Arch Linux

maboleth

Member

Registered: 2020-01-03

Posts: 228

[slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

Game: Elder Scrolls Online
Steam Proton 9 & Experimental - doesn't matter
Driver: Tried both AmdVlk and Radeon Vlk - doesn't matter

After a while, 30min to 1h, from ultra-fluid, rock solid 60fps I start to get choppy, dropped frames in the game. The FPS counter drops to 51 while moving. While 9 frames don't seem much, that's the indicator that something isn't right because it's always 60fps.

Dropped frames mean the action gameplay is very hard as the game feels like playing at 20fps effectively.

If anyone has any clue why this happens and what can I try to pinpoint the issue, I'd be grateful. I also tried changing some video settings in the game but nothing helped. The current "workaround" is to exit and enter the game again. Then I have another +30m/1h to play. It's very annoying to say the least.

Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.9.0
Qt Version: 6.8.1
Kernel Version: 6.12.8-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor
Memory: 31.3 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT
Manufacturer: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd
Product Name: MS-7C02
System Version: 1.0

Last edited by maboleth (2025-01-07 12:31:27)

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,171

Re: [slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

sounds like resource leak - usually an application error
I doubt there's much that can be done on your side - if any
seems like a known issue https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollson … ?rdt=39754

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,694

Re: [slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

Is your steam overlay disabled? There's a known bug with the introduction of game recording in steam that leads to this issue if you've disabled the overlay. A workaround without enabling the overlay again is to add

LD_PRELOAD="" %command%

to the launch options. There's a thread here and a bug report on github floating around but I'm unable to find either right now.

Dug some more, see: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam- … sues/11446

Last edited by V1del (2025-01-07 10:31:12)

maboleth

Member

Registered: 2020-01-03

Posts: 228

Re: [slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

@crypt
It's possible that some leak is at play, yes. However, I don't have any of these problems on W11.
It is true though that the OP from that Reddit post described this issue 100%. However, the post is 3y old. I don't remember having this issue before, hm.

These dropped frames reminded me of the issues I had on some distros like Manjaro that had these kind of problems. But then again, that was evident the moment you entered the game, not after 30-60mins of play. And never on Arch. So yes, it is different.

@V1del
Yes, I have disabled Overlay as I don't use almost anything on Steam. It's merely a vessel to play this game with Proton.

I was thinking there was some Power-saving related problem kicking in after a while... but I'm not sure anymore. This issue happens at random, not at a fixed timing. But time is a factor - it never happens in the first 20 or so minutes.

maboleth

Member

Registered: 2020-01-03

Posts: 228

Re: [slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

Is your steam overlay disabled? There's a known bug with the introduction of game recording in steam that leads to this issue if you've disabled the overlay. A workaround without enabling the overlay again is to add

LD_PRELOAD="" %command%

to the launch options. There's a thread here and a bug report on github floating around but I'm unable to find either right now.

Dug some more, see: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam- … sues/11446

Appreciate that, thanks. I will have a look.

maboleth

Member

Registered: 2020-01-03

Posts: 228

Re: [slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

It appears that this fixed the problem:

LD_PRELOAD="" %command%

It's been almost 2h without issues! Fingers crossed.

Thanks a lot!

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,171

Re: [slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

for me the "problem" with such reports is this:
many users report issues in a way as if it would affect everyone and everything - yet on my side I can't relate to them as I don't experience them myself although there're often similiarieties like amd cpu/gpu, kde, wayland, same application ... and at some point several of these threads turn into a direction of overclocking/undervolting or ither strange "non-standard" things the user has done to thier system - or in short: the issues often seem to be caused by user error

the issue linked from v1del again has the very same "smells like user error" vibe to me: overriding LD_PRELOAD clearly can't be good option - and although it seems to be a relieve for several users it's merely tinkering with symptoms instead of curing the illness - and again: doesn't affect me at all - just yesterday I did a smooth 6h long session in arma3 - and A3 is one of those games known to have poor performance even on todays modern hardware due to the bad graphics engine

tldr: if the reported issue really is caused by steam or proton or anything else in common like hardware, software, kernel, driver, other software - what do I do different to everyone else that I somehow magically not affected? hence I raise doubts that the root cause really is steam or anything along the pipeline but rather it's some user error

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,694

Re: [slvd] Game stuttering and dropped frames after a while (AMD graphics)

As mentioned quickly (you can get into the nitty grit details from the bug report linked above) Steam recently rolled out a feature that you can do game footage recording from within Steam. For "weird software interaction reasons" if you disable the steam overlay (it's enabled by default so this is a conscious user decision indeed) some part of that seems to get loaded incorrectly (or anyway - despite it not needing to be enabled if you don't have the overlay anyway) and can lead to this issue.

The LD_PRELOAD hack simply prevents the relevant preload (that steam does anyway, to load it's overlay) steam would normally be doing and thus avoids hitting that faulty lib. Ultimately that's a steam bug and it will likely get fixed in one of the next betas.