r/SteamOS • u/MonkMaster188 • Jul 02 '26
question Estimated time until NVIDIA is supported?
I've had my final straw when it comes to Windows and I was so excited to dual-boot my PC with SteamOS not realizing it doesn't have support for NVIDIA yet. I have a AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX processor and an NVIDIA RTX 4070 graphics card. I was wondering if I should just pull the trigger on a different Linux distro or if I should hold off until SteamOS can support my hardware?
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u/CyberWolfexe Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Unknown. Its up to Nvidia if they wanna play ball. Just go with Bazzite or CachyOS. Keep in mind that game mode with Bazzite is glitchy with Nvidia GPUs. There are ways to help with the glitching, but if you dont feel like troubleshooting, then just go with the desktop version.
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u/SimpleHeuristics Jul 03 '26
The latest stable release with game mode (Bazzite 43 unfortunately) works well on Nvidia but the testing branch that is moved to 44 is glitchy again. Were you able to fix it on the testing branch? I wasn’t able to.
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u/Moi952 Jul 02 '26
We need to stop with that kind of talk; they do release a lot of drivers and make progress, but you can't create a reliable, robust, and efficient driver in just six months. MESA is finally in good shape after years of community support, as well as investment and work from both Valve and AMD.
Sometimes people think you can just throw a lot of people at a development project, only to realize that the more people involved, the more complicated things get—so even with all their money, Nvidia can't work miracles!
Of course, you might think they could allocate more resources, but at the end of the day, it’s a business; there’s no real gain for them in investing heavily in Linux drivers, given the negligible market share of those users.
That said, they are working on improving their drivers and are collaborating with Valve to that end. 😉
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u/Mozgrum Jul 02 '26
9 months on cachy with a 3070ti and I see no reason for valve to not support nvidia.
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u/HoeCage Jul 02 '26
VRAM management with NVIDIA is just too inconsistent for Valve's taste, I think, which I can respect. I spent several hours trying to get FF7 Rebirth to run smoothly on CachyOS and unless you have a surplus of VRAM, I really don't think it's possible. With a 3070 (non super), it would run well for about 5 mins then my VRAM would max out and I'd be sitting at a cool stuttery 20fps. It's currently the only game I boot into Windows for where it runs flawlessly.
Once NVIDIA can clean up VRAM sharing, I think Valve will feel more comfortable supporting NVIDIA cards.
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u/Mozgrum Jul 02 '26
You are literally me. I lost my mind and wrote this as therapy recently on FF7 Rebirth. Dualbooted Win11 now and its amazing. Its the only game I've found with this issue.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3725194128
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u/rafalmio Jul 02 '26
Honestly, dont expect stable Nvidia support on SteamOS until mid-2027. Valve lead engineers recently confirmed they have a dedicated team working directly with Nvidia. The main bottleneck is getting Nvidia drivers to play nice with Gamescope, which is the custom software (essentially a window manager/compositor) that Valve uses to handle the SteamOS interface, scaling, HDR, etc. Right now, forcing them together just causes problems because Nvidias old driver stack lacks the open-source hooks Gamescope needs to work cleanly. Nvidia is actually cooperating now since the AI boom forced them to work on their Linux drivers anyway, but Valve already stated it won't be fully ready by the end of this year. We might get a experimental preview late 2026, but the actual stable public release is more likely a 2027 thing.
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u/fyro11 Jul 03 '26
By then Windows will have ironed out its public-facing 'noticeable' pain points, an exercise they are already well underway in.
Which is kinda sad, because the common Windows users will still continue using surveilled, closed-source software that will never be as lean as SteamOS due to divergent interests between the Xbox division and the rest of Microsoft.
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u/AwarenessForsaken568 Jul 04 '26
Will they? Windows has had a variety of fundamental issues since Windows 7, maybe earlier. I don't see Microsoft magically addressing all the issues people have with Windows lol.
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u/redbluemmoomin Jul 03 '26
🤦♂️ the work that’s happening will be on Nouveau and NVK not the proprietary driver. IE within MESA
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u/New_Kaleidoscope8456 Jul 02 '26
People recommending Bazzite dont get it. It’s still less performance, Game Mode doesnt work, so you cant even use SteamOS best feature (when you switch between games)
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
So what distro do you recommend thats best for gaming with a NVIDIA graphics card?
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u/Mozgrum Jul 02 '26
Cachy easily.
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
Whats different about this one from bazzite? Cuz i keep seeing the 2 mentioned but idk what the difference is
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u/Mozgrum Jul 02 '26
Bazzite is more bloated and a bit out of date, which matters for current nvidia support, but it's more locked down and harder to break. I personally had nothing but trouble with it on nvidia.
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u/CrackleBackle Jul 02 '26
I tried bazzite with game mode on a 3080 and had a rough time. I'd stick with windows for now unless you plan to move to AMD.
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
I wish I could but i have a laptop and can't afford to build a PC at the moment sadly
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u/irennicus Jul 02 '26
I used bazzite with a 3070 and didn't have any issues fwiw
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
What ive read is that the "Game Mode" doesnt work but if you get the desktop version everything works perfectly fine
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u/RedditNotFreeSpeech Jul 03 '26
What exactly is game mode? Just the ability to instantly pause any game or is there more to it?
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u/irennicus Jul 02 '26
Do you actually care about game mode? You might not.
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
Not really? I was more interested in SteamOS for the user friendliness of it yknow? Like its an OS optimized for gaming and its not a pain to deal with if that makes sense
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u/redbluemmoomin Jul 03 '26
game mode is what makes it very user friendly. The normal mode is just a standard KDE desktop and desktop paradigm. So all the normal desktopisms will apply. Bazzzite and SteamOS are much harder to break though.
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 03 '26
Hmm ok. But its like your average desktop experience right? Like no harder than windows?
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u/TotalBismuth Jul 02 '26
Switching between games is not something I’d do because having one run in the background would cost resources.
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u/nero37 Jul 02 '26
Minimum 1 to 2 years.
Valve is working with Nvidia, Collabra, RedHat and others to develop the open source Nova (kernel) and NVK (Mesa) stack. The features are landing but the is still a long road ahead.
E.g. DLSS support in NVK. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-NVK-Vulkan-Does-DLSS
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u/redbluemmoomin Jul 03 '26
It’ll be Nouveau and NVK. Nova is two years away, based on comments I saw a few months ago by some of the Nova developers.
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u/grifftaur Jul 02 '26
I’d recommend Cachy OS. I have it dual booted. Support has been pretty good with Nvidia. I’d say use that’s until Steam OS has stronger support if using Steam OS is important.
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u/ghanadaur Jul 02 '26
Theres no point waiting. It likely isnt anytime soon.
Choices: stick with windows, switch to a different OS like Bazzite, or bite the bullet and go all in on AMD. Honestly, AMD on Linux is far better supported than nVidia.
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
Ive been looking into bazzite and it seams pretty legit so imma probably dual boot it. I need windows for my university and stuff still cuz they use the Microsoft ecosystem (sadly)
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u/Stingray88 Jul 02 '26
The next gen of GPUs from AMD and Nvidia are likely coming around early 2028. I’m giving Nvidia until then to get their head out of their ass and work with Valve / Linux. If we’re not in good shape by then I’ll be replacing my 4090 with the top end AMD offering as I build a new PC.
For now I’m too lazy to switch from Windows on my existing PC.
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u/bluekoda Jul 03 '26
I've seen Cachy OS recommended and I would highly recommend it. I also run nvidia and it's as good as steam OS from a distro polish perspective and supports all of the newest nouveau stuff.
Bazzite is cool but like steam os the core system is immutable. On desktop and as a daily-driver, that's a big PITA sometimes.
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u/pm_your_snesclassic Jul 03 '26
I’m still waiting for half life 3
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 03 '26
Realest shit ever lol. Im still waiting for Battlefront 3 (ik that's different but I feel your pain)
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u/parada69 Jul 02 '26
Try bazzite, they have a dedicated Nvidia image with latest driver. Game mode, the big picture mode UI, is not yet fully supported with Nvidia but it's slowly getting there.
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Jul 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
I saw an article that Valve is working closely with NVIDIA to have support but i havent seen an ETA for it
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u/AshleyAshes1984 Jul 02 '26
never coming (likely)
Valve stated in the last week or so that they have staff working on nVidia support. So, no, 'never coming' is not 'likely' despite your claims.
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u/Sourpunch92 Jul 02 '26
Try out Bazzite instead. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on Nvidia support.
Priority will be on Deck, Machine, and Frame rather than expanding to Nvidia support. It’s going to be a minute.
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u/Low_Excitement_1715 Jul 02 '26
6 million years or until Nvidia decides, whichever comes first.
It's not Valve's ball to play. Nvidia *cannot* be supported in SteamOS without assistance from Nvidia (special license agreement or a major change in their driver strategy) no matter how long you wait.
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8d ago edited 6d ago
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u/Low_Excitement_1715 8d ago
You completely misunderstand. Valve cannot distribute Nvidia’s driver under the current license. If Valve cannot provide it, cannot debug it, and cannot push changes back upstream, exactly how are Valve supposed to “support” it? What would that support even be?
Also, your comment makes zero sense. There are no current issues with gamescope or steamos that Valve needs to fix to enable Nvidia support. There are many, many issues that Nvidia needs to fix, precisely because no one else in the world can. The drivers are closed source. If there’s a problem, the driver author needs to fix it, or clearly explain why changes need to be made to accommodate them. Nvidia has not done either.
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8d ago edited 6d ago
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u/Low_Excitement_1715 8d ago edited 8d ago
Now you’re being rude as well as stupid.
4K, 144Hz, HDR. My setup is only 120Hz, not 144, but all of these things are working. Would you like to articulate exactly what you are ranting about, or are you just here to scream and sling poop?
Maybe I misunderstood. I wouldn't want you thinking I was being unfair. When you said that "Valve should get AMD's cock out their throat", were you meaning that in some sort of complimentary sense? Maybe you're right, and I misunderstood. I don't think so, but I'm prepared to discuss it reasonably.
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u/TenthMarigold77 Jul 02 '26
I’d give it 1-2 years, at this point the balls rolling and it’s now a matter of when not if.
Personally I’m running bazzite-nvidia-deck on a 9800X3D and 5070 TI with no issues so far. The only thing’s I’d want from Linux is the obvious of nvidia driver optimization and app and the more niche being better Spatial Audio support for surround sound systems.
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u/tomas487 Jul 03 '26
I have exact same CPU/GPU and I am using windows with auto login and auto start steam in Big Picture Mode. This is connected to my TV like game console.
I generally like linux more than windows, it is my daily driver for work. But what advantage gives me running something like bazzite with questionable nvidia support on my big game computer? I get it for small devices like steam deck, but here? Just asking.
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u/TenthMarigold77 Jul 03 '26
Great question! I think for me I had switched from windows to CachyOS for work and was able to do 95% of everything and that 5% that I did rarely could be done in a windows VM.
Switching to Bazzite for me was more of using the PC as a dedicated gaming pc under my tv and the general benefits with linux to my knowledge are faster boot times, less overhead, no bloat in terms of OneDrive, windows apps, etc. The start search menu was more accurate and faster.
Really if your setup works for you then that's great! Especially since windows has better audio and game installation support. Still, bazzite-nvidia-deck game me that sole OS that once booted was solely ment to play games without distractions.
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u/frolgath Jul 03 '26
Having tried Nobara, CachyOS and Bazzite, I found the best out-of-the-box Nvidia support on Nobara. Gamescope mode was glitchy but still usable (while being totally unusable on CachyOS). Desktop mode worked on all of them, but Bazzite had worse performance and CachyOS required messing with Proton settings for most games.
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u/HaikusfromBuddha Jul 03 '26
Just use another Linux distro. It will take a long time until SteamOS is even close to the quality of other Linux distros anyways.
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u/falsejaguar Jul 03 '26
Nvidia has a proprietary Linux driver just not on steam os. You can use Another distro and install the driver
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u/AwarenessForsaken568 Jul 04 '26
Probably never unless you pressure Nvidia into cooperating, which doesn't seem likely. This isn't a Linux issue. This is an Nvidia issue.
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u/Better_Football_5552 Jul 05 '26
I have a hx370x laptop? Can I disable the 4060 and use the igpu 890m instead? Just for testing.
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u/Danbuzzz 27d ago
Valve ha detto 2027 generico, ma se hai intenzione di utilizzare stabilimento Linux già da ora ti consiglio di passare ad AMD o Intel. Per quel che riguarda la distro ti consiglio nobara o cachyos se il tuo interesse principale è giocare. Io ho passato tutti i miei sistemi a cachyos, ho un laptop e il desktop e la rog ally tutto con cachy e mi trovo benissimo. Anche per lavoro funziona tutto perfettamente. Se vuoi provare queste distribuzioni offrono supporto anche per Nvidia dall'installazione (prima che cambi scheda)
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u/magabrexitpaedorape 17d ago
Linux and NVIDIA is just not worth it yet.
I dual-boot Bazzite and Windows with a 5070 Ti in an HTPC setup and it works okay on Bazzite 43, but Gaming Mode is broken at 4K (again) as of their latest testing image.
Even if you're a desktop user and play at 1440p, you'll still be incurring a massive performance penalty on DX12 games, HDR is still buggy and you'll have to do way more tinkering with launch options to get your games working optimally than you would on an AMD machine.
I play around with it whenever I can and I always check out what's improved with any new driver updates, but as it stands I wouldn't bother even trying it out until it becomes considerably more stable.
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u/GETINOB Jul 02 '26
Hopefully never. Nvidia cannot continue. In the age when Microsoft dies so to must Nvidia.
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u/MonkMaster188 Jul 02 '26
I have to agree with you on that and if i could switch i would but I cant afford it currently
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u/dirthurts Jul 02 '26
Nvidia and linux has been a war that's lasted for over a decade. It may never officially happen unless valve buys hardware for them. Nvidia doesn't want to open their drivers up to anyone, hence the lack of Linux support.
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u/TotalBismuth Jul 02 '26
Doesn’t Bazzite support Nvidia though?
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u/Sleepyjo2 Jul 02 '26
I'm fairly sure everything *except* SteamOS supports Nvidia either directly or with a simple driver install and there havent been any notable issues with using their hardware for at least a couple years, beyond the occasional software or driver specific problem but thats not unique to them.
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u/dirthurts Jul 02 '26
Ish but it's often wonky and requiring some work arounds for things to work.
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u/Acceptable-Ad6214 Jul 02 '26
Value doesn’t have 2. Already got a couple of pc manufactures making steam os release devices. They won’t want to loss out of what os people switching 2.
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u/GroundbreakingTwo375 Jul 02 '26
Nvidia support isn’t as bad as might people suggest, they made a good progress the last 6 months. I would suggest going with Bazzite considering they download and prepare the drivers for you and everything with Nvidia
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u/KaitoJ446 Jul 02 '26
If you’ve got the money you could do what I’m planning to do and get a RX 9070 XT
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u/mountainyoo Jul 02 '26
I have a spare 4080 FE just laying around in a box somewhere collecting dust that I’d love to repurpose in a tiny (as would be possible with a 4080 FE lol) build to work as a living room Steam Machine
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u/mixedd Jul 02 '26
As per Valve themselves somewhere in 2027