Linux

I haven't personally benchmarked but so far everything I've tried in Steam has worked and performed at a level where I don't even think about it. If you're chasing the top possible FPS then it's not a good option, but performance is way better than I ever expected and definitely good enough for me.

I have found that some games that are problematic on Windows actually run better on Linux through Proton. Performance in general can be slightly worse or slightly better depending on the game, but these days it definitely rivals Windows. That said, if you like multiplayer games; those usually do not work well on Linux, especially when they have anticheat. Also, native Linux versions are often broken, the Windows version through Proton usually works better.

Can't speak to the GoXLR, you might be able to find some info on linuxmusicians.com. I got my Tascam audio interface and my Mooer GE200 working out of the box though (with less latency than on Windows).

You can try dual booting and see if you can get it to work. If it doesn't than you can just ditch Linux and otherwise you can ditch Windows.

This is the place to check how well your games run on Linux: https://www.protondb.com/, it shows at least 10k games running well, including recent triple As.

I don't have a gaming PC or anything, I just have a laptop, so ymmv, but performance in Linux, even of Proton games, is noticeably far better for me. Things are faster, I can crank the graphics settings up higher without lag, and my fan spins less angrily. Linux is just generally less resource-intensive than Windows by a very wide margin, so I think it leaves more for the game? Idk. All I know is it works better.

I’m using a 4070 (which has very new and slow release Linux drivers) and I don’t see any worse performance. But I barely used my 4070 with windows before switching over to Linux. However I seem to get similar results to other people on windows with the same hardware.

For the most part it works really well! 90% of games on steam work without any hassle and the 10% with errors have workarounds. It's not perfect but it's definitely getting better as time goes on, especially with more anticheats having compatibility with linux than 5 years ago. When it comes to standalone games, it can be a mixed bag because sometimes it works perfectly and other times it doesn't, but launchers like lutris help get the games that don't work run decently. When it comes to emulators, they work really well, sometimes better than running them on windows, but keep in mind where you're getting them. I have less issues overall with the flatpack variants of emulators.