r/linux_gaming • u/Kaseffera • 10h ago
tech support wanted Gnome and KDE gaming differences
I’ve heard KDE is more suited for gaming.
I’m going to install Debian (yes, I think for my RX7600 and R5 5600x it’s good enough) to play games like Cyberpunk and Wreckfest and SpongeBob game and do some work in Libre and browsing.
Which DE you recommend? I also heard VRR is experimental on Gnome (or just in Debian’s version of it) and there’s always comments to get KDE for anything gaming related.
I kinda see it as a laptop DE. I love icons. I can have desktop icons with Gnome but then what’s the difference in the end of the day?
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u/PrefersAwkward 9h ago edited 9h ago
I think they'll both be comparable at this point and both are very stable these days. I think KDE is generally more ahead because it gets attention from Valve. It is loaded with settings and options.
I'd just get the DE that feels nicer to you. I'm much more of a KDE fan myself. For one, I like to add bars and graphs on my toolbar on my gaming computer so I can see the GPU, CPU, memory, and drive stats and history all right there. Pretty interesting to peek at it and see how much memory, how many cores, how much GPU util + VRAM my game or workload is using.
I also like swapping desktops around so I can manage my chat if I'm on voice, or browse the web / looks something up about the game I'm playing, etc. Sometimes I listen to a podcast or music from another desktop while I'm gaming.
But aside from all of that, I've found Dolphin to be the best file manager I've ever used. It has a lot of native extensibility and features.
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u/Kaseffera 9h ago
About bars and graphs in gaming.
Isn’t that possible with Gnome too? I mean on KDE I loved having Goverlay and MangoHud for those purposes.
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u/PrefersAwkward 9h ago
I haven't used Gnome in years so it may have changed. I think you can do it if you use the right extensions, but I highly doubt it's built-in like it is on KDE. If your Gnome install gets too extension heavy, then you might find that some extensions don't work when Gnome changes major versions. That has been a thing in the past.
Perhaps someone can correct me if I'm wrong or out of date.
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u/AdvancedCryspy 8h ago
Ive been on fedora gnome, cachyOS kde, and briefly tested CachyOS cosmic. They all have their flaws, comsic was personally my favourite although it does lack certain features eg. HDR, whichultimately made me not use it. I've had issues with both KDE and gnome in terms of setting custom wndow scaling. Gnome was alright the extension system was cool albeit a little messy, i also had issues on gnome where maximising apps on my 2nd monitor would cause the app the crash, but sometimes KDE can feel a little janky as well, ive never been able to get drives to auto mount on boot (i have 4) without causing issues elsewhere (eg. Drives auto mount but then steam won't detect them) and lately ive had issues with devices not initialising on boot. I'm thinking of distro/desktop hopping but the setup process is getting tiring (i have a lot of fiddly devices that are annoying to get working) I've been looking at Niri but haven't pulled the trigger
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u/Weurd 9h ago
I use a debian based distro (PikaOS) and perfer Gnome to KDE. Every time iv tried KDE it just felt slow for some reason? I currently have a 7900xt and a 9800x3d as well as triple 300hz 1440p monitors with VRR enabled and it's been nothing but butter. I rarely ever have a game crash and if it does its usually a proton issue. so try them both out, PikaOS has an ISO for both Gnome and KDE.
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u/tapo 8h ago
You're on Debian so, fair warning, you're using an old amdgpu and an old Mesa/RADV which will impact performance in demanding games. There's no way around that unless you want to run Sid, even Testing will be fairly old.
Debian also gets GNOME 48, VRR was stable in GNOME 50.
KDE gets Valve-sponsored attention on kwin gaming performance which may show up in benchmarks but I would expect those to even out over time. There's no secret sauce there, just money and time.
(I don't want to play distro wars, I love Debian and I've run it for 25 years, but new drivers and Debian do not mix.)
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u/Fuffy_Katja 7h ago
I run Nobara KDE for games (Steam and non-Steam), sound design\music production, amateur radio and general use. My ITX system is: i7-11700K, RX 6800 XT, 64 GB RAM, 3 displays (27" 1440p, 20" 1080 and my 55" 4K TV). Never had any issues.
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u/the_abortionat0r 7h ago
KDE typically has more options/features and gets gaming features faster though Debian is going to give you more issues than either DE would as you'll be years behind in package versions.
And don't buy into the kids that tell you to switch repos as then you literally aren't getting Debians patches.
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u/Poes_Poes 4h ago
It doesnt matter. Gnome comes with VRR as experimental but lacks HDR in this version. If you need the later, go with KDE. I would advice you to install Steam Flatpak. It comes with recent drivers for your AMD hardware. It's a good solution for LTS distos
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u/Initial-Jaguar6230 4h ago
If you have amd gpu, you may use gamescope and feel no difference (j guess, i havr nvidia)
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u/Historical_Move6359 3h ago
I dont think there is any difference for gaming, but Windows refugees prefer KDE because its similar to Windows. Gnome is a bit more like Mac. KDE has HDR so maybe because of that they say KDE is better for gaming.
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u/-Fall- 36m ago
I really love Gnome for productivity but for gaming I had to switch to KDE, since an update broke VRR compatibility (probably fixed by now). HDR support and calibration is better on KDE. I also managed to make it more "Gnome like" following a guide, so there's also that option if you are interested.
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u/Ripped_Alleles 9h ago
There's no difference when it comes to gaming. GNOME officially supports VRR at this point.
I've used both and landed on GNOME personally for my gaming desktop. It's more stable I find, and simple.
KDE is very customizable if that's your thing and has a familiar layout, but I found elements of the GUI would crash on rare occasion.
Both are great, can't go wrong either way.