[foresto]

> I probably chose the wrong distro for this

Indeed. Arch-based distros ought to be managed by intermediate-advanced users. Linux Mint is better suited to beginners.

> but I really just want the PC to work for playing games without any issues.

If you decide to give it another go, and you have the means, I suggest using an AMD graphics card. Nvidia's drivers are notorious for being troublesome on Linux, and although they can usually be made to work (either by the user or by a distro developer), the drivers for AMD GPUs are much better integrated with the OS.

I switched to AMD a few years ago and have been very pleased with the results, both in games and in non-gaming tasks. (I don't use my GPU for LLM development, though, so I can't speak to the current state of things in that area.)