So I am new to Linux and have made it my main driver in the last month. So far I have been able to solve problems as they come up and I have not had major problems.

What I need from my machine is a platform to do my mechanical engineering homework, do some hobby programming, and play video games on it. I have been able to get things working for my needs on the first two accounts. I need help setting my computer up for games now.

My problem is quite a few games I have tried to play slow to a crawl then freeze my entire system. I have checked the protondb website and on games I am having problems with people often are saying that with proton it works out of the box, sometimes even when they are using similar setups as I am. I use an NVIDIA graphics card, which I know is part of the problem, but don’t have the money or means to buy a new graphics card that is comparable for the next while. My drivers are updated and most things “should” work but maybe I am missing some basic setup somewhere to help proton, and steam do their thing. I am willing to go so far as changing my distribution but am stuck right now with the hardware. Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!