Where Wine's underachievement is concerned, you should explore Wine staging, which adds some yet-to-be-implemented-in-Wine features that will boost your performance, one of them being CSMT which you can easily activate.

Luckily for you, it's even easier to play with different Wine versions, including Staging, using PlayOnLinux. Go to Tools -> Manage Wine versions and install desired ones from there, then point your already installed game(s) to use one of them with Configure -> select appropriate virtual drive -> choose desired Wine version in the General tab.

For all Steam games, you could gain improvement if using said client in a standalone session. What that means is that only the bare minimal desktop environment would be booted along with Steam client only, so all of your system resources would be dedicated to the task at hand. Read about steam-login. Basically, if you've installed everything correctly, a new login option would be shown for you, just log out of your current session and select the appropriate (new) one from the list.

Alternatively, you can use instrucions outlined here, but I wouldn't recommend you download and install those files manually, although they are from trusted Steam repository, but you should already have it added, so why not go with apt-get or your preferred package manager.

The previous article near the end also explains how to ensure your Optimus card (which I suppose you have) is always in use when running games, as automatic switching between dedicated and integrated graphics Nvidia hasn't implemented yet. But the solution is as simple as prefixing your games executables with a single command, you can also edit shortcuts if you like. This goes for all games, not just Steam ones.

If you need extra help, feel free to say so.

Like you said, no real reference point for the machine in question, but you can post your system specs if you like, so we could see if they're borderline and if something could be done about it.

When you're interested, paste those errors in a dedicated thread on Witcher 2 subfora, send me the link and we'll se what we can do.

I don't think the provided link would be of use to you in this case.

Few months ago, Ubuntu created an official PPA (usually third-party repositories hosted by Canonical, but sometimes used as an official additions like this one) for providing the latest version of graphics drivers, Nvidia only at the moment. To add it, open up terminal and fire:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

After answering affirmatively, it should be added, so update apt cache:

sudo apt-get update

The newest version of Nvidia drivers you currently have in your repos is 352, while this PPA also offers 355 and 358 right now. After you have added it and updated the cache, new drivers should show up as an option in Drivers Manager. I would normally suggest you install the latest version (358), but there's a [url=https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa]disclaimer on the PPA's page[/url] saying that Valve has reported number of crashes with 358, so 355 is advised for now. You're welcome to try both using Driver Manager, which you can later use to revert if needed. Also, as newer versions appear in the PPA, they will also show up as an option for you.

And another Windows thread successfully and annoyingly (?) hijacked, sorry guys. Maybe we should continue elsewhere.

Well, since it was "my" thread, I say hijack away!! I've been reading all of this as part of my first step (reading as much as I can) to switching to Linux. (I wonder if ditching Windows is a 12 step program???? lol)

Granting owner's permission is something you would be encountering in the Linux world, and which you seem to command very well already. Kindly appreciated.

And it's more like a one-step program: just ditch it ;)

Actually, all online guides say you should uninstall KB3035583 and then you won't get the nagware ever again, if you have manual install selected and you make sure you don't install it again if it comes back (or you hide it after uninstalling it).

Or download GWX panel which lets you block the update from ever coming back and disabling Win 10 upgrade on your PC.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-remove-windows-10-nag-messages-not-madatory-3614204/

I just quickly scanned the responses and didn't see anyone post this, but the simplest thing to do is go in the task scheduler, browse to Microsoft / Windows / Setup / gwx and disable those tasks. Restart and the Win 10 task bar icon will be gone as well as the nagging. You might need to check these after each patch Tuesday to make sure some update doesn't turn them back on, but so far on one of my systems that I leave everything on automatic, it hasn't come back since doing that.

On my gaming system, I just never installed the update that installs the GWX nagware (KB3035583). I hide it and make sure to check every time I get notified of updates that it isn't trying to sneak back in.

GWX Control Panel is a great tool for this, I've used it on a couple of customers' laptops without any issues.

Link: http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

You're amazing. Thank you! I did everything you said. Now I'll go try it out!

Thanks again!

Also, where do you learn this stuff? You've taught me about 90% of everything I know, but I'd love to be able to not pester folks for this stuff. :)

I’d guess he learned all of this stuff by pestering folks for it ;)
Hey, there’s no better way to learn anything!

I played some Company of Heroes last night and couldn't get it to run with the new version of wine, so I reverted. It still works good enough, though.

I played Shadow Warrior (Linux native) and it worked beautifully.

I don't have it in front of me right now. What I did was install CoH (steam) using Play on Linux. It automatically picked my version of Wine. And then I went in and chose the staging version of the same Wine version number and then turned on CSMT (which a link you provided guided me through).

The game opened, I connected to my buddy's game, but as soon as it attempted to display 3D content, it crashed out.

I'm not too worried about that one b/c it works just fine.

I should also mention that the script file I ran to put Steam Big Picture as a log-in entry failed horribly. The script ran, but after it was down and I logged out to log into the Steam-only log-in, the computer told me that the installation went bad and that it was reverting to my previous settings.. I had to restart my computer to log back in.

Sorry for the lack of clear details. I'm away from that PC and don't remember some specifics.

As for 64 bit versions or not, I might be messing something up there. I remember seeing tables for (x86) and AMD(x64). SInce I have a 64-bit Intel Core 2, I picked the x86. I hope I picked right.

F**CKING Windows does it to me too :(

When I reboot to Windows 7 sometimes for a game I get this pop up too. It doesn't really bother me to say, "Fuck you" to Microsoft as I click the X in the upper right corner and dismiss the douchebaggery. I have to do this every single time I boot it up but whatever. It's not a big deal. I'd say don't let it bother you. Click it away and good to go.

When stuff only says x86 (no 64 anywhere) that usually means it is 32-bit. If it says x64 anywhere then that means it is the 64-bit version. The fact that it sometimes says AMD in conjunction with x64 is because AMD developed the original specification for x64. It does not mean that it is only for AMD processors. So you probably got the 32-bit version.

All that being said, 32-bit versions of software usually works just fine on 64-bit computers.

Thank you for that!