Hi everyone!
I’m a Playstation gamer looking into moving to Linux gaming as the next Playstation might not be able to play physical games.
Here are my 2 computers:
MacBook Pro 2012 (upgraded) with Fedora 41
Surface Go 1 with Fedora 41
I bought Frostpunk on Steam after checking on Proton DB that it would normally run on the MacBook as I knew the Surface Go would probably be way too weak.
According to Proton DB it’s a Gold game.
In the end, no matter what version of Proton I use, it doesn’t launch on the MacBook. I have a black screen, some icy sounds and then it crashes at best..
I then thought, let’s give it a try on the Surface Go and it launched immediately without any tinkering using Proton experimental.
But, the game crashes when the firat cinematic starts, probably because it’s loading too many assets for the Surface.
If anyone has an idea about what to try too many get it working on the MacBook, I would be thankful.
In the meantime, I would want to know, how do you know if a game is gonna run on your machine?
I've run it without issues, on a much newer system.
I don't know why it wouldn't run at all, but as you point out, you're running it on a pair of pretty low-end systems. One is from six years prior to the game's release without discrete video, and the other came out in the same year, but is a very low-end system with no discrete video card; those things aren't really aimed at playing 3d games. I don't think that you'd likely be happy with performance even if it ran.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190/Frostpunk/
Windows:
Mac:
My experience is that minimum requirements tend to be kind of optimistic.
The minimum system requirements specify a discrete video card.
You've got an 8GB RAM Surface Go with a non-discrete GPU and no VRAM, and a 16GB RAM Macbook also with a non-discrete GPU that had been around for six years prior to the game's release.
I've never returned a game, but IIRC Steam does have a refund policy for a short period of time after purchase, so if you buy a game and it doesn't run, you can refund it.
goes looking
https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/
EDIT: Here's a Passmark comparison of your two Intel integrated video things and the lowest-end video card they list in their system requirements, a Geforce GTX 660. This gives a score to give a rough idea of how they'd compare in relative terms:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/2152vs2vs3593/GeForce-GTX-660-vs-Intel-HD-4000-vs-Intel-HD-615
GeForce GTX 660: 4013
Intel HD 4000: 348
Intel HD 615: 705
I mean, you might get it running, but I'm skeptical that you'd have a good experience with it.
EDIT2:
Their "recommended" card is a GeForce GTX 970. Adding that:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/2152vs2vs3593vs2954/GeForce-GTX-660-vs-Intel-HD-4000-vs-Intel-HD-615-vs-GeForce-GTX-970
GeForce GTX 970: 9634
EDIT3: Hmm. I've never really thought about it, but you'd think that Valve could get minimum requirements plonked into a database, and then have the Steam client, which can see your hardware -- assuming that you're shopping from the Steam client -- warn you on the game page if your system doesn't meet them.
Thanks for the precise and detailed answer.
Yeah I guess I clearly have to give up on playing games less than 10 years old, even on the more powerful MacBook.
FWIW I think the Surface is the more powerful machine.
I wouldn't bother with any 3D AAA that came out after ~2010 on the Mac and even then you're looking at 720p 30FPS
The Surface looks like it might be a solid light indie game machine. I doubt it'll struggle too much with anything 2D and may even be able to run late PS3/super early PS4 era (before 2015) 3D games at reasonable framerates.
I guess I clearly overstimated the graphical power of the MacBook because it feels so snappy for admin work. The Surface too, but a fraction slower.
If I want to get into Linux gaming, I’ll have to work on my benchmarking skills😅
That extra 8GB of RAM is probably doing a lot of the heavy lifting to make general use smoother. More RAM = less swapping to the drive when memory fills up (which on 8GB means ~5 tabs in a browser before it starts slowing down haha).