Returning to Linux and Linux Gaming after a few months but having mixed experiences with Debian based distros What should I consider when choosing a distro to run modern games?

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The original was posted on /r/linux_gaming by /u/Purple-Pollution16 on 2025-04-24 19:10:36+00:00.

Hey all, I had to hop off Linux for some time partly due to a faulty secondary SSD and also needed to use Windows for some time for a project I was helping some friends with. Since I only had one SSD at the time I just decided to return to Linux at a later date.

I last left off mostly distro hopping to test out different distros and their offerings. This time around I decided to just start with Ubuntu 24.04 and move from there. I moved away almost immediately because the gaming performance was really bad. I use Steam exclusively and was using the deb package from the Steam website not the system package nor the snap.

I switched to the point release of Ubuntu which was 24.10 (25.04 was just a few weeks away from release at this point) and everything worked perfectly but I was having issues with gnome and wallpaper slideshows; long story short each time the wallpaper changed, I’d get a huge system wide stutter and it was getting annoying

Then I moved to Mint and to my surprise despite the fact that its base off of Ubuntu 24.04, it ran games really well. Not sure if my first installation of 24.04 was just a one off and was having issues. I was using steams deb package here as well

Moved to Debian from there mainly because I’m more of a stock experience type of person and don’t like too many things being added on top of my OS. I installed it with KDE plasma and despite being older than 24.04 it actually ran games better but not great.

What should I be taking into consideration when picking out a disro if I’m also looking to play current games. I’m assuming at least a relatively up to date kernel and nvidia drivers. Any distros worth checking out? Appreciate advice and suggestions :)

EDIT: forgot to mention that I’m not looking specifically for a gaming distro since I’ll be doing other things in this computer. Just looking for general recomendations. And if possible I’d like to stick to KDE plasma

EDIT2: forgot to mention that I’d also consider myself moderately tech savvy in case that helps with what you suggest

EDIT3: As someone suggested on their reply here’s some more info that might be helpful: I run a Ryzen 9 5900x and an RTX 3080Ti and the purpose in this case is gaming. I’ll be using the computer for other things but from my initial distro hopping experience before leaving Linux everything else worked just fine. As far as a DIY system or preconfigured out of the box, I think I’d lean more towards DIY since I did mention I prefer a more stock experience but really I’m open to any suggestions if Bazzite ends up working best for me then Bazzite is what I’ll stick with

EDIT4: thank you all for your suggestions. I got way more recommendations than I expected. I tallied them up based on explicit recommendations and any distros that y’all noted as working well for you and it looks like Fedora is the winner so I’ll start there :)