I am looking to build a Linux gaming machine with open source firmware and Intel ME disabled. Is this viable?

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
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    5 days ago

    The BIOS does a lot less than you’d expect, it doesn’t really have an impact on gaming performance. For what it’s worth, I’ve been gaming in a VM for years, and it uses the TianoCore/OVMF/EDK2 firmware, and no issues. Once Linux is booted, it doesn’t really matter all that much. You’re not even allowed to use firmware services after the OS is booted, it’s only meant for bootloaders or simple applications. As long as all the hardware is initialized and configured properly it shouldn’t matter.

    • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      I’ve been gaming in a VM for years

      Tell us more about your setup! I’m assuming you have 2 GPUs and are passing one to the VM for Windows gaming? Is it even worth doing nowadays now that Kernel AC games are banning VMs anyway?

      • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
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        5 days ago

        Yes dual GPU. I set that up like 6 years ago, so its use changed over time. It used to be Windows but now it’s another Linux VM.

        The reason I still use it is it serves as a second seat and is very convenient at that. The GPU’s output is connected to the TV, so the TV gets its own dedicated and independent OS. So my wife can use it when I’m not. When the VM isn’t running I use the card as a render offload, so games get the full power of the better card as well.

        I also use it for toying with macOS and Windows because both of those are basically unusable without some form of 3D acceleration. For Windows I use Looking Glass which makes it feel pretty native performance. I don’t play games in it anymore but I still need to run Visual Studio to build the Windows exes for some projects.

        This week I also used the second card to test out stuff on Bazzite because one if my friends finally made the switch and I need to be able to test things out in it as I have no removeding clue how uBlue works.