I got a new computer a couple weeks ago, with a 5070, and installed ubuntu on it and it was incredibly slow. I looked online and found some claim that 24.04 has some incompatability with nvidia, tried installing a bunch of different driver versions and nothing helped, tried turning everything off in gnome tweaks and still slow, tried installing 26.04 and 22.04 but the installer hangs forever in both, tried linux mint 24.04 still slow, gave up and installed windows with WSL :/
What was slow?
I'm running Ubuntu on a 9950x3d and 5090 and it is not slow. Games in Steam with Proton are buttery smooth.
One hiccup was I had to disable variable refresh rate because moving the cursor didn't "count" as a reason to update the screen, so moving the cursor on its own (rather than e.g. moving a window) looked choppy.
But a choppy mouse cursor isn't "slow".
Tip: if you have a performance problem, run Claude Code (or an AI agent of your choice) and ask it to investigate.
>What was slow?
Everything, huge input delay in every interaction, clicking on anything, opening menus, typing, tabbing between windows, everything had 1-2s of delay.
>disable variable refresh rate
I think I tried this but dont recall, there were a few things related to monitor refresh I tried that probably included this
Claude Code would probably attach a profiler and take a peek under the hood. Agents are making sysadmin and system introspection way more accessible, and the tools, unlike Windows, are generally command-line, easy for an agent to automate.
In case it helps I have the same experience on Windows right now. :_(
I run a computer with a 5070 and Nobara. Nvidia and Linux always seem to be at odds but that has gotten a lot better with some distros.
If you wanted to run Ubuntu from the beginning, it would be better to search for a computer designed for it, not for Windows.
This is the one thing I want from an OS: I want it to work for the hardware I have, and the hardware I get tomorrow.
Without having to google whether it will, or what hardware to buy.
Without having to google some workaround or configure anything to get the most of it.
Then your only option is Apple. The same happens with Windows too.
Your expectations are not reasonable. Imagine complaining about MacOS not working on a Windows laptop or vice versa.
You should buy preinstalled the OS you want instead.
Mac chose another path. You buy a pc and OS and the same vendor makes both. You can’t choose but at least you also never need to wonder whether your laptop and OS work together.
Microsoft took a more difficult path. They have close contact with OEMs, run certification programs etc. A massive apparatus to make it somewhat likely that hardware will ”just work”.
Both of these are valid models. I’d be happy to use either. I’m not very keen on doing this work myself though. I can buy a PC with Ubuntu but then it’s still hit and miss if I buy something new for it. There is no canonical store selling canonical gear like the Apple Store
Try CachyOS instead. Ubuntu is not great.