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Hardware Compatibility for Gaming

General Hardware

Note

Most x86_64 PCs from the last decade should run Bazzite.

Minimum System Requirements

  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Firmware: UEFI (CSM Support should be disabled if available)
  • Processor (CPU) : 2GHz quad core processor or better
  • System Memory (RAM): 4GB
  • Graphics: A graphics card that can utilize Vulkan 1.3+
  • Storage: 64GB free on an internal solid-state drive
  • Network: Stable internet connection with no bandwidth caps
  • Additional Notes: Certain drivers are not compatible with Bazzite

Protip

The Hardware for Linux website is a good indicator for how well OEM hardware is supported and driver supoport on the Linux desktop.

Steam Gaming Mode Requirements

Note

These specific requirements only apply to Handheld/HTPC (-deck) Bazzite images

  • AMD GPU
    • Modern AMD GPUs
      • RX 5000 and up
      • 600M/700M integrated GPUs
    • May work with major caveats:
      • Polaris (RX 500 series)
  • Intel Arc GPUs may work with major caveats
  • Nvidia GPUs are not supported
  • Steam account

Compatible Handhelds

The Handheld Wiki lists tested handhelds with proper support for the Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and a handful of other handhelds.

Vulkan Compatible GPU

Attention

Linux gaming is heavily dependent on having compatible hardware with Vulkan.

Viewing Your GPU's Vulkan Version

If you're using a device with an older or weaker GPU that does not support Vulkan 1.3 or later, then you need to use older Proton and Wine builds like Proton/WINE 6 or earlier. Check which Vulkan version your GPU uses, enter this in the terminal:

vulkaninfo | grep 'Instance Version'
  • If it outputs less than 1.3 in the Vulkan Instance Version: or does not work at all, then you will run into issues including unplayable games and worse performance.
  • Really old devices may need to resort to OpenGL translation which performs worse, has graphical issues, etc.

Vulkan Command

Try using Proton-Sarek if your have hardware that can utilize Vulkan 1.1, but not newer Vulkan versions.

GPUs Without Vulkan Support

However if your GPU does not support Vulkan at all then you must use an older Proton version (Proton 3, 4, or 5) and use this launch option for most Steam games:

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

This will use the OpenGL translation as opposed to Vulkan.

Storage Filesystems

Note

BTRFS is the default and recommended filesystem for Bazzite.

Unsupported Filesystems for Secondary Drives

Warning

You will lose all of your data reformatting secondary internal/external drives.

See also: Auto-Mounting Secondary Drives

NTFS

If you are coming from Windows and plan to game on a secondary drive with games already installed on it, then we regret to inform you that the NTFS filesystem is unsupported for gaming.

Any secondary drives that you plan to play video games on should be backed up and reformatted to either Ext4 or BTRFS. You will lose all of the data on this device.

You can use KDE Partition Manager (KDE images) or GNOME Disks (GNOME images) to format the drives appropriately at your own risk.

There is a guide for using Proton with NTFS drive, but issues may occur with this setup.

exFAT and FAT32

exFAT and FAT32 are unsupported entirely. Both filesystems do not support symbolic links which is what Proton prefixes use.

However, scenarios where a microSD card is formatted to exFAT may work in some cases, but it is entirely unsupported by Universal Blue if something goes horribly wrong using it.

Sharing Games with a Windows Dual-Boot

Install the unofficial WinBtrfs driver on your Windows installation at your own risk. Please note that Gamepass games and games installed and launched through the Epic Games Launcher do not work with BTRFS under Windows.

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