I've got a new 7840HS laptop, and have noticed some stability issues with games on Steam under Proton that run fine on my desktop with a 5700xt. I know the 7840 line is pretty new and not a lot out in the world yet, but has anyone noticed similar issues?
This whole thing can be overwhelming to people new to Linux and especially those without a very deep interest in the topic.
The basics, most users don't really know about all the layers and complexity involved in an operating system. That is okay for the most part. Your issue is likely related to the kernel itself. When you are on edge hardware, you likely need to be on a very recent kernel for proper support. That is what is mentioned in the linked issue. No one expects you to be at the same level as these people or to report issues like this in the kernel. This is just a concise example with things to check if you know the gist of the example. Feel free to ask questions about whatever. I am no expert here. Others may be able to answer. I'll try to help any way I can.
Next time you run into stability issues, you should check in journalctl -e and see what error messages pop up. It is hard to help you without additional info.