and less established, but a lot of newcomers seem to like it.

I will recommend against Bazzite because it's an immutable distro, which is hard to explain but it basically makes software installation more complicated and guides you find online on how to install software may not work on it.

Your own experimentation will always be more valuable than other people's recommendations, so don't be afraid to try out as many distros as you like. I'll provide a general outline of distros below:

There are fixed release distros like Ubuntu and Debian and their derivatives (Linux Mint, Pop_OS, etc.) where system packages are frozen for the release and don't get upgraded until the next major release. System packages will only receive bug fixes (but not always, for instance Ubuntu's universe repository usually does not receive any bug fix updates). Applications in these frozen repositories can get outdated fast, but that's where Flatpaks, Snaps and AppImages come in. These are 3 different layers that let you run the latest software on any distribution. The advantage of running this distro model is if it's working, it should stay working for years. Low maintenance and low headache. The disadvantage used to be outdated software, but with the aforementioned solutions, it's not really an issue anymore.

There are rolling distros like Arch Linux and its derivatives (EndeavourOS, Manjaro, etc.) where system packages are continuously upgraded to their latest versions. You run the latest version of everything. The advantage is obvious, but the disadvantage is a higher chance of regressions and issues from upgrades. Everything is changing so there's a higher chance something will go wrong at some point, but still a ton of people say it doesn't happen to them. Also there's a higher level of maintenance you need to do with these distributions.

Then there's Fedora, which is semi-rolling. It both has releases and rolls packages (not always to their latest versions, sometimes they cap the version for one release and ship the latest version on the next release). Nobara and Bazzite use it as a base. It's an interesting compromise between the two.

[Lingam]

Thank you @Lollard I'll try POP! again, It's been a few years, and perhaps a few others.

I appreciate the time you took to write your thoughtful response. If I could toss you a temporal gear, I would

Cheers

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Was going to recommend a Debian-based distro but I see Mint is already listed. It's my favorite and go-to for anything Linux-related.

[HalfAxd]

18 hours ago, Lingam said:

I'm a bit tired of Microsoft and how they are forcing everyone into Windows 11 which also eventually they are removing all ability to create local accounts.

Great post...  this is on my short list too.

I'll likely go with Mint because I've seen a number of people new to Linux have success with it.

Good luck with your transition.

[hstone32]

Most linux issues I've personally experienced have to do with nvidia drivers, rather than the distro. I'm guessing that like me, your graphics card firmware will give you more woe than your distro will.

I've heard amd firmware is better. I sure hope that remains the case by the time I build my next desktop.

[Diff]

20 minutes ago, hstone32 said:

Most linux issues I've personally experienced have to do with nvidia drivers, rather than the distro. I'm guessing that like me, your graphics card firmware will give you more woe than your distro will.

I've heard amd firmware is better. I sure hope that remains the case by the time I build my next desktop.

No worries there, Nvidia has demonstrated an incredibly consistent commitment to the bare minimum for Linux drivers over decades. 

And as far as distros, don't overlook Ubuntu. It's had its controversies, but there's an awful lot more firepower and testing behind it, and it's what Mint ultimately builds on. I'd personally recommend Ubuntu over Mint, Mint has had some issues stemming from the way they delay/alter the Ubuntu repos. 

[hstone32]

1 hour ago, Diff said:

No worries there, Nvidia has demonstrated an incredibly consistent commitment to the bare minimum for Linux drivers over decades. 

Your standard of "bare-minimum" might be different than mine...

[Diff]

46 minutes ago, hstone32 said:

Your standard of "bare-minimum" might be different than mine...

let me qualify it a bit more then: "bare minimum to keep their corporate clients off their ass." nvidia consistently drags their feet on implementing features needed for regular desktop users and seemingly only fixes longstanding quirks if they affect their corporate clients. when they work, they work well. but the seams are there. a huge amount of effort is burned by the various desktops to work around specific nvidia quirks so that end users don't have to worry about it, until they run into one of the seams or quirks that can't be papered over.

[Lingam]

I ended up installing POP! OS after researching how well it performs for gamers and people with Nvidia RTX GPU's. I had a few Hiccups but got VS running good, thanks for the suggestions and comments. The fonts in the game seem a little different and the graphics slightly different but pretty darn good!

Edited November 10, 2025 by Lingam

[Alonso7]

I'm happy to see more people moving to Linux. The worst mistake I ever made was buying an NVIDIA GPU. Unfortunately, I use a custom Arch Linux Hyprland-based desktop environment which is unusable with Nvidia.

[Endeavour]

I've tried different fedora distros, mint, steamdeck os and I'm now on Endeavour(arch btw). 
I moved to endeavour when they had the borked nvidia drivers on install last summer and honestly I can say all distros are fine as long as secureboot is off, your steam folder is formatted to linux format and you use KDE. Whenever I happen to have nvidia drivers borked post system update I just run shift f1 at initial login and run system upgrade again and that fixes it. 

I really enjoy linux and I hope you do to.