Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-07 00:40:00

Hello,

Since I installed arch last year, I noticed that on some specific games, I get very high CPU bottleneck (one or all cores are at 100% usage, the GPU is almost unused, and I get poor performances).
I noticed this on Satisfactory, Void Crew and Elden Ring (er-patcher). I don't really see any link between those.
It is very very annoying (makes the games properly unplayable ~15fps for the first two, and the 60 fps cap is kept for elden ring somehow?).

I am using an NVidia Turing GPU, on a desktop without descrete graphics (i7 13700kf).
I am using the latest linux kernel (linux package), and nvidia-open package for the GPU driver.
Tried several proton[GE]/wine[GE] versions, nothing changes.

What could be wrong with my install ? Thank you

jl2 · 2025-02-07 13:41:35

https://www.protondb.com/app/526870 mentions some slight performance issues. and frame drops. use "-dlx12" or "-vulkan"

do you use dome hud like mangohud or so?
Do you use steam save or capture video?

seth · 2025-02-07 16:09:38

The Turing GPU /is/ the "discrete graphics", from your description you're probably rendering in software.

Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

Please post your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General

Edit: maybe better also

vulkaninfo --summary

Last edited by seth (2025-02-07 16:10:05)

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-08 14:26:18

Hi,

Yes jl2 I am using the vulkan renderer on satisfactory ; as I said it is a
I don't use mangohud when I'm playing games casually, but I do use it to troubleshoot stuff like these.
I don't use steam save/video capture.

I'm not sure what you're looking for Seth, here is what you asked for:
Journalctl: https://0x0.st/8Pyw.txt
Xorg logs: https://0x0.st/8PtN.txt
Vulkaninfo: https://0x0.st/8Pt8.txt

seth · 2025-02-08 15:28:39

I'm not sure what you're looking for seth

The software rasterizer, but it's not in that xorg log.
There's also no hybrid graphics and vulkaninfo looks fine™ - forgot to install lib32-nvidia-utils?

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-08 20:08:28

Nice guess but no it's installed, I checked the packages several times already. I'm using the kernel 'linux' package, so I don't have the nvidia-dkms package too, is that alright ?

seth · 2025-02-08 21:24:45

Only using the precompiled module is fine and as mentioned, the xorg log doesn't indicate a problem at that level.

Does any of the affected games allow to show the render device?
Also I'm not quite sure about your vulkan response to jl2, does https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/ … _emulation help?

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-08 22:41:18

I'm sorry I don't understand your first question...
OpenGL emulation didn't change anything for satisfactory and void crew, and makes elden ring crash at launch (didn't bother troubleshooting that because of the first two)

seth · 2025-02-09 08:15:25

Back in the good old days you could press ^ to get the ID3 console and ask for r_lastValidRenderer and it would tell what /it/ is using right now.
The question is whether the games in question run on hardware at all, so if any of them has similar features or just an entry in the GUI, that would be useful.

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-10 23:22:21

Unluckily none of these games have a "graphics card" selection menu in the UI... And I couldn't find any console or console command similar to the r_lastValidRenderer from id3 engine
You're thinking that the game is not using the graphics card at all ? Because nividia-smi DOES report gpu usage from the games processes

seth · 2025-02-11 06:05:29

It would have explained high CPU load on no GPU demands - nvidia-smi will report any process that accesses the device, doesn't mean it's in active use.

If you override applications in nvidia-settings, do you think you could spot whether fxaa/msaa are usd (eg. when otherwise running the game at a lousy resolution you still don't get aliasing)?

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-11 12:33:37

I have absolutely no idea of what you want me to do. I looked into the nvidia-settings UI but I'm fairly lost

What's the rendering technique you're talking about exactly ? The only way I know to render a 3D game is through a graphics API (that is always implemented to run on the GPU: Vulkan, OpenGL, Metal) ; it is possible to do all the calculations on the CPU and write the result to a memory mapped framebuffer, but this is HORRIBLY inefficient, and I think I would get even less fps than I currently get

Last edited by Magyar_57 (2025-02-11 12:34:40)

seth · 2025-02-11 13:16:18

software emulation (exists for GL and vulkan, though for vulkan you'd have to intall eg. lavapipe)

nvidia-settings has an Antialiasing page where you can control this, it interpolates edges.

Idk what kind of performance you can expect from your games in software rendering, but your GPU is unused and your CPU completely freaks out.
So it's either that or your GPU is bored because the CPU cannot keep up with it because it's busy with some unrelated nonsense, ie. maybe a bug in the game code or whatnot.

What /does/ load the CPU? The game/proton or some completely different process?

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-17 10:53:53

Hi, sorry for the long delay
I fixed the problem on Elden Ring by going from fullscreen to borderless...
Moreover, the fps problem is present on satisfactory only when I load my big save with tons of industries to update, but when I load in a blank save, I get the same performance as I do on windows. And I still get the issue when I set the renderer to directX 11 or 12, so it's probably not software emulation (?)
In Void Crew, it gets laggy only when I'm in a specific scene (piloting or using the weapons)

I think I was mistaken, it appears that I'm having 3 different problems for 3 different games

Yes it's proton that loads all my problematic games (protonGE 9.22), all launched through steam
Usually, my GPU is used at 10-15%, maybe 20% ; I'm 100% sure it's in use by the games, because when idling or just rendering the desktop it's used at at most 5% (RTX 2080 Ti)

seth · 2025-02-17 17:06:16

Does steam on windows handle the "big save with tons of industries" better?
Do you keep the games on a (shared) ntfs partition (and do you have to load a lot of/big files and what ntfs driver do you use, 3g or 3?)

Magyar_57 · 2025-02-20 20:39:32

Yes windows run my big industry save correctly, and everything is on my root partition (btrfs in ~/Games) (I have the game files duplicated on windows, the save is handle by steam cloud)
I'm now thinking that it's a game-specific problem then...

Arch Linux

#1 2025-02-07 00:40:00

Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#2 2025-02-07 13:41:35

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#3 2025-02-07 16:09:38

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#4 2025-02-08 14:26:18

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#5 2025-02-08 15:28:39

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#6 2025-02-08 20:08:28

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#7 2025-02-08 21:24:45

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#8 2025-02-08 22:41:18

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#9 2025-02-09 08:15:25

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#10 2025-02-10 23:22:21

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#11 2025-02-11 06:05:29

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#12 2025-02-11 12:33:37

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#13 2025-02-11 13:16:18

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#14 2025-02-17 10:53:53

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#15 2025-02-17 17:06:16

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

#16 2025-02-20 20:39:32

Re: Abnormal CPU bottleneck (low fps) on SPECIFIC games

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