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#1 2016-09-05 18:44:06

lp0101
Member
Registered: 2016-09-05
Posts: 9

Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

I've been struggling with this all weekend. I've probably reinstalled arch about 15 times since Friday afternoon, and I'm still no closer to figuring this out.

I've been using Arch on my laptop for about a year, and finally made the switch from Windows on my desktop. I installed Steam and battle.net (through crossover), as well as all the appropriate nvidia drivers and libraries (64 and 32 bit), reboot as appropriate throughout the installation, and everything works. I played Hearthstone and CSGO for several hours last night and this morning.

Then, this morning, I reboot my PC to see what happens, and my 3D performance becomes absolutely unbearable. Hearthstone is unplayable, hanging the moment a game starts, with even the audio becoming choppy. CSGO fares a bit better, but still suffers from from microstutters and freezes that make it unplayable.

I'm running an nvidia GTX 980, with a 5820k processor, with Arch running off a 500gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD.

Note: glxgears maintains a constant 60 FPS.

Edit: Just ran unigine-heaven, constant 60 FPS there too.

Edit: As recommended by someone, here's a recording of watch -n 0.2 nvidia-smi while launching the game until it freezes and locks up completely: https://asciinema.org/a/cmjndb85dw05slivw4to169mg

Update: It seems to be getting worse. Now launching Hearthstone locks up the entire system before even reaching the main menu.

Last edited by lp0101 (2016-09-05 19:31:57)

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#2 2016-09-05 22:09:55

Awebb
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Registered: 2010-05-06
Posts: 6,286

Re: Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

Try playing CSGO with the native Steam client instead of the Wine version and report back with performance infos.

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#3 2016-09-06 02:28:06

lp0101
Member
Registered: 2016-09-05
Posts: 9

Re: Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

Awebb wrote:

Try playing CSGO with the native Steam client instead of the Wine version and report back with performance infos.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. CSGO is the native version, Hearthstone is through Crossover. CSGO's performance is better (it doesn't lock up my entire system), but it does hiccup and stutter very badly, essentially making it unplayable.

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#4 2016-09-06 07:35:34

Awebb
Member
Registered: 2010-05-06
Posts: 6,286

Re: Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

That's not easy to debug on hunches.

1. Could you post a list of packages you installed to satisfy "all the appropriate nvidia drivers and libraries"?
2. Read, understand and apply this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Microcode
3. Please describe your desktop environment and, if applicable, any 3D settings made in your environment. Maybe the compositor is moody.
4. Post whatever /etc/xorg.conf.d/XX-nvidia.conf or /etc/xorg.conf you have. If there is more going on in there, post everything you made changes to.

Remember to use code tags, it'll make reading easier.

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#5 2016-09-06 23:01:22

lp0101
Member
Registered: 2016-09-05
Posts: 9

Re: Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

Sorry for the delay, I just got home from work.

1. nvidia, nvidia-libgl, lib32-nvidia-utils, lib32-nvidia-libgl, lib32-mesa-demos, libva-vdpau-driver, nvidia-settings
    A note, though, is that I installed the beta drivers from AUR to see if it would change anything. It didn't.

2. Done, no improvement. My CPU (5820k) isn't listed amongst those that accept microcode updates (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24661)

3. I'm running Gnome currently, practically stock as this is an almost fresh install. I've also tried KDE and XFCE, with no differences.

4. xorg.conf:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 370.23  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-02)  Mon Aug  8 18:33:47 PDT 2016

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option "TwinView" "1"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Default Nvidia Device"
        Option          "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

And /X11/xorg.conf:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 370.23  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-02)  Mon Aug  8 18:33:47 PDT 2016

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option "TwinView" "1"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Last edited by lp0101 (2016-09-06 23:01:43)

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#6 2016-09-09 02:23:41

lp0101
Member
Registered: 2016-09-05
Posts: 9

Re: Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

Quick update: They now... Sometimes work? I don't know, I booted up, games were locking up my system. Left my PC running for about 3 hours, tried again, and it worked. Can't say I understand, but I guess I'm not complaining.

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#7 2016-09-09 06:55:33

Awebb
Member
Registered: 2010-05-06
Posts: 6,286

Re: Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

This sounds like a hardware problem. Make extensive RAM tests and try to get your hands on another PSU.

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#8 2016-09-09 16:47:57

lp0101
Member
Registered: 2016-09-05
Posts: 9

Re: Games work fine for a while, then performance degrades

Maybe, I'll run those tests this weekend.

I'm not sure about the results, though. Games worked fine in windows beforehand, and the only thing different between my old windows setup and my current Arch setup is a new SSD (went from 4 year old Corsair 126gb to brand new Samsung 500gb Evo)

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