TLDR: Which distro is better for gaming and video editing (NVIDIA GPU), CachyOS or Ubuntu?
Hi! It’s been probably a month since I started using Linux (escaping from Windows), and I choose LMDE since the distro that I felt aligned more with what I want from a distro on in general is Debian, but since it was my first time using Linux on my main device (just tried Debian on a laptop to run a Homelab) I got recommended Mint to make it easier for me to adapt. The thing is that since I started using LMDE I’ve discovered that it doesn’t cover perfectly my needs. Two things that I didn’t want to lose when switching to Linux were gaming and the ability to run video/audio/photo editing programs flawlessly, mainly DaVinci Resolve and AffinityPhoto. It’s been practically impossible to achieve that, since DaVinci doesn’t work, can’t even get to install AffinityPhoto and some videogames need more recent (NVIDIA) drivers than what Debian and of course LMDE can offer. So, seeing that I want to keep LMDE (and maybe in the future upgrade from LMDE to Debian) but at the same time I’m not willing to give up on those 2 things, I believe the dual-boot option is the one that suits me the most. Now, what I’m here for. I’ve been doing some research and the ones that caught my atention the most were CachyOS and Ubuntu:
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CachyOS: PROS: · High gaming performance and (looks like) compatibility. · Looks like DaVinci works perfectly for a lot of people (although some other people claim having issues). CONS: · Sounds too complex as a distro for someone who has close to zero programming knowledge and just started using Linux. · The rolling release aspect feels a little scary too.
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Ubuntu: PROS: · May not be THE gaming distro but it seems to be working for a lot of people without having extensive programming or Linux knowledge. · Generally may be more compatible and stable than CachyOS in general · Seems it will be easier for me to adapt to since it’s Debian-based. CONS: · Doesn’t seem as good as CachyOS on a performance standpoint, affecting both video editing and gaming capabilities.
Now, my questions would be: Am I mistaken in any of the info I have revolving these two distros? Could I be missing any other options? Which do you think is the distro that could suit me the most? Any recommendation when doing the Dual-boot? I have never done it and it scares me a little tbh.
My main priority is having a stable (and compatible in the first place, of course) experience (maybe Ubuntu?), but I don’t mind having to put more work into it to achieve a better experience (maybe CachyOS?).
I would love to hear from you and, of course, if I’m missing any relevant information I’ll be more than happy to share it too.
Thank you very much! :D
What are your PC specs outside of an Nvidia card?
Depending on your specs, it might make more sense to run it in a Virtual Machine than dual boot.
I started my process of going into Linux with dual-booting for several years while also running a small linux server on a raspberry pi 3B+.
The reality is I hardly ever booted into Linux unless I needed to do something over there. Several times I ignored the Linux side long enough that it was fully broken from not receiving updates for so long. (Literally slept on the upgrade window until the next upgrade was already out and the old upgrade window was gone…ooof. after that I went with LTS just to ensure that didn’t happen again).
Part of the reason I never booted into it is because turning it off and then on again… is actually more time consuming and interruptive than you initially think. I would just forget it was there on a normal day without any specific projects to work on.
I never really took it properly seriously until I fully removed Windows and made my Linux my daily driver. If I still need Windows, I run that in a Virtual Machine. However the amount of times I need it is steadily decreasing.
So, based on personal experience, if you have the specs, I strongly suggest a VM otherwise you might find yourself not even bothering to boot into Linux half the time because everything you do daily is still on Windows. Just a thought nugget to consider. Plenty of people told me I should be running mine in a VM that whole time, too. I was skeptical. Looking back, they were right, and it took me longer to acclimate than it would have if I had been consistently using it.
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, RTX 3070 Ti, 32 GB RAM, HDD, 1 M.2 and soon will add another one.
Similar to what I responded to another user that suggested using makeresolvedeb, I’m not sure the VM could detect the extension card I use for color grading (DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K), which would be an instant turnoff. However I’ll try it before going Dualboot. The only issue I find is that I don’t know how to set the VM properly for it to detect the card and also make the VM being as fast as my pc, since every VM I mount is pretty slow and makes the VM only a useful tool to try distros but not to actually use them. Thank you!
Yeah, GPU passthrough is pretty tough to get with VMs as well, let alone something very tailored to graphics needs like that. So I can understand if you need that to work why it’s a turn off.
Well, VMs being slower than the host machine is just a real tradeoff that happens. You can try using less graphics/ram/cpu heavy systems like Xubuntu/Lubuntu (although to be fair even Kubuntu is pretty lightweight now). But part of it is how much RAM you give it. If you have the spare ram for it, give it as much as you can. I have 32gb of ram and yet rarely break using 10gb of it so if I am running a single VM I usually give it 12gb of ram at minimum. Also depending on what you’re using for your VM you could give the VM more cpu cores to use, but that will in turn speed it up (although depending on the load may also slow down your host as it loses access to cores). Giving it enough ram, enough cores, and putting it on the next M.2 (pulling the OS of an HDD is slow af) you get if there’s enough room. Those are all things that will bring up speed.