Arch Linux

Filip62

Member

From: Slovakia

Registered: 2020-10-24

Posts: 36

Nvidia drivers not working with 120Hz refresh rate, but Nouveau does.

I spent the past few days trying to set a 1920x1080@120Hz resolution on proprietary Nvidia drivers.
The mode is in EDID, the exact same modeline (the exact timings and clocks) works with Nouveau drivers and in Windows.

I can apply the modeline but it just freezes for a few seconds, my mouse disappears and I can not even visually verify that it works because as soon as I switch desktops or windows, it freezes completely, and it seems like the PC is not responding to the keyboard so I can't even terminate the X server.

I run these packages:
nvidia-390xx-dkms 390.138-7
nvidia-390xx-utils 390.138-3
nvidia-settings 455.45.01-1

Any help appreciated, thank You.
I do not mind using Nouveau drivers, but the game performance is just bad on what's already a bad card.

Last edited by Filip62 (2020-11-25 18:20:40)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,062

Re: Nvidia drivers not working with 120Hz refresh rate, but Nouveau does.

Can you check/post your journal after rebooting from a freeze (sudo journalctl -b-1)? Symptom wise this sounds like one of the current allocation bugs, which technically has a not yet released patch available that could be applied to the current nvidia-dkms package for testing: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/4 … /155250/55, see this thread and post for how that could look like: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p1938113

Last edited by V1del (2020-11-26 15:58:28)

Filip62

Member

From: Slovakia

Registered: 2020-10-24

Posts: 36

Re: Nvidia drivers not working with 120Hz refresh rate, but Nouveau does.

Can you check/post your journal after rebooting from a freeze (sudo journalctl -b-1)? Symptom wise this sounds like one of the current allocation bugs, which technically has a not yet released patch available that could be applied to the current nvidia-dkms package for testing: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/4 … /155250/55, see this thread and post for how that could look like: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p1938113

Here is the log: journalctl -b-1 output after freeze reboot.

I removed the original nvidia-390-dkms aur package, then I modified the nvidia-390-dkms-aur PKGBUILD to include and apply the patch, run makepkg -si, and it applied the patch, built and installed without a problem.
I rebooted the machine, set FHD@120Hz and it was the same as before.

Although, I noticed a few more things.

htop is reporting a 100% usage on one CPU core on the X server process.
I could ssh into the PC that is how I got that info.
About 5 minutes after I tried to switch to a bspwm desktop and launch a terminal on my second monitor, it actually switched and launched the terminal, I could type into the terminal.
So I tried moving the mouse just to see if it appears or something happens, and it froze again.

No errors in Xorg log started with verbose log mode.

So the patch probably does not resolve my issue.
Still hoping to find a solution. Thanks.

Last edited by Filip62 (2020-11-26 20:06:37)

Filip62

Member

From: Slovakia

Registered: 2020-10-24

Posts: 36

Re: Nvidia drivers not working with 120Hz refresh rate, but Nouveau does.

If I work very slowly and only with the keyboard, after like half an hour I finally get to a firefox window, and it indeed looks like 120Hz when scrolling.
But when I switch windows or desktops it just basically freezes for a few minutes. It is unusable, but at least we know the refresh rate can work with proprietary nvidia drivers.