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#1 2020-08-18 16:32:53

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

hi,
I have been noticing that when my laptop it's on heavy load it switches the governor from performance to powersave for some reason.
The temps are ok, can even hear the fan turning down a bit.

In normal conditions:

$ sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +46.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +45.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +47.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

amdgpu-pci-0300
Adapter: PCI adapter
edge:         +41.0°C  (crit = +120.0°C, hyst = +90.0°C)

BAT1-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0:          16.93 V  
curr1:       1000.00 uA
$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: intel_cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 20.0 us
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.00 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.00 GHz.
                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 2.15 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes

Then I, for example, start Dota2 + OBS and record.
The system gets slow and the clocks go to base (800Mhz) on all cores and stays there.

$ sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +59.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +58.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +59.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

amdgpu-pci-0300
Adapter: PCI adapter
edge:         +57.0°C  (crit = +120.0°C, hyst = +90.0°C)

BAT1-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0:          16.93 V  
curr1:       1000.00 uA
$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: intel_cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 20.0 us
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.00 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.00 GHz.
                  The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 798 MHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes

When I close the programs it takes ~15secs to go back to normal and it switches back to performance.

This happens on

5.8.1-arch1-1
5.8.1-xanmod1-1-xanmod

but NOT on

5.4.58-1-lts

.
When it gets to 800Mhz I can switch the governor back to performance but as soon as I exit one of the programs and start again it goes to powersave again.

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#2 2020-08-23 17:56:19

paulkerry
Member
From: Sheffield, UK
Registered: 2014-10-02
Posts: 611

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

Possibly related: have you have set the governor manually using cpupower?

I've just come across an issue which manifested itself with slow disk access when the 5.8 kernel became the default. I also have linux-lts (5.4.60-1) installed and there is no issue with that kernel.

Using cpupower, I had set in /etc/default/cpupower

governor='powersave'

Keeping this set under 5.8.3-arch1-1, results in my disk slowdown.

Using 5.8.3-arch1-1, I've subsequently found...

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
performance schedutil 

which shows the 'powersave' governor is no longer available (which it is under 5.4.60-1), so I've disabled cpupower and all is fine.

Cheers
Paul.

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#3 2020-08-23 18:55:58

loqs
Member
Registered: 2014-03-06
Posts: 17,198

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

There is also an open bug report on this https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/67616

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#4 2020-08-23 22:03:50

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

@loqs yes I made that bug report, but seems since kernel 5.8 they let software control the CPU governor, but I don't know which one is going it
that's the issue

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#5 2020-08-23 22:09:28

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

paulkerry wrote:

Possibly related: have you have set the governor manually using cpupower?

I've just come across an issue which manifested itself with slow disk access when the 5.8 kernel became the default. I also have linux-lts (5.4.60-1) installed and there is no issue with that kernel.

Using cpupower, I had set in /etc/default/cpupower

governor='powersave'

Keeping this set under 5.8.3-arch1-1, results in my disk slowdown.

Using 5.8.3-arch1-1, I've subsequently found...

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
performance schedutil 

which shows the 'powersave' governor is no longer available (which it is under 5.4.60-1), so I've disabled cpupower and all is fine.

Cheers
Paul.

No, it switches automatically to powersave.
I will try uninstalling cpupower and others.

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#6 2020-08-23 22:32:45

Ropid
Member
Registered: 2015-03-09
Posts: 1,069

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

You can keep "cpupower" installed. The service that comes with the package only reads that "/etc/default/cpupower" config file at boot and sets the governor. After boot is done, it won't do anything anymore.

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#7 2020-08-25 09:59:26

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

ya that's what I ment
tried disabling cpupower but still happens

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#8 2020-08-25 12:41:52

paulkerry
Member
From: Sheffield, UK
Registered: 2014-10-02
Posts: 611

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

Sanity check - ignoring the output from cpupower, what governors are available to your kernel? Post..

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors

It might be helpful if you posted a full non-truncated log...

journalctl -b

Also have you installed thermald or tlp?

Last edited by paulkerry (2020-08-25 12:49:41)

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#9 2020-08-25 17:19:38

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

So opening Dota2 and record with OBS is my best test and triggers 100% of the times.
Found that if I don't use gamemode it stays normal
Maybe is gamemode that is switching the governor?
I will open a issue on github and find out

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#10 2020-08-25 17:22:14

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

paulkerry wrote:

Sanity check - ignoring the output from cpupower, what governors are available to your kernel? Post..

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors

It might be helpful if you posted a full non-truncated log...

journalctl -b

Also have you installed thermald or tlp?

$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors                                                                                            [0]
conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil

If the gamemode report doesn't go anywhere I will post the jonarlctl
I had thermald installed for some time but not currently

Last edited by Samega 7Cattac (2020-08-25 17:30:15)

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#11 2020-08-26 10:47:36

sabroad
Member
Registered: 2015-05-24
Posts: 242

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

Samega 7Cattac wrote:

Maybe is gamemode that is switching the governor?

Looks like this is by design for igpu systems.

Can you post your gamemode.ini?


--
saint_abroad

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#12 2020-08-31 01:10:47

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

@sabroad nice catch
My laptop is indeed hybrid.
Where's gamemode.ini?

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#13 2020-08-31 01:24:29

GaKu999
Member
From: US/Eastern
Registered: 2020-06-21
Posts: 696

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

Samega 7Cattac wrote:

@sabroad nice catch
My laptop is indeed hybrid.
Where's gamemode.ini?

find -L /etc -name gamemode.ini tongue
I hope it’s placed on /etc tho, pkgfile shows nothing...


My reposSome snippets

Heisenberg might have been here.

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#14 2020-08-31 13:52:03

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

already tried, didn't find nothing on /etc,  ~, /usr and /opt.
only finds the example in his doc folder
it's not in any of those places https://github.com/FeralInteractive/gam … figuration

Last edited by Samega 7Cattac (2020-08-31 13:59:29)

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#15 2020-08-31 22:30:05

GaKu999
Member
From: US/Eastern
Registered: 2020-06-21
Posts: 696

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

That package doesn’t ship any form of defaults, so it expects the users to create the files for configuration.

Hrmp now to find what will stop that mess on igpu systems.

It would be better for you to use the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME for placement, usually .config in your $HOME.

But that’s up to your preferences...

Last edited by GaKu999 (2020-08-31 22:35:13)


My reposSome snippets

Heisenberg might have been here.

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#16 2020-09-23 05:41:21

Samega 7Cattac
Member
Registered: 2020-08-17
Posts: 19

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

After some time I can indeed confirm it was gamemode changing the "iGPU" to powersave.
Setting the governor of iGPU on the gamemode conf file solved the issue.

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#17 2020-09-24 02:34:02

nomorewindows
Member
Registered: 2010-04-03
Posts: 3,362

Re: Governor changes from performance to powersave under load

You're working me too hard...now I'm going to sleep.

Sounds about right.

tongue


I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

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