[SOLVED] Game Performance is Poor

ninjai117 · 2018-10-24 17:00:36

Hi All,

I just wanted to know if this was normal for gaming on linux, or if there's a misconfiguration on my system somewhere. I would think that my computer is way more than capable of running the games I'm having issues with, as I'm about 99% sure these run buttery smooth in Windows (been several years since I've gamed, let alone on Windows).

First, my hardware:

>lspci | grep -i nvidia
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF110 [GeForce GTX 580] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF110 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

> lscpu
Architecture:        x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):      32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:          Little Endian
CPU(s):              6
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-5
Thread(s) per core:  2
Core(s) per socket:  3
Socket(s):           1
NUMA node(s):        1
Vendor ID:           AuthenticAMD
CPU family:          21
Model:               2
Model name:          AMD FX(tm)-6300 Six-Core Processor
Stepping:            0
CPU MHz:             3599.953
CPU max MHz:         3500.0000
CPU min MHz:         1400.0000
BogoMIPS:            6987.42
Virtualization:      AMD-V
L1d cache:           16K
L1i cache:           64K
L2 cache:            2048K
L3 cache:            8192K
NUMA node0 CPU(s):   0-5
Flags:               fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes xsave avx f16c lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs xop skinit wdt lwp fma4 tce nodeid_msr tbm topoext perfctr_core perfctr_nb cpb hw_pstate ssbd vmmcall bmi1 arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean flushbyasid decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold

And I have 8 GB of RAM.

The games I'm struggling with:
Overload
BioShock Infinite

My video drive, as per arch wiki recommendation, is not the nVidia one:

 pacman -Qs nvidia
local/lib32-libvdpau 1.1.1-3
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/lib32-nvidia-390xx-utils 390.87-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit), 390xx legacy branch
local/libvdpau 1.1.1+3+ga21bf7a-1
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/nvidia-390xx 390.87-4
    NVIDIA drivers for linux, 390xx legacy branch
local/nvidia-390xx-utils 390.87-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities

The issues I experience:

BioShock Infinite has a very inconsistent frame rate. Sometimes it's nice and smooth, then it drops considerably, then outright pauses/freezes for a length of time (30 seconds?) then comes back.

Overload has a similar problem. This one is smooth all the time with the exception of random freezing in the same manner that BioShock Infinite does

I also experience a problem with some other games where they just refuse to launch at all. Only one I can think of off the top of my head right now is system shock 2.

All of these are being launched from the Steam Runtime client.

arch ~> inxi -F
System:    Host: arch Kernel: 4.18.12-arch1-1-ARCH x86_64 bits: 64 Console: tty 2
           Distro: Arch Linux
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: 970 Extreme3 R2.0 serial: <root required>
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: P1.40 date: 10/02/2013
CPU:       Topology: 6-Core model: AMD FX-6300 bits: 64 type: MCP L2 cache: 2048 KiB
           Speed: 1382 MHz min/max: 1400/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1453 2: 1402 3: 2885 4: 3150
           5: 3173 6: 3196
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GF110 [GeForce GTX 580] driver: nvidia v: 390.87
           Display: server: X.org 1.20.1 driver: nvidia unloaded: modesetting tty: 107x24
           Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G --display
Audio:     Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia driver: snd_hda_intel
           Device-2: NVIDIA GF110 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.18.12-arch1-1-ARCH
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169
           IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: d0:50:99:16:79:17
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 3.38 TiB used: 2.52 TiB (74.4%)
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT480BX200SSD1 size: 447.13 GiB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST3000DM001-1E6166 size: 2.73 TiB
           ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: SanDisk model: Ultra II 240GB size: 223.57 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 211.57 GiB used: 141.44 GiB (66.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc3
           ID-2: /boot size: 511.0 MiB used: 41.5 MiB (8.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdc1
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.00 GiB used: 3.21 GiB (40.1%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdc2
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 66.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 60 C
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 47%
Info:      Processes: 254 Uptime: 14d 16h 24m Memory: 7.74 GiB used: 5.06 GiB (65.4%) Init: systemd
           Shell: fish inxi: 3.0.26

Last edited by ninjai117 (2018-10-25 05:32:23)

Ropid · 2018-10-24 21:36:44

Maybe you are running out of memory on the graphics card?

I used the following script to try to diagnose memory problems with an nvidia GPU:

http://ix.io/1pX5

Save this script as for example "gpumem". The script is designed to be run in a terminal window in the background while you play a game. It shows how memory usage on the graphics card is changing over time in a compact way with a time stamp. It measures every five seconds.

ninjai117 · 2018-10-25 05:32:08

Resolved:

Steam game files are on another disk that apparently might be crapping the bed. Moved over to my SSD and no more issues. Runs great now.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-10-24 17:00:36

[SOLVED] Game Performance is Poor

#2 2018-10-24 21:36:44

Re: [SOLVED] Game Performance is Poor

#3 2018-10-25 05:32:08

Re: [SOLVED] Game Performance is Poor

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