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

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    28 days ago

    sometimes i still can’t believe i’m running every game i want on linux. like its still surprising and surreal to me.

    thanks to all the contributors that made it possible for us to ditch microsoft.

    • variants@possumpat.io
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      28 days ago

      I felt the same way, after dual booting linux and windows for a while, I stopped booting into windows so decided to just wipe both drives and do a raid0 install of linux. Finally I got to messing with games expecting to have to tweak settings and everything but nope it just booted up. even better running on raid0 now I dont even see load screens with games like starfield.

      • Murdoc@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

        Dual booted for the longest time, until sometime last year. Windows partition is still there, but it’s been long enough that I’ve forgotten the password. 😳

    • Nithanim@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      27 days ago

      One I quickly gave up on trying recently was Star Citizen. Failing myself with dumb errors I found out that you need to follow a rather elaborate tutorial. I decided that it was very much not worth it. Not sure how it is possible to fuck it up that badly.

      The other I am bummed about is Talos Principle 2. Last time I played at release it worked perfectly. Now it runs so slow that it takes like 10 minutes to even get to the main menu. In the realm of tens of seconds per frame and I am at a loss how to even debug that.

      One dumb thing for native (!) Unity games (at least Valheim and Shapez 2) is that they disrespect the default audio output device.

      Otherwise, plug and play. It’s so nice!

      • barinzaya@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        22 days ago

        I’ve run Star Citizen on Linux a few times (not a regular player), there was a Lutris configuration that Just Worked™ for me. There’s also the Linux Users Group for SC, which maintains some scripts for working around issues if you want to do things manually. They’re the ones maintaining the Lutris configuration too.

        I did run into the same issue with Shapez 2 recently, though! A quick stop in qpwgraph to connect it to the right audio output and everything else about it worked perfectly, but it’s not a permanent fix.

    • Lemonparty@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      28 days ago

      Hey genuine question what does everyone use for office apps these days? I’m extremely over being charged a yearly fee to use word and excel

        • soulsource@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          28 days ago

          I have been a user since the 90s. Back then it was still called StarOffice.

          Its feature set differs from that of MS Office, and its performance could be (a lot!) better, but I strongly prefer the LibreOffice user interface, and the features that matter to me (like CSV import) are way better in LibreOffice. However, LibreOffice does not have all the features of MS Office, and some are notably worse (for instance auto-fill in spreadsheets, where Excel is way better at guessing the next value).

          Sadly it’s not only a matter of preference, because file exchange between different office suites is not flawless. MS Office and LibreOffice don’t agree 100% on how to load each other’s files…

      • soulsource@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

        In addition to LibreOffice I often use standalone tools.

        If I want a high quality document, I use LaTeX. Same for presentation slides. However, writing stuff in LaTeX is only worth the effort if the quality is needed. For non-important stuff I just use LibreOffice.

        For calculations it depends on what I want to have in the end. If I just want to play with the data a bit, then LibreOffice Calc it is. However, if it is for something serious, I tend to write script files, or even full programs, that do the processing. That way computation and data is in separate files, and the used formulas are clearly visible and easy to debug.

      • lenathaw@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

        Unpopular opinion but I just use Google Sheets instead, because most of my spreadsheet usage is due to work and my employer uses Google Workplace

  • cron@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    28 days ago

    When I started using linux 15 years ago, my friend recommended to keep a windows partition for gaming. At least for me, I have deleted windows a few years ago and I’m not looking back.

    • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      28 days ago

      If you play DRMed AAA stuff, that’s still true unfornately (if you can’t do VM with PCIe passthrough).

      Personally I just opt to not play these games. The market dicides in the end.

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

        Some of the “anticheat” systems straight up decide not to work on VMs even with PCIE passthrough et. al. For example, I cannot run Elden Ring with its trash DRM because it says it cannot run under VM. I have PCIE passthrough, and the CPU id also passes through. Only the chipset reports anything VM, yet the “anticheat” decides not to run.

        Fuck DRM. It has done nothing except push me to pirate more when I LITERALLY AM buying the games. Fuck those greedy actual morons (corporations who deploy DRM, not FromSoft specifically).

    • Damage@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      28 days ago

      My gaming PC was the last one I had running Windows. I couldn’t take it anymore and this year I switched that one too.

      Now if only I could run (my perfectly legal copy of) SOLIDWORKS decently, it’d be great.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    28 days ago

    I think it says a lot more about how much recent versions of Windows have bogged down the whole gaming experience.

    Microsoft seems to have forgotten that people want an operating system that works, not something bloated with bullshit like telemetry, advertisements, tracking cookies and artificial intelligence. The only reason they even have a market lead in the desktop space is due to marketing and monopolistic practices.

  • zer0bitz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    28 days ago

    Im so glad I fully switched to Linux. I was amazed how good the gaming performance have come nowadays. I tried out Ubuntu back in 2007 and have tried some other distros too during the years, but always went back to Windows because of games. Not anymore.

  • azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    27 days ago

    Oh, the article is written by Jason Evanghelo. Of course, he’s a giant Linux shill working at Forbes :D

    Still great to see such press

  • Go-On-A-Steam-Train@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    28 days ago

    Aw, I can’t get cyberpunk to run on my mint install - it gets the logos and stops responding.

    Some people read about performance, sometimes I’m just motivated knowing someone on the internet did get a game running in the first instance! :)

    I will say though, Baldurs Gate 3 works perfectly, as does anything else I throw at it! :)

    • Mikelius@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      28 days ago

      Cyberpunk worked out of the box for me, but senua 2 absolutely refuses to start no matter what kind of voodoo I try (“fatal error”). I seem to always be on the opposite spectrum of protondb mint users I swear.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

        It wouldn’t run for me until I got the Steam version (in Tumbleweed). Works great now.

        It would have been better if it had worked with just one copy though. At least I got it on sale.

      • Go-On-A-Steam-Train@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

        How odd! I must admit with cyberpunk, I was reading ProtonDB and had a “that’s one fine game… why doesn’t mine look like that!” Simpsons moment. 😅

    • uint@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      27 days ago

      A couple of months ago I had the same problem on Debian Unstable. Then I tried it on Fedora 40 and it worked flawlessly.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.net
      cake
      M
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      28 days ago

      It’s their community blog. This specific person has been writing there about Linux gaming for a long time now.

  • devilish666@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    28 days ago

    Sometimes i feel weird and impressed with Microsoft that allow third party to create windows emulation system that beat original windows in many ways

    • Avatar_of_Self@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      28 days ago

      It is mostly a translation layer – WINE is Not an Emulator (WINE). The reason Microsoft ‘allows’ this is because they have no choice. WINE hasn’t broken any laws or violated any copyright or trademarks. Same goes for Proton with DXVK of course.

      • devilish666@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        28 days ago

        Although i never fully understand how wine works, how WINE doesn’t break any lawsuit ? It’s clearly mimicking windows itself with windows library (like VC Library, DotNet, DirectX, etc) as add-ons
        Now i hope linux community can do the same with Nintendo Emulator or Sony PS emulator without triggering lawsuit

        • Aceticon@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          28 days ago

          In a highly simplified way:

          • Think of Windows as an electricity provider with their own specially shaped wall socket.
          • Linux is also an electricity provider with a differently shaped wall socket.
          • In this metaphor Wine is just some guys providing an adaptor that makes the electricity of the Linux electricity provider available in a wall socket that has the same shape as the Windows provider’s.

          Wine isn’t breaking Windows copyright because it doesn’t copy any of the Windows internals: instead it provides the contact points with the right “shape” for programs which were made to work in Windows to connect to to get their needs fullfilled, and then internally Wine does its own thing which is mainly using the Linux under it to do the heavy lifting.

          Mind you, this simplification seriously understates just how complicate it is to implement what was implemented in Wine because the Windows interface is a lot more that just the shape of a wall socket.

          • xavier666@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            27 days ago

            To add to your explanation

            • most people have the specialized Windows plug. Microsoft has invested a lot of money in making sure people ONLY have access to the Windows plug
            • Linux provides the same electricity signal that people need (maybe even better) but since people’s Windows plug don’t work on Linux’s wall socket, they get the impression that Linux doesn’t supply electricity.
            • WINE is just the adaptor which people put on their Window’s plug. Now it easily fits on the Linux wall socket.
        • xavier666@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          27 days ago

          If I remember correctly, the only thing WINE has “copied” are the function calls and signatures (which are the adaptors as mentioned in the other response). The function implementation is completely original.

  • Opisek@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    27 days ago

    What I’m still missing unfortunately is how seemingly all modern online games require stupid kernel level anti-cheats that don’t work on Linux.

    • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      27 days ago

      Yea, but honestly that’s not a Linux problem imo. Invasive anti-cheat has been a deal breaker for me since its inception. It started as “I don’t want to deal with your shitty software always running in the background eating up my CPU cycles, need maximum performance baby” and then quickly became “I’m not giving your shitty software kernal access to my entire machine, I don’t trust you”.

      It’s made so much worse when you realize it doesnt even actually stop cheaters…