[SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

pacoparty · 2024-09-02 22:14:30

hi yall.
So im currently first testing Steam (just downloaded CS2) and every time im trying to launch the game via Steam, is promping me with "processing vulkan drivers x%", ok at first its not bad, i guess is just downloading cache shaders and etc. But my cpu usage is constantly 100%, making my system to reboot by himself cause it cant handle those temperatures more than 5 minutes and it really goes very very slow to process the vulkan drivers, searching for info and reading the wiki i just edited my steam_dev.cfg file under ~/.steam/steam/ to use "less" cpu threads but it not seems to do nothing. Few months ago i was getting the same problem so i refused to play CS2, but this time, that i freshly installed Arch its giving me same problems for gaming.
Im using the correct vulkan drivers(vulkan-radeon/lib32-vulkan-radeon) and im currently running Steam native package. I know its a demanding process for the CPU to download or process shaders but not this much, as i said its constantly using 100% of my CPU in all cores, to the point it crashes.
Here is my ~/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg

unShaderBackgroundProcessingThreads 4

My AMD cpu has 6 cores with 12 threads, i also tried as it says in the wiki, using 8 threads, but it wont change, it keep using all of them at 100%.
Also note that Steam client also feels laggy, i.e. when opening the Friends Window, the Steam client just freezes randomly during a period of time.
Im missing something? i really did all the steps as it says in the wiki
Maybe use amdvlk? idk.
Any suggestions?

Last edited by pacoparty (2024-09-03 11:54:21)

V1del · 2024-09-03 00:27:55

If your system can't sustain 100% CPU then your system is unstable and you should look into fixing that instead of trying to find software workarounds for hardware problems. What exact CPU/general system is this? Did you check your thermal paste? Dust in the system?

If you still want to proceed with attempts at a software fix for a hardware issue, you can disable the pre-shader cache entirely in steam settings. But that will only help for the preshader, should the game need to compile shaders during runtime and hitting your CPU you're going to be back at a HW issue.

pacoparty · 2024-09-03 08:52:59

So i have to assume that having a mid-end pc (4-5yrs in all my components, except for my GPU that is just new) really needs to render vulkan shaders for more than 5 - 10 minutes and using 100% of the cpu is "normal" reaching 90C - 95C?
I usually benchmark my hardware, clean it every 4-5months, also replace my thermal paste so i dont think so is a hw problem. I can run AAA games for more than 6 hours with no issue. Im just saying its not normal that every time i have to run a game(CS2 lmao) that i easily run it at 180fps needs all that power from my cpu. The CPU can stand 100% of usage but at those temperatures? not for more than 10minutes (like most of the CPU's). I will disable pre-shader catching at Steam settings but reading around im not the only one facing this problem. I guess if i dont pre-load them they will load during runtime. Also note that i can play it normaly, i was just asking why it need that amount of power for a low-demanding game.
CPU: Ryzen 5 2600
GPU: RX 6600

V1del · 2024-09-03 09:06:56

The "demands" of the game are irrelevant when preprocessing shaders. That's the point. You want shaders generated beforehand so you don't run into shader stutters during runtime, to have that done as quickly as possible and since it's highly parallelizable it makes sense to multithread it. In a general sense your CPU must be able to maintain 100% usage or you actually have a problem. And yes that the shader precaching takes a while and causes CPU load during it is generally normal. FWIW if it helps, I also have it disabled despite not having stability issues, because the wait time for that to complete was more annoying than the occasional one time stutter in game (though I haven't played CS2 yet, but in a general sense for other Vulkan usecases)

FWIW early Ryzens are somewhat known for issues here, you could also try to limit the actually visible cores on a system level to try and take the load off/play around with voltages/underclocking: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Ryzen#Troubleshooting

jl2 · 2024-09-03 09:40:02

You don't need to compile the shaders. They are there to try to move the hogging from in game (causes stutering) to before launching the game.

The CS2 shader compiling takes forever, like around 20mins, and I have done it once or twice, but it isn't worth it here. Sadly I haven't found a way to auto-disable it.
If your PC can't handle it, just skip it.

cryptearth · 2024-09-03 09:43:16

The high usage of CSGO/CS2 is something special to it - and yes, it does take up to several minutes.
But as V1del already mdntioned: If your cpu heats up to reach emergency shutdown you have other way more severe issues:
1) inadequate cooling
2) some issue with the cpu correctly thermal throttel down (automatic decrease of clock speed to lower heat output)
3) some bios/motherboard issue (check for bios updates)
If you can play other games for hours they obviously don't hit your cpu as hard as the shader precaching does - which is quite plausible as most modern games don't really need much cpu power anyway.

my bet here is also on some hardware issue - emergency shutdown due to overheat clearly isn't a problem of CS' shader compiling - that only triggers the crash by loading the system
if your cpu doesn't thermal throttle can be anything from a dead thermal sensor to faulty bios implementation or even bad mounted and/or undersized cooler
do you using liquid cooling? check the pump and radiator - also keep in mind: the water is only tge transport medium - the radiator's surface is what has to be big enough

pacoparty · 2024-09-03 10:02:32

V1del wrote:

The "demands" of the game are irrelevant when preprocessing shaders. That's the point. You want shaders generated beforehand so you don't run into shader stutters during runtime, to have that done as quickly as possible and since it's highly parallelizable it makes sense to multithread it. In a general sense your CPU must be able to maintain 100% usage or you actually have a problem. And yes that the shader precaching takes a while and causes CPU load during it is generally normal. FWIW if it helps, I also have it disabled despite not having stability issues, because the wait time for that to complete was more annoying than the occasional one time stutter in game (though I haven't played CS2 yet, but in a general sense for other Vulkan usecases)
FWIW early Ryzens are somewhat known for issues here, you could also try to limit the actually visible cores on a system level to try and take the load off/play around with voltages/underclocking: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Ryzen#Troubleshooting

I just underclocked the cpu to render the shaders and it worked, no reboot and not high temperatures (it was locked at 3.9Ghz, the highest i could reach long time ago when i overclocked it) but now in-game im lagging very hard, like it even kick of me of matches to the point i have to kill cs2 process. 120fps drops to 30fps. Things like that, even on CS2 menu freezes a lot.
I will keep a look to the article, i really wanna game on linux, i have been dual-booting with w10 to play games(cause right now is impossible for me), i currently just have Arch in all my system(removed w10 1-2 weeks ago), i hate to say this but i never had perfomance issues on my w10 machine when gaming, just something dont feels alright. I see most of the people having great performance on Arch even with my same specs.
For other type of tasks it works really great but for gaming... I just want to play the games i used to. Ty for the info btw

pacoparty · 2024-09-03 10:14:34

Update, im testing other Steam games from my library, and they work good, i just guess its a CS2 problem that i have to figure out what to change or what to do with it. CPU undervolting and underclocking it(i had it overclocked as i said) resolved the problem of rebooting and high temperatures. Processing Vulkan drivers on other games also dont take that long and games runs pretty well.

Last edited by pacoparty (2024-09-03 10:20:09)

cryptearth · 2024-09-03 10:46:05

pacoparty wrote:

I just underclocked the cpu to render the shaders and it worked, no reboot and not high temperatures (it was locked at 3.9Ghz, the highest i could reach long time ago when i overclocked it)

sorry not sorry - but THIS makes this whole "complaint" just invalid!
you have a chip which is designed for 3.4ghz overclocked to more than it's designed turbo of 3.9ghz - and complain that it crashes due to emergency shutdown caused by overheating?
this is pretty much THE most important information you should had given as the very first line!
instead you just let us guess that a, what we thought, regular system at stock somehow reaches thermal shutdown
just one question: how do you think anyone of us should had guessed THAT to be the reason?
so it's obvious that your cooling is undersized and you pushing the system too hard on likely an old bios
no wonder why you have to repaste that system every few months - because you dry it out on purpose
if you feel you need more performance go buy at least a big enough cooling that can handle it - or a new cpu (most am4 boards are compatible with 5000 cpus with recent bios updates)

pacoparty · 2024-09-03 11:17:59

cryptearth wrote:

pacoparty wrote:
I just underclocked the cpu to render the shaders and it worked, no reboot and not high temperatures (it was locked at 3.9Ghz, the highest i could reach long time ago when i overclocked it)
sorry not sorry - but THIS makes this whole "complaint" just invalid!
you have a chip which is designed for 3.4ghz overclocked to more than it's designed turbo of 3.9ghz - and complain that it crashes due to emergency shutdown caused by overheating?
this is pretty much THE most important information you should had given as the very first line!
instead you just let us guess that a, what we thought, regular system at stock somehow reaches thermal shutdown
just one question: how do you think anyone of us should had guessed THAT to be the reason?
so it's obvious that your cooling is undersized and you pushing the system too hard on likely an old bios
no wonder why you have to repaste that system every few months - because you dry it out on purpose
if you feel you need more performance go buy at least a big enough cooling that can handle it - or a new cpu (most am4 boards are compatible with 5000 cpus with recent bios updates)

First of all, if u feel like this a "complaint" and not just a question in a Newbie Corner Forum btw, so "sorry" for not figuring out that my CPU settings on my BIOS was the wrong thing, when i was using this configuration like during +1year using heavy programs like rendering videos and such giving my CPU 100% of usage with 0 problems. Also you are assuming a lot that im killing my own computer when i didnt even said that i "change" my thermal paste every 5 months, i do it one or two times in 5years and i have the latest drivers on my BIOS, but yeah im the "stupid" guy that asked in a helping forum alright...
This was the first time i notice something wrong with just one game, i didnt even know that rendering vulkan drivers was that heavy of a task, but yeah we all start somewhere. I guess u the smartest in the room. Next time i will try to figure it out myself because "why i would ask people something that i dont know lol". Also i said im not the only one having this problems so i felt free to ask but nevermind, "thanks for the info".

Lone_Wolf · 2024-09-03 11:37:23

While I agree the overclocking is likely the cause of the shutdowns and overheating, that doesn't automatically imply the system has been severely damaged .

Pacoparty is not the first (and won't be the last) user that overclocked systems without running into issues for a very long time.

Moderator Note :
The tone of this thread has deteriorated a lot in the last 2 posts, please stay civil and treat eachother with respect.

pacoparty · 2024-09-03 11:53:38

Lone_Wolf wrote:

While I agree the overclocking is likely the cause of the shutdowns and overheating, that doesn't automatically imply the system has been severely damaged .
Pacoparty is not the first (and won't be the last) user that overclocked systems without running into issues for a very long time.
Moderator Note :
The tone of this thread has deteriorated a lot in the last 2 posts, please stay civil and treat eachother with respect.

But sometimes, not just me, we feel like "afraid" to ask anything on arch forums cause of this. I love the community and really wanna continue using arch as my linux system.

I will mark this as SOLVED and move on.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-09-02 22:14:30

[SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#2 2024-09-03 00:27:55

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#3 2024-09-03 08:52:59

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#4 2024-09-03 09:06:56

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#5 2024-09-03 09:40:02

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#6 2024-09-03 09:43:16

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#7 2024-09-03 10:02:32

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#8 2024-09-03 10:14:34

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#9 2024-09-03 10:46:05

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#10 2024-09-03 11:17:59

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#11 2024-09-03 11:37:23

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

#12 2024-09-03 11:53:38

Re: [SOLVED] Steam Processing Vulkan drivers CPU usage 100%

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