cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ndlug.org/post/1014937

I recently spent some time with the Framework 13 laptop, evaluating it with the new Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and the AMD Ryzen 7 7480U. It felt like the perfect opportunity to test how a handful of games ran on Windows 11 and Fedora 40. I was genuinely surprised by the results!

The Framework 13 is perfectly capable of gaming even with its integrated graphics, provided you’re willing to compromise by lowering the resolution and quality presets for more demanding games. (It’s also a testament to how far AMD’s APUs have come in the past decade.)

Summary of results:

  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Linux wins
  • Total War: Warhammer III: Windows wins
  • Cyberpunk 2077: Linux wins
  • Forza Horizon 5: Windows wins

These results are an interesting slice of the Linux vs Windows gaming picture, but certainly not representative of the entire landscape. A few shorts years ago, however, I never would have dreamed I’d be writing an article where even two games on Linux are outperforming their Windows counterparts.

Archived Link

  • Bazzite for me, runs all my games basically 2x as good as Windows. A game that I’d run on low-med graphics and get around 60-70 fps on Windows I can usually run at med-high and get 100.

    I7-5930k and an Rx5700 with a 3440x1440 resolution.

      • Ubuntu 24.x, because that’s what I’m most familiar with, and it’s one of the officially supported distros. Admittedly, this was from a Live USB, and not installed on my system.

        On my Windows desktop, I had dual-boot with Linux (Ubuntu again), and it refused to work with my wifi card. I spent endless hours trying to get it working and just gave up.

        This is almost unheard of for me with Windows. 99% of the hardware just works, and the other 1% often has a very simple driver installation process.

          • Installed it on an external drive (Fedora 40) and everything is working, including the fingerprint scanner. Well, not everything. No adguard for linux, a steam game I play doesn’t support linux, etc. But it is smooth and seems more refined than what I remember Ubuntu being. maybe I’ll stick to Fedora when I have to use Linux :)

            • You don’t need adguard, just register with nextdns and use it as your system’s DNS. By not supporting Linux you mean that it doesn’t run with Steam’s proton compatibility layer? Nowadays the games which don’t work, usually are the ones using some form of aggressive anti-cheat measures. Online multiplayer stuff.

              • You don’t need adguard, just register with nextdns and use it as your system’s DNS.

                I did set up Adguard DNS blocking, but it’s so unrefined vs. the actual adguard software. Plus, I like to route everything through adguard, not just the browser stuff.

                By not supporting Linux you mean that it doesn’t run with Steam’s proton compatibility layer?

                In steam, it looks like there’s a button that shows only Linux-compatible games. And the game in question isn’t on the list. Perhaps it can be run through some emulator or alternate steam version, but I was just testing and didn’t explore it deeply.

                • That’s why I said to set it up globally, as system DNS, not just in the browser. Nextdns also allows you to pick the lists of filters. When it comes to Linux always check the game’s compatibility through ProtonDB (unless it’s native).