Question Budget graphics card advice (AMD)

[SteamRPGGamer]

I have a PC running Linux Mint with the following spec -

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Storage : NVMe
RAM: 16GB

I was expecting a little more out of the integrated graphics than it delivers, so I'm looking for a graphics card to give me a bit of gaming capability. But it's complicated by the fact that I'm on a bit of a budget and shopping simply by price at the moment is difficult to due price gouging.

So hoping for some advice. I use Linux and don't particularly want to use proprietary drivers so AMD Radeon is preferred. Budget wise for me £100 would be ideal - £200 would be absolute limit and I'd rather not go anywhere near that. I mainly play Steam games - the PC can cope with some of the low-spec top down/platform indi games I enjoy but I'd also quite like to try some 3D games. Seems like every time I try a 3D game on this rig it's just unplayable but I'm not looking to achieve the ultra settings - just something playable for some 3D games or the slightly bigger games.

I have a 4K monitor running 3840x2160@60.

Any advice taking into account current prices and availability? Many thanks.

 

[Nine Layer Nige]

I expect trying gaming at 4K is going to be tough going on any GPU especially integrated graphics. Maybe 1080p med/low settings ?
If you want to cheapy GPU (considering the current inflated prices) consider maybe an RX570 or RX 580 on the used market. It still wont be any good at 4K mind but probably better than iGPU.

 

[SteamRPGGamer]

I expect trying gaming at 4K is going to be tough going on any GPU especially integrated graphics. Maybe 1080p med/low settings ?
If you want to cheapy GPU (considering the current inflated prices) consider maybe an RX570 or RX 580 on the used market. It still wont be any good at 4K mind but probably better than iGPU.

You know what, I hadn't considered the demands that 4K was making on the framerate. I dropped the resolution down to 1920x1080@60 and it is now much closer to meeting all of my expectations. Thanks for the recommendations too.

 

[Krotow]

Games made only for Windows, under Wine/Proton will run like 15-35% slower due to emulation of some Windows functionality. Been there, did that. It is improving, but still have huge room for improvement. In short - to play graphic resource demanding games on Linux, get the best possible GPU you can get. For iGPU 1080p resolution seems sane maximum. Tried on RTX 2060 Super, on 1440p very demanding games already become a bit like slideshow, still ok on 1080p. 4K with good frame rate seems possible only for games with native Linux binaries which between popular titles are still rare.

 

[SteamRPGGamer]

Games made only for Windows, under Wine/Proton will run like 15-35% slower due to emulation of some Windows functionality. Been there, did that. It is improving, but still have huge room for improvement. In short - to play graphic resource demanding games on Linux, get the best possible GPU you can get. For iGPU 1080p resolution seems sane maximum. Tried on RTX 2060 Super, on 1440p very demanding games already become a bit like slideshow, still ok on 1080p. 4K with good frame rate seems possible only for games with native Linux binaries which between popular titles are still rare.

Thanks, that's very useful insight. Yes - I'm playing a lot of my games via Proton. The fact that it works so well out of the box is superb but it's useful to be aware of the overhead.

 

[Krotow]

Thanks, that's very useful insight. Yes - I'm playing a lot of my games via Proton. The fact that it works so well out of the box is superb but it's useful to be aware of the overhead.

Proton is awesome and become even better, thanks to ongoing development for Steam Deck support. Still Windows only games without Steam certification for Linux are mixed bag. Some wins due to subtle DLSS support - found it working on Doom Eternal and Mass Effect Andromeda (dunno about FSR though, I don' t have AMD card). Some have impaired Linux binaries, but works better from Windows binaries under Proton - tested with We Happy Few and The Outer Worlds. Still there are no miracles. Linux may run some background things faster than Windows, but GPU and storage performance directly depends from hardware itself.