LOW FPS while gaming

I have bought a new device (Lenovo Legion 5 pro) and have, with difficulties, installed Ubuntu 20.04 with kernel 5.14.

I was curious about gaming and installed CS GO. Te FPS I get in the game is very low (100-120FPS) when comparing it to windows, where I get more FPS ( 280-300FPS).

I do not know if this is how it is supposed to be or if it is a real issue.

CS GO is a CPU demanding game. My CPU is Ryzen 7 5800h. But I have got very good scores while bench marking blender for multi-core performance.

I do not know what exactly is causing this issue.

1 Answer

Ubuntu is not perfect for gaming! Specifically, Ubuntu 21.10 has some improvements but generally, in Ubuntu, you will more likely face lags and crashes while playing games. Here are a few alternatives:

Pop! OS

Pop! OS is more lightweight than Ubuntu and has Vulkan drivers installed by default. Pop!_OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux that provides GNOME as the default desktop. IT offers a polished desktop with its own PPA for third-party applications and app store Pop!_Store to install gaming platforms, such as GameMode, Lutris, and Wine.

The most noteworthy feature is that it allows gamers to install the correct Pop!_OS as it offers separate ISOs for Nvidia and AMD graphic cards. However, in Ubuntu, one can find drivers for Nvidia graphic cards but not for AMD systems. For gamers, Long Term Support (LTS) release will provide better reliability and performance.

Drauger OS

Drauger OS is the most popular gaming Linux distro (as of writing) that’s actively maintained and updated. It has a (relatively) large community of users.

Everything you’d need for gaming on Linux is already installed out of the box, like Steam, Lutris, GameHub, PlayOnLinux. The distro has a rolling kernel and Mesa/Vulkan drivers. The distro uses a different PPA to get more up-to-date NVIDIA drivers, which is a big plus for a gaming distro. Drauger uses Xfce and dark mode is enabled by default.

Manjaro

Manjaro is an open-source arch-based rolling release distribution that offers stability and Arch Linux benefits to beginner users. Manjaro provides extensive support for new kernel addition, upgrade, and management of multiple kernels.

Moreover, Manjaro offers a hardware detection tool that allows quick hardware identification and installation of new drivers. For instance, Nvidia drivers are difficult to work with most distributions, while Manajro provides proprietary drivers for automatic or manual installation.

References

Try installing drivers on Ubuntu

Add the beta drivers PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

Update the repository list:

sudo apt update 

Auto-install the drivers:

sudo ubuntu-drivers auto install

Install specific drivers:

ubuntu-drivers devices

The output shows your GPU model as well as any available drivers for that specific GPU.

sudo apt install [driver_name]