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Why is it so difficult to know if a game is goig to run on your system? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 days ago by Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world

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Hi everyone!

I’m a Playstation gamer looking into moving to Linux gaming as the next Playstation might not be able to play physical games.

Here are my 2 computers:

MacBook Pro 2012 (upgraded) with Fedora 41

Surface Go 1 with Fedora 41

I bought Frostpunk on Steam after checking on Proton DB that it would normally run on the MacBook as I knew the Surface Go would probably be way too weak.

According to Proton DB it’s a Gold game.

In the end, no matter what version of Proton I use, it doesn’t launch on the MacBook. I have a black screen, some icy sounds and then it crashes at best..

I then thought, let’s give it a try on the Surface Go and it launched immediately without any tinkering using Proton experimental.

But, the game crashes when the firat cinematic starts, probably because it’s loading too many assets for the Surface.

If anyone has an idea about what to try too many get it working on the MacBook, I would be thankful.

In the meantime, I would want to know, how do you know if a game is gonna run on your machine?

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[–] whats_all_this_then@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Left a comment as a reply to one of yours about the laptops themselves.

The way I can tell if a game does/should run on my PC is kind of a multi-prong approach

System requirements page
DigitalFoundry does really good performance analysis videos on new games (REALLY good if you have a rough idea of how your components compare to others)
Determining what console my PC compares to in terms of performance and going off that. Specific examples:
- First laptop had an i7 3610HQ and a GT 740M - a bit more powerful than PS3/Xbox 360. If a game runs on those consoles (720p with inconsistent 30FPS) I should be able to run it on this laptop at slightly lower (trash port) or slightly better (good port) resolution or fps.
- Second laptop had an i5 7300HQ and a GTX 1050Ti - performance between a PS4 and PS4 Pro
  - If it gets 30FPS on base PS4, this laptop can easily run it at 45 unless it's a bad port (FPS can be higher if I lower settings)
  - It's also comparable to a desktop GTX 970 (although 970 is still a bit better) so If I see 970 as the minimum, I know I can tweak stuff to get it running.
- Current laptop has an i7 11800HQ with a GTX 3070 - quite a bit better than PS5, not sure how it compares to PS5 Pro yet. It's new enough and supports DLSS so I expect a locked 60FPS at 1440p on everything with some tweaking. Right now, until a new console generation comes out, if I can't lock 60 on a game, it's probably really poorly made and not worth my time.
Once you've seen how different games run on your hardware, you sorta get a sense of how certain types of graphics should perform

And then check protondb to see if it can run on linux (most likely will)

Integrated graphics may have some gotchas but the general rule I follow is "if it came out within a console generation, it can't run that console's games. Last gen can be serviceable. 2 generations back run pretty well."