Recent SteamOS updates have expanded hardware compatibility, and since we already use Bazzite as one of our main operating systems, we asked which one is the better choice for your hardware.
Our test rig
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 8 cores
- 32GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT with 8GB of video memory
- 256GB NVMe SSD
We consider this a proper 1080p 60fps gaming machine with a very SteamOS-friendly graphics card. Thanks to our friend Ninja Death Monk for selling us the graphics card with an external GPU case at a really good price.
Installing SteamOS
Installing SteamOS was our first challenge. Unlike Bazzite, which comes as a traditional Linux ISO, SteamOS comes as an IMG file that’s more like a recovery image for Steam devices, and you can tell that installing it on a custom desktop PC isn’t the main use case.
- The installer is extremely basic, with almost no options. We couldn’t even choose the destination drive, which was a problem because Bazzite was already installed on the machine, so we needed workarounds.
- During initial setup SteamOS wouldn’t use our Ethernet connection, and this motherboard has no built-in Wi-Fi. We had to dig out an old Wi-Fi dongle, which only worked with our travel router. After setup and updates, Ethernet worked normally.
- It didn’t automatically recognise the portable 1TB NVMe drive that holds our Steam library. We fixed that by configuring the drive to mount automatically, although to SteamOS’s credit we had to do something similar on Bazzite.
We checked for another official image or install method and couldn’t find one. If you know a better way to install SteamOS, tell us in the comments. The takeaway: if you try this on a desktop PC, compatible AMD hardware, working Wi-Fi and a dedicated drive make life much easier.
Installing Bazzite
Bazzite was a different story. We downloaded the latest ISO and made the installer with Ventoy. What matters is what happens after booting: Bazzite gives you a proper graphical installer with the options you’d expect, including choosing your installation disk. After SteamOS, the difference was night and day.
We used the desktop version because we use this PC for more than gaming. If you want something closer to the console-style SteamOS experience, Bazzite also offers a version built around Steam Game Mode. Installation is clearly a win for Bazzite.
Gaming performance
On Bazzite we played Resident Evil 4 at 1080p targeting 60 FPS with mostly high settings, and it stayed around 60 FPS. We also tested Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Like a Dragon, RoboCop and Resident Evil 2, and the experience was very similar. The Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark averaged 132 FPS.
On SteamOS, the same benchmark in Game Mode was capped at 60 FPS, because Game Mode limited the frame rate to our monitor’s 60Hz refresh rate. In Desktop Mode, without that limit, we got pretty much the same results as Bazzite. Under comparable conditions we didn’t find a meaningful performance difference between the two on our hardware.
One small difference is monitoring. SteamOS has its performance overlay built into Game Mode, while on desktop Bazzite the more detailed MangoHud overlay needed extra per-game configuration. It’s not a huge deal, but SteamOS is more convenient here.
The desktop experience
SteamOS Desktop Mode is KDE Plasma 6.4.3 on Wayland, running on Arch Linux. It’s bare-bones, with just a few necessary apps. You can install more, but the desktop clearly isn’t the main focus. Resource use is excellent: around 2GB of RAM at idle in our testing.
Desktop Bazzite is very different. It’s built on Fedora Atomic and uses image-based updates: instead of updating the core system package by package, updates are deployed as complete images, and if something goes wrong you can roll back to a previous deployment. It used about 5GB of RAM in our testing, but you get a much more complete desktop. Bazzite also includes gaming tools and quality-of-life extras such as Lutris for games outside Steam, ProtonPlus for managing community Proton versions and the Bazaar app store.
Verdict
SteamOS feels like a console operating system that also happens to have a desktop. Bazzite feels like a complete Linux desktop that can also behave like a console. For us Bazzite is the clear winner on installation, flexibility and desktop completeness, while on gaming performance neither wins.
Valve keeps expanding SteamOS support for desktop PCs, and once we got it installed and configured the gaming experience was excellent. But right now Bazzite is simply easier for us to recommend for a custom gaming PC. And if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, Bazzite is your only practical choice between the two, at least for the foreseeable future.
