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#1 2017-07-23 23:39:31

AJdeWit
Member
Registered: 2016-08-13
Posts: 15

[Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

Hi,

I've just installed Arch a few days ago and made sure to install the nvidia drivers. My laptop has a Intel 4000 graphics card and a nvidia GT740M. I've installed bumblebee and launch dota2 with the optirun launch parameter. In the beginning, I'm getting a solid ~67 FPS per second, game starts and after 10 seconds, it suddenly drops to 17-21. After 2 Minutes playing, it jumps up again to ~67 FPS. Then, after a few seconds, it falls back to 17-21. This continues the whole time. It's weird for a GT740M to have such low FPS for a game that's running on the lowest possible settings. It's more likely that the Intel 4000 card is actually doing the work, but that wouldn't explain the ~67 FPS peaks.

So my question is: Does someone know what is going? I can't really think of any reason why it would switch between cards (unless of course, the dedicated is used after a certain treshold is passed, but doesn't seem very likely). I've also deactivated my dedicated card in the BIOS and started 0ad, which delivered the same results as when the dedicated graphics card is activated, which is weird since the GT740M is a lot better than the Intel 4000, so any difference should be really noticable.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Last edited by AJdeWit (2017-07-25 07:46:15)

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#2 2017-07-24 05:38:53

brebs
Member
Registered: 2007-04-03
Posts: 3,742

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

Thermal throttling would explain that behaviour.

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#3 2017-07-24 08:46:43

AJdeWit
Member
Registered: 2016-08-13
Posts: 15

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

Hi Brebs, thank you for your answer.

Thermal throttling is does indeed have those symptoms. Now my question would be, what can I do to prevent it from happening? I just recently applied new thermal paste on my CPU which heavily reduced the noise coming from the fan, so I think it's applied correctly.
In windows, back when I had a 7200 RPM HDD, the temperature would be a lot cooler than it is in Linux. How could that come to be? I obviously have a lot less background processes in Arch than in Windows.

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#4 2017-07-24 08:54:50

ngoonee
Forum Fellow
From: Between Thailand and Singapore
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 7,354

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

It could be the GPU that is throttling. Check temperatures at the back or wherever the GPU is.


Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

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#5 2017-07-24 10:41:41

AJdeWit
Member
Registered: 2016-08-13
Posts: 15

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

Hi Ngoonee,

I've tried with turning the dedicated card off. This resulted in the same behaviour but instead of the normal FPS, it has 3-7 FPS fewer. Since the dedicated card has been turned off, it can't be the dedicated card that's throttling if I'm correct, but of course I can't be sure.

If it's the CPU that's throttling, it can't be because I extended my RAM by another 8GB right? What can be the cause of this, since this did not show up at my windows installation from a few weeks back. There, everything runs fine.

Many thanks for your help.

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#6 2017-07-24 10:50:34

Slithery
Administrator
From: Norfolk, UK
Registered: 2013-12-01
Posts: 5,776

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

AJdeWit wrote:

If it's the CPU that's throttling, it can't be because I extended my RAM by another 8GB right?

What makes you think this? The amount of RAM has no effect on CPU throttling at all.

Monitor the temperature of your CPU when the issue occurs, what is it?
Also I believe the journal should contain warnings about throttling if this is the issue.


No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

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#7 2017-07-24 14:48:26

AJdeWit
Member
Registered: 2016-08-13
Posts: 15

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

I asked to be sure about the RAM.

The temperatures are the following:
Before start of dota2: 63 degrees
After dota2 was on for 5 minutes (just the main menu): 84 degrees
When playing dota2 and encountering the 22 FPS drop: 78 degrees
When playing dota2 while having the ~67 FPS: 80 degrees

These are the temperatures of the CPU. I don't know how to read the temperatures of the GPU.

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#8 2017-07-24 15:50:26

brebs
Member
Registered: 2007-04-03
Posts: 3,742

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

Alternatives:

nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp -t
nvidia-smi -a | grep Temp

Note that these temperatures will cool off *quickly* from their highs, when the strain is relieved.

CPU undervolting, can also help a bit with high temperatures.

Also: Remove the cover from your laptop, and check that the fan is clean of dust, and works strongly.

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#9 2017-07-24 17:00:54

AJdeWit
Member
Registered: 2016-08-13
Posts: 15

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

The fan is clean. I cleaned it when I renewed the thermal paste on the CPU.

To the alternatives.... :\

After executing

nvidia-settings -q gpucoretmp -t

I get the following output

** (nvidia-settings:17579): WARNING **: Couldn't connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-But1atdVVB: Connection refused
ERROR: NVIDIA driver is not loaded

ERROR: Error querying enabled displays on GPU 0 (Missing Extension).

ERROR: Error querying connected displays on GPU 0 (Missing Extension).

ERROR: Error resolving target specification '' (No targets match target specification), specified in query 'gpucoretemp'.

What does that mean? It's never even used?
⊙▃⊙

nvidia-smi -a | grep Temp

returns nothing.

[EDIT]
Of course, I had to run with primusrun/optirun first. Which resulted in the same, except that this time, it didn't say

NVIDIA driver is not loaded

Other than that, I'm still getting the

ERROR: Error querying enabled displays on GPU 0 (Missing Extension).
ERROR: Error querying connected displays on GPU 0 (Missing Extension).

Last edited by AJdeWit (2017-07-24 20:24:29)

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#10 2017-07-25 07:45:53

AJdeWit
Member
Registered: 2016-08-13
Posts: 15

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

I solved it.

I reinstalled all nvidia drivers according to https://antergos.com/wiki/uncategorized … a-optimus/

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#11 2017-07-25 08:24:48

Slithery
Administrator
From: Norfolk, UK
Registered: 2013-12-01
Posts: 5,776

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

Are you running Antergos?


No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

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#12 2017-07-25 20:57:04

AJdeWit
Member
Registered: 2016-08-13
Posts: 15

Re: [Solved] Weird FPS rollercoaster behaviour

No, I don't. However, I found the link through a german guy on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hWpBdbLGr8

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