I did it. For a few years now I’ve wanted to make the jump but lazyness and a bit of worry that my main game wouldn’t work very well kept me from it.
Then some effing windows update caused ridiculous stuttering on games (or maybe it was a auto-update of some other hidden thing, I couldn’t figure it out) so I decided that if I needed a system wipe, might as well as try gaming on linux.
Honestly? Much easier than I expected. Install Steam, turn two options on and 90% of your library is ready to go. I had to tinker with getting freesync to work (ended up just switching to wayland, which just worked) but other than the plugins I use for my main game requiring a bit of more work, smooth as butter really.
So yeah, if you are a lazy gamer like I am, next time you do a system wipe or get a new computer, try installing linux first. Don’t even bother Dual booting it, if you don’t like it just reinstall (setup your usb drive with ventoy and the images you want to try out.)
If you value your time and want to save money before you go the hardware route try a cloud gaming platform like Geforce Now. Get the top tier account, you will always have the best graphics, you can run on any of your existing hardware, and you can fire up additional rigs for your children/friends. If the games you like are available, you never have to wait for updates. If you enjoy modding games this is not for you. All that money you were going to throw at the cpu etc can, if you want, be put towards a really nice monitor and controllers both of which typically outlast the cpu anyway.
I have a founder’s account at $5/mo so I have no interest in upgrading lol. As for updates, I remember with BG3 frequently having to wait for updates to go through in the early months specifically on GFN after release while my steam deck could just get right back into it.
I like GFN but some games are unplayable with the latency, despite how impressively low it is. And while the library is pretty decent it’s definitely not comprehensive.
I’ve been juggling steamdeck / GFN / Xbox for years and I’m sort of ready to just go whole hog on a $1500-$2000 tower.