Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

Quardah · 2022-10-03 01:03:51

Hi.

Since last update (pacman -Syu) i am stuck at 30hz if using an external monitor with the laptop. (both using internal and external).

If i disconnect the external monitor or turn it off in KDE's display settings, i have 60hz back on the internal display.

This site confirms this behavior : https://www.testufo.com/refreshrate

[myuser@P16s ~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3640 x 1920, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1 connected primary 2560x1600+0+160 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 215mm
   2560x1600     60.00*+  50.01    48.01    59.97  
[...]
DP-2 connected 1080x1920+2560+0 left (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 476mm x 267mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  50.00    59.94    59.93  
   1680x1050     59.95    59.88    59.88  
[...]

I am using a P16s with AMDGPU Ryzen Pro 7 6850U

https://i.imgur.com/6B2ajEg.png

Last update was mid September, the 13th. I am absolutely certain i had 60hz before. The computer feels absolutely choppy because of this unexpected downgrade in behavior.

This is what was updated last time i did a full update : (using grep -i upgraded /var/log/pacman.log)

https://pastebin.com/7nPucBT5

Thanks.

Last edited by Quardah (2022-10-03 01:05:38)

seth · 2022-10-03 06:40:59

This site

Is useless.

The outputs are operating at 60Hz each according to randr, check the output OSD to confirm their signal input.
The cause is likely the compositor?

in KDE's display settings

SHIFT+Alt+F12 toggles the compositor, does that have any impact?

Please post your xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General and test the LTS kernel resp. xf86-video-amdgpu (if that's not already in use)
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 8#p2060288

Quardah · 2022-10-04 00:18:16

Hi Seth and thank you for your answer. I will test this soon i currently cannot, just replying to let you know that i will test it soon.

Thanks.

Quardah · 2022-10-05 05:59:53

Hi Seth. Sorry for the double post, i am posting again to make sure you get the notification.

First you are right, the site is no use.

Second you are right again, the OSD on my external screen reports 60hz.

I couldn't get any behavior change with SHIFT+ALT+F12 although it is indeed the shortcut in KDE to enable or disable the composer. Any changes to the composer settings did nothing. The xorg log only had three irrelevant lines so i am not posting it, it's useless.

I noticed the problem was there exclusively when using firefox (which i tried because it's mentioned in your links). I could get a video display 60/30/15 fps properly in chrome, but in firefox it was choppy. Only when connected to external display, i must repeat.

What fixed the problem (yea because it's fixed) is following your links i tried installing xf86-video-amdgpu. I do not know why but it seems like it was automatically purged during the previous update.

---

My final question before closing this topic is why is it mentioned in this thread : https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 8#p2060288

That xf86-video-* is a 'workaround'? Are those drivers planned being considered obsolete?

Thank you for your time again. I hope eventually i'll become as good as those around here and i'll be able to pay it forward.

seth · 2022-10-05 07:36:01

My final question before closing this topic is why … xf86-video-* is a 'workaround'?

The modesetting driver should™ work and if it doesn't that also not a good sign for wayland.
Also xf86-video-intel in particular is in zombie mode and generally not advisable.
Since the problem seems to be between the recent kernels and (?) Mesa and affects all HW, I'd expect some mesa or kernel update to fix the situation.

Quardah · 2022-10-06 02:15:25

Ok i see. I recall reading about this that you shouldn't install the video drivers because the default modesetting driver is the one supported with better expected performances. But that was when i was running Intel, this is my first AMD machine and i simply wasn't aware of xf86-video-amdgpu.

I find it weird that simply by installing xf86-video-amdgpu it then defaults to this previous driver. Shouldn't modesetting be prefered somehow by the operating system? Or is there a mechanism to use the legacy driver if installed?

Actually full transparency i did more than just install xf86-video-amdgpu, i followed this : https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm … d_drivers/

and installed

 sudo pacman -S xf86-video-amdgpu vulkan-radeon libva-mesa-driver mesa-vdpau

seth · 2022-10-06 06:26:48

xf86-video-amdgpu, vulkan-radeon, libva-mesa-driver and mesa-vdpau are unrelated.

I find it weird that simply by installing xf86-video-amdgpu it then defaults to this previous driver.

Why? You explicitly installed it so you probably want to use it.

You can control the X11 driver w/ an xorg configlet and I guess /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf from xf86-video-amdgpu explcitly selects it.

Quardah · 2022-10-07 04:51:47

seth wrote:

I find it weird that simply by installing xf86-video-amdgpu it then defaults to this previous driver.
Why? You explicitly installed it so you probably want to use it.
You can control the X11 driver w/ an xorg configlet and I guess /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf from xf86-video-amdgpu explcitly selects it.

Yea well said that way i guess you have a fair point.

Actually this might be silly but there might just be more to this than i previously expected. I remember two instances which i couldn't boot a while back after updates (early june and early july) and i had to put in vmd and amdgpu as early kms /etc/mkinitcpio.conf . vmd because the nvme drive at some point was not recognized (i read that somewhere and it was a magic fix) and then amdgpu because sddm was refusing to start after an update too.

figured out it's because this laptop is a very recent model, so i didn't investigate much further than just applying the fix and voilà.

but i didn't have to install xf86-video-amdgpu...

when i do check the file you mention '/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf' i see it's explicitly mentioned like you said. Which is why we get the behavior that it's now used after installed.

but is it possible there may were some sort of mismatch by loading early kms amdgpu driver but then it would select modesetting driver when starting X?

by the way thanks for the replies i really appreciate the efforts.

seth · 2022-10-07 06:57:29

but is it possible there may were some sort of mismatch by loading early kms amdgpu driver but then it would select modesetting driver when starting X?

No. KMS is default, modesetting is default, early or late KMS doesn't matter itr.
What can happen is that w/ late KMS systemd starts the graphical target before the GPU/drm is ready and that results in a failure (w/ either modesetting or xf86-video-amdgpu) - in doubt an undesirable resort to xf86-video-vesa (if installed, but you do not want to use that driver. ever.)

Quardah · 2022-10-20 00:04:33

Hi. Me again. I updated my system today and i have a brand new problem!

This issue, again, is only present if i am using an external monitor.

Now with xf86-video-amdgpu the laptop internal screen has problem refreshing. On reboot, after i login, on desktop, if i move the cursor on the screen it stutters and becomes a graphical artifact (a flat horizontal line instead of a cursor). It does so momentarily while stuttering. Eventually after a while, the screen entirely freezes, and remains stuck until reboot or if i disconnect the external.

Somehow the external monitor works fine, i am writing this on the second monitor while the internal monitor is completely frozen. If i start a video on youtube on the external monitor, it runs fine, until i move the mouse cursor back into the internal monitor. Not only the mouse never shows on the internal monitor, it also starts to stutter video output on the second monitor.

This is a very weird behavior and i've never seen anything of the sort.

I tried removing xf86-video-amdgpu but doing so brings me back to the previous problem where the entire system outputs at 30hz even though the external monitor's OSD claims it's receiving a 60Hz signal.

Note that all of the enumerated problems are gone the second i disconnect the second monitor, regardless of driver used.

Maybe it has something to do with my monitor having a microphone and a speaker? Lenovo T2224zD . It's connected on Lenovo's new 7 in 1 hub through HDMI

https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/p/accessor … e.com%252F

Note that i absolutely hate the microphone and speaker and i would like them gone completely but it seems like i just cannot get rid of them.

Here is a list of everything that was updates in the last run :

https://pastebin.com/LjJWPGWr

EDIT: removing xf86-video-amdgpu and using the laptop's HDMI port instead of the 7-in-1 hub makes everything go smooth. I will test with xf86-video-amdgpu now.

EDIT2: reinstalling xf86-video-amdgpu brings back the described problem.

I will now permanently purge xf86-video-amdgpu forever and declare that the root problem of this thread was due to the usb-c hub. This still is a new problem that appeared during recent updates, so something somewhere broke usb-c -> hdmi.

usb-c moar like usb-cringe

Last edited by Quardah (2022-10-20 00:27:30)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-10-03 01:03:51

Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#2 2022-10-03 06:40:59

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#3 2022-10-04 00:18:16

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#4 2022-10-05 05:59:53

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#5 2022-10-05 07:36:01

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#6 2022-10-06 02:15:25

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#7 2022-10-06 06:26:48

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#8 2022-10-07 04:51:47

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#9 2022-10-07 06:57:29

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

#10 2022-10-20 00:04:33

Re: Refresh rate stuck at 30hz when using external monitor

Board footer