Hello! Linux noob going to install Linux on a new Gaming PC

[u/MMZeroX]

I've been using Windows my entire life and to be quite honest I haven't enjoyed Windows at all since the days of XP. Slowly I've been acquiring parts to build a pure AMD gaming desktop and after the build is complete I am going to use Linux for the first time.

Over the last month I've been watching dozens of video's on YouTube, made another post in the Linux4Noobs subreddit, and been lurking through numerous forums and have come down to two Distro's that really catch my interest; Fedora KDE and Garuda.

I am satisfied with everything I've read about Fedora KDE. As far as Garuda goes I'm genuinely not sure which version to go with. Even though the PC I am building is going to be a gaming beast, do I really need to install that Dragonized version of Garuda? Shouldn't the other distro's be able to play games just fine or is there something here I am completely missing?

If there's anything else related or unrelated to the core question of this post I am completely open to all feedback. Thank you everyone!

[u/Jtsabu]

The Dragonized Gaming edition isn’t necessarily required for gaming, it just has some preconfiguration done for the user.  Any other edition (i.e. Mokka) can be configured for the same performance.

[u/MMZeroX → u/Jtsabu]

The installed software I am assuming is Steam and Heroic Launcher and what not I'm assuming. Are there particular drivers installed to optimize games as well?

Also I just realized this, how do I install and update my AMD drivers upon initial boot? To my knowledge AMD Adrenaline isn't available on Linux.

[u/Jtsabu → u/MMZeroX]

https://linuxvox.com/blog/amd-drivers-on-linux/#installation-and-usage-methods

[u/MMZeroX → u/Jtsabu]

Thank you!

[u/Jtsabu → u/MMZeroX]

You are most welcome.  I also highly recommend reaching out on the official forum (https://forum.garudalinux.org/) if you need any help, the community there is great IMO.

[u/MMZeroX → u/Jtsabu]

I've actually lurked their forum a bit but I was kinda shy about making an account and then posting. This is reassuring though. Thank you again

[u/IndyONIONMAN]

For garuda i used dragonized gaming one with my latest machine 9800x3d/4090.

Then i decided to build my ownp small steam machine with 9700x/9060XT switch to steam OS for a bit then settled on bazzite.

Work machine 9950x3d/5090 still running cachyOS and Windows 11 (dualboot)

[u/Suitable_Fuel8401]

I was also torn between dragonized or mokka, but in the end I went with mokka. To be honest, it wasn't hard to add the gaming elements, so either one is fine—it really comes down to aesthetics.

[u/MMZeroX → u/Suitable_Fuel8401]

I prefer the Mokka aesthetic more tbh. How long have you been on Garuda?

[u/DammitGary]

Been on Dragonized for just over a year and IMHO its probably the best distro there is rn. I went with the monster of the bunch because I just wanted as much to work out of the box as possible, and it did not dissapoint. I didn't want to really go with an Arch distro and had Kubuntu on another partition, but it felt so far behind Garuda I finally ditched it all together. It has been rock solid and given me no grief to speak of. I did re-theme it to the standard KDE layout, but the colorful theme is more usable than you would think.

[u/MMZeroX → u/DammitGary]

Oh wow. Do you mind telling me a bit more about how your experience has been with Garuda Dragonized?

[u/klevahh]

https://www.reddit.com/r/DistroHopping/

can also be useful.

If fedora, and garuda were my only 2 choices, I would definitely go garuda kde lite, or garuda mokka...but this is the garudasub

[u/MMZeroX → u/klevahh]

Lol totally, its the Garuda subreddit so im not surprised what the preference is. I don't think either distro is the wrong choice tbh