I recently spent some time with the Framework 13 laptop, evaluating it with the new Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and the AMD Ryzen 7 7480U. It felt like the perfect opportunity to test how a handful of games ran on Windows 11 and Fedora 40. I was genuinely surprised by the results!

The Framework 13 is perfectly capable of gaming even with its integrated graphics, provided you’re willing to compromise by lowering the resolution and quality presets for more demanding games. (It’s also a testament to how far AMD’s APUs have come in the past decade.)

Summary of results:

  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Linux wins
  • Total War: Warhammer III: Windows wins
  • Cyberpunk 2077: Linux wins
  • Forza Horizon 5: Windows wins

These results are an interesting slice of the Linux vs Windows gaming picture, but certainly not representative of the entire landscape. A few shorts years ago, however, I never would have dreamed I’d be writing an article where even two games on Linux are outperforming their Windows counterparts.

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  • Vik
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    20 days ago

    Oh right, neat!

    I guess I’m just thinking of a couple games with BE who have not bothered to reach out for this.

    I think EA and Activision also have newish, bespoke anti-cheat for Battlefield and call of duty respectively. I don’t believe either of those work on Linux but I could be mistaken.

    • Cethin
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      220 days ago

      Yeah, it looks like EA’s launcher/anti-cheat explicitly do not allow wine. Oh well. EA hasn’t published an interesting game in many years.

      • Vik
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        220 days ago

        You’re not wrong. I have no idea about the call of duty one either. I’m guessing it similarly doesn’t work.

        It sort of highlights another issue; even though a game technically leverages an AC system that can work in Steam, individual developers may not bother getting it running on Linux.

        I’m no fan of Fortnite, but you can’t deny it’s massively popular. I hope the steam deck sees continued success in order to sway developers. Broadening SteamOS to other HW platforms may also help to an extent.