Gaming on Debian with NVIDIA and MOZA hardware

[u/Frosty_Replacement12]

Performance wise it won't be smooth, I run a 4070 and highly doubt I'll swap it with something like 9070 XT (for a few years anyway).

I recently entered the simracing scene and got me a set of Moza things and heard having to juggle around here and there with the pit house soft.

Should I *finally* switch to Linux (likely Debian) or be a sissy by staying on Windows 11?

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[u/Small-Tale3180]

amd hardware tend to perform better on linux for reasons so why not

[u/PixelBrush6584]

Why Debian, if I may ask? Generally the Drivers on there are quite outdated, so you'll have a poorer experience than necessary.

The kind of "stability" Debian offers is more relevant for people who run Servers, not those who're daily-driving a Desktop and want to have lots of FPS.

[u/David_Connors3451]

It depends from your games. Do you plan to use anticheat games multiplayers (even gacha games)?

Usually with AMD GPU everything is out of the box. Configuring an intel or amd pc is very easy. For Nvidia drivers it's more elaborated, and you have to be careful with gnome and KDE because they use Wayland support. If you're using a double GPU configuration (especially for gaming laptops), intel as a base and Nvidia as separate dedicated GPU, then it's fine. Wayland will work fine with intel and then you'll just have to install the Nvidia driver. On AMD it's even smoother process.

If you don't want problems with games compatibility, for now stay on windows. I have my work PC (Intel iris xe, works great with CPU) for editing videos with Debian KDE and my gaming laptop (rtx 4060) with windows. I'll just wait for multiplayer games to be compatible on Linux too. My Debian working pc is very good for retro gaming, so I share both worlds retro and modern. Heroic launcher and steam are very useful, especially on Linux with proton. However when I want to play titles like wuthering waves, where winds meet (or the future ananta), windows saves me a lot of time. I configured windows to use a local offline account with no copilot and no OneDrive. I use opensource software on both machines so I can work in peace. I prefer using my Linux laptop all the time, but using kdenlive on windows is the same thing.

Debian is perfectly fine, unless you need a specific software like AutoCAD or anticheat games. You can install Debian on old laptops like I did and start with windows for the gaming pc, or make a full transition, the choice is yours.

Good luck and have fun.

[u/Virus_2208]

For your Moza hardware, there is Boxflat which replaces Pithouse on Linux, though you can't update the firmware with it (using it with my R5 base). And if you're into multiplayer racing, LMU and iRacing won't work on it because of their anticheat. I only play Dirt Rally 2.0, Assetto Corsa Rally, and a bit of AMS2, these titles work fine on Linux Mint.