Help me choose the best Linux distro for maximum FPS in games on a very weak laptop (Lenovo G500).

[pelmeni]

Hi everyone. As a Windows 10 user, I want to try switching to Linux purely for gaming and maximum FPS, but I have a very old and weak laptop, so I’m afraid of making the wrong choice of distro. I’m not expecting “magic”, but I want to squeeze the absolute maximum performance possible out of my hardware.
Detailed laptop specifications:
Model: Lenovo G500 Type 80A6 (2013).
Form factor: regular old laptop BIOS (not UEFI).
Processor: Intel Pentium B960 (2 cores / 2 threads, 2.20 GHz, Sandy Bridge architecture (very old), no Hyper-Threading).
RAM: 8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz dual channel (should be enough for Linux I think).
Storage: HDD 931 GB.
Graphics:
Integrated: Intel HD Graphics 2000 (very weak).
Discrete: AMD Radeon HD 8570M 1GB (old GCN 1.0 generation).
Type: Switchable Graphics (Intel + AMD, Enduro).
I am NOT sure: does this work нормально on Linux, can I force it to use only AMD or will the system constantly get confused.
Games I play (already tested on Windows 10):
Battlefield 3 (runs fine on high ~30 FPS).
Battlefield 4 (25–30 FPS on high, sometimes drops).
Medal of Honor: Warfighter (runs fine on high ~30 FPS).
Minecraft (pirated) (1.16.5 or newer versions, usually 40–60 FPS with Optifine, but drops to 25 FPS because the second FPS value is sometimes 15 FPS or normal 50 FPS and because of that there are freezes, while the first value is always stable).
Roblox (stable in many places on graphics 10, in heavier ones already 2–7 graphics).
The Long Drive (unstable max 20 FPS and that’s because of old AMD graphics, grass is very simplified).
Garry's Mod license (no problems here (only when there are a lot of NPCs)).
Main goal: I want to use Linux ONLY for games (there will be dual boot with Windows 10) and get: maximum possible FPS, fewer freezes and stutters, smoother gameplay, stable work through Proton/Wine, minimal CPU load, efficient HDD usage.
What is NOT important for me: system appearance, nice animations, “modern UI”.
What is important: pure performance, maximum FPS in games and system and game stability.
What I have already considered (Gaming distros):
CachyOS (they say maximum FPS due to optimizations (but I don’t know if it works the same on a weak laptop)), Nobara (Fedora with fixes for gaming), Bazzite (something like SteamOS) and Pop!_OS (convenient and with drivers).
Lightweight:
Linux Mint (XFCE / MATE), Xubuntu / Lubuntu, Debian (minimal) and Arch Linux (complex as I understood).
My doubts: Gaming distros may be heavy, optimizations may NOT work on an old CPU, old AMD GPU = possible driver issues, HDD may kill all performance, Proton may reduce FPS.
Very important questions:
Which distro will give MAXIMUM FPS? (specifically please and why for my hardware).
CachyOS — really the best or a myth?
Does it give +FPS on an old CPU?
Or is it only relevant for newer Ryzen/Intel?
And does it give +FPS on old AMD graphics or only on newer GPUs?
Lightweight or gaming distro?
What is better: minimalism (Debian / Arch + LXDE).
or
ready gaming (Nobara / Bazzite/CachyOS)
How important is DE (desktop environment)?
For example: Cinnamon or XFCE or LXDE is there a real difference in FPS?
Game compatibility through Proton/Wine:
Especially important: Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter.
Will there be: lags, bugs or launch problems? (important that they are pirated not official licensed).
Switchable Graphics (Intel + AMD).
The most difficult question:
Does this even work on Linux?
Is it possible: to use only AMD in games?
Is it needed: PRIME or DRI_PRIME?
Or easier:
Disable somehow Intel graphics and play only on AMD graphics if Enduro?
FPS: Linux or Windows:
Is there a chance to get +FPS?
Or at least: fewer freezes and more stable frame time?
HDD on Linux:
Will Linux be faster than Windows on HDD? Or almost no difference?
How difficult is setup?
Is there install and play?
Or is it necessary: to configure Proton, tweak the system, and install kernels?
(if it’s not hard for you please explain at least the most important things to start gaming on Linux and make the most important settings).
Temperatures:
Will the laptop after switching be: cooler or the same?
Dual Boot:
Are there problems installing next to Windows 10?
Can something break?
Additional info:
I am new to Linux but ready to learn and I want a stable system and I use the laptop mostly for gaming.
I am looking for an ideal Linux distro for a weak laptop that:
will give maximum FPS in games, will be stable, will not heavily load the system, will run games properly and be very performance oriented.
Even if it is complex I am ready for it to get the result.
I would be very grateful for:
a specific choice (1–2 distros), explanation why exactly it and setup tips. And if someone had experience with similar hardware please write, this is especially important for me.

 

[KGIII]

I want to try switching to Linux purely for gaming and maximum FPS, but I have a very old and weak laptop, so I’m afraid of making the wrong choice of distro.

Linux doesn't magically make your hardware better. It can run fewer resources, but it's still going to be limited.

(I figured I'd temper your expectations.)

 

[CaffeineAddict]

What is NOT important for me: system appearance, nice animations, “modern UI”.
What is important: pure performance, maximum FPS in games and system and game stability.

That's what I care about too when it comes to gaming, so my choice is Debian.
I also take care to install the most recent driver for my GPU.

This is all that's needed, the rest is about getting better hardware.

Those games you listed, you meet minimum hardware requirements, however I personally aim for recommended requirements, minimum has proven to be insufficient.

 

[kibasnowpaw]

I can tell you from experience with old hardware: unless you use an old distro, a very stripped-down distro, or something made for weak machines, no normal modern distro is going to magically work well on that.

I have an old ASUS M70S / M70Series laptop with a Core 2 Duo T5750, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470, 4 GB RAM, two hard drives, and it originally came with Windows Vista. I put MX Linux on it because MX was the best one I found for that kind of old machine, and even MX feels heavy on it. Not unusable, but heavy. Firefox alone can destroy it. Four tabs open and there is basically no RAM left. So yes, Linux can be lighter than Windows, but modern web, modern apps, Steam, Proton, browsers, launchers, and games are not light anymore.

Your laptop is stronger than mine in some ways, especially because you have 8 GB RAM instead of 4 GB. That helps a lot. RAM is one of the biggest problems on my old ASUS. But your CPU is still only 2 cores / 2 threads, Sandy Bridge era, and your storage is still an HDD. That is going to hurt no matter what distro you pick.

I would not look at CachyOS, Nobara, Bazzite, or Pop!_OS as magic FPS buttons for that laptop. They are made for gaming, yes, but mostly for hardware that can actually benefit from newer kernels, newer Mesa, Vulkan, scheduler tweaks, and modern GPUs. On a weak old CPU and old switchable graphics, most of that is not going to turn 25 FPS into 60 FPS. The bottleneck is the hardware, not the distro name.

CachyOS might give some people better FPS on modern Ryzen/Intel systems and newer AMD/Nvidia GPUs, but on a Pentium B960 and Radeon HD 8570M, I would not expect miracles. At best, it might feel a bit snappier. At worst, it gives you more complexity and more things to troubleshoot. Same with Nobara. Good gaming distro, but not what I would choose for a 2013 weak laptop with BIOS boot, HDD, and old hybrid graphics. Bazzite is even less what I would pick here. It is more SteamOS-like and modern. I would not put that on this hardware expecting “maximum FPS.”

For that machine, I would go the boring route: MX Linux XFCE or MX Linux Fluxbox, antiX, Debian minimal with XFCE/LXDE, or maybe Xubuntu/Lubuntu if you want Ubuntu-based. Not because they are cool gaming distros, but because they stay out of the way. On this hardware, lightweight matters more than gaming branding.

The biggest issue is the GPU situation. Intel HD 2000 is basically useless for modern Proton gaming because it has no proper Vulkan path for what Proton/DXVK normally wants. Your AMD Radeon HD 8570M is the only real hope, but that is old GCN 1.0 / Oland-era hardware, and old AMD hybrid graphics can be annoying on Linux. It may work with DRI_PRIME, but it may also need the right driver stack, and some distros may default to the older radeon driver instead of AMDGPU. If Vulkan does not work properly on the AMD chip, Proton gaming will be rough.

So when people ask “which distro gives max FPS,” I think that is the wrong question. The real question is: which distro gives you the least overhead while still giving you a working Mesa/AMDGPU/RADV setup for that old AMD GPU?

The desktop environment matters, but not in the way people think. XFCE, LXDE, LXQt, Fluxbox, Openbox, IceWM those can help because they use less RAM and less CPU while idle. Cinnamon, GNOME, and heavy KDE setups are not what I would pick here. But once the game is running, the DE is not going to magically add 20 FPS. It mostly helps with RAM use, background load, and stutter on a weak machine. On an HDD, fewer background services also matters because random disk activity can cause freezes.

The HDD is another big problem. Linux can feel faster than Windows 10 on an HDD because Windows 10 loves background tasks, updates, indexing, Defender scans, telemetry, and random disk usage. But games still load from the same slow drive. If you want the biggest real-world upgrade, an SSD will probably help more than changing from one Linux distro to another. It may not increase FPS much, but it can reduce loading times, hitching, and the whole “the system is dying because the disk is at 100%” feeling.

For Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Medal of Honor: Warfighter, I would not promise anything. Proton compatibility depends on the exact version, launchers, dependencies, anti-cheat, DirectX translation, and whether the game is legit or pirated. The pirated part makes it even harder to answer because normal ProtonDB reports and Steam fixes usually assume proper Steam/EA versions. A cracked copy can fail for reasons that have nothing to do with Linux itself.

Roblox is also not something I would count on cleanly under Linux. Roblox has been a mess on Linux for a long time because of their anti-cheat/platform decisions. So if Roblox matters a lot, Windows may still be the safer side.

If I were trying this, I would not wipe Windows. I would dual boot, install a lightweight distro, test the AMD GPU first, check if Vulkan works, then test one game at a time. Do not install 20 tweaks and 5 custom kernels at once. That just makes it impossible to know what broke what. Start simple. Lightweight distro, Steam/Lutris/Heroic if needed, Mesa drivers, check DRI_PRIME/AMD GPU usage, then test.

Temperature is hard to predict. Linux might run cooler at idle if it has less junk running, but hybrid graphics can also go wrong and keep the AMD GPU awake, making it hotter. So do not assume cooler. Check it.

Dual boot on old BIOS machines can work fine, but back up first. Old BIOS/MBR installs are not hard, but one wrong partition choice can still ruin your Windows install. Do not click through the installer half asleep.

My honest take: if you want maximum chance of success, try MX Linux XFCE or Fluxbox first. If that is still too heavy, try antiX. If you want to learn more and strip it down harder, Debian minimal with LXDE/Openbox or something similar. I would not start with CachyOS/Nobara/Bazzite on that laptop.

And if anyone knows a real old-school distro that is still usable today on a 2-core CPU and very weak old GPU, I would love to know too, because I am still looking myself. MX Linux is the best I found so far, and even that is not “light” once modern Firefox and modern software enter the room.

 

[Mike-BTU]

Linux doesn't magically make your hardware better. It can run fewer resources, but it's still going to be limited.

Sure, but it'll certainly be faster than Windows.

 

[piorunz]

In this particular case, Linux may be using fewer resources while in use, not necessarily better or faster at gaming - that's because hardware is old and there's little to gain. Wine/Proton comes with their own overhead.

 

[deb_user]

The distro is just the user interface. The Linux kernel is the same for every distro, assuming the same kernel version. For what you want, the distro really doesn't matter at all, any should do. The desktop environment (Gnome, KDE Plasma, XFCE, Cinnamon, or whatever) can certainly make a difference because of resource use. I would recommend XFCE, because it's one of the lightest in terms of resource use. Any distro at all with XFCE as the DE should be about as good as you will get.

 

[KGIII]

Sure, but it'll certainly be faster than Windows.

I'll mark that as 'mostly true'. After all, it depends on what they do with it.

 

[pelmeni]

Okay, thank you all. I really don't know anything about Linux, but you gave me something that now I understand that it's best to stay on Windows 10.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

If you can, just make sure to keep it as lean as you can on win10. I'd go to staples and get a SSD for cheap, and move windows. that should at least take a little off the background tasks if you do stick with it. Just make sure to transfer all you need from it if you do. You can also then try on a dual boot, so you'd get the gist of what your up for if you still want to try.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

but you gave me something that now I understand that it's best to stay on Windows 10.

No. you got it wrong.
You need to experiment and see for yourself, play some games on Linux and make a judgement.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

No. you got it wrong.
You need to experiment and see for yourself, play some games on Linux and make a judgement.

It's the only way to know for sure if you'd be alright with it.

 

[wendy-lebaron]

to the op.

you have more ram than i do, and the hard disk space is ok. but two-core cpu doesn't cut it anymore. i can't ascertain from the specifications given. if the computer has gpu. because it would improve things somewhat. "normalo"?

it depends on the game you want to play. i had been using rigs of rods "anylinux" appimage. for most purposes on my computer. which has basically the same cpu as yours. i could have 12 fps. don't laugh, this is with a lot of visual effects disabled. with a lot of screen elements it could drop to six. i played around a bit toward 16 fps. it was ok but felt it could do better. but there was an even bigger problem. because my computer has "only" 4gb ram. that program began thrashing the internal disk quite a bit. which is no good at all for a typical game with 3d animation.

again, it depends on what you consider a game. if you're willing to play only things that look like 3d mmorpg. they're pretty much off limits. require too much computerized horsepower. but it should be able to handle most "two-dee" games. such as something graphical based on "rogue." in other words, turn-based adventure and role-playing games. pretty much anything that could be used in dosbox-x. or maybe provided individually which required windows95/98 or maybe windowsxp. which doesn't rely on mesh, texture, camera etc. should be fine for your computer.

i might or might not know what i'm saying. because i don't use computers primarily to play games.

 

[amalxloop]

Linux doesn't magically make your hardware better. It can run fewer resources, but it's still going to be limited.

(I figured I'd temper your expectations.)

Sure, but it'll certainly be faster than Windows. imo