[Linux] Bad performance and low GPU usage

[kentosama]

Hello and happy new year :)

I'm having performance issues with Tomb Raider on Linux (Debian Buster). I noticed that on some, I have framerate drops that can go down to 10 fps regardless of the graphics settings

I have a AMD FX 8320 with AMD Radeon R9 280X.

I use the proprietary driver.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Informations de l'ordinateur :
Fabricant : Unknown
Modèle : Unknown
Type : Ordinateur de bureau
Aucun écran tactile détecté

Processeur :
Fabricant du CPU : AuthenticAMD
Marque du processeur : AMD FX(tm)-8320 Eight-Core Processor
Famille du processeur : 0x15
Modèle du processeur : 0x2
Révision processeur : 0x0
Type de processeur : 0x0
Fréquence : 3500 Mhz
8 processeurs logiques
8 processeurs physiques
HyperThreading : Non pris en charge
FCMOV : Pris en charge
SSE2 : Pris en charge
SSE3 : Pris en charge
SSSE3 : Pris en charge
SSE4a : Pris en charge
SSE41 : Pris en charge
SSE42 : Pris en charge
AES : Pris en charge
AVX : Pris en charge
AVX2 : Non pris en charge
AVX512F : Non pris en charge
AVX512PF : Non pris en charge
AVX512ER : Non pris en charge
AVX512CD : Non pris en charge
AVX512VNNI : Non pris en charge
SHA : Non pris en charge
CMPXCHG16B : Pris en charge
LAHF/SAHF : Pris en charge
PrefetchW : Non pris en charge

Version du système d'exploitation :
Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) (64 bits)
Nom du noyau : Linux
Version du noyau : 4.19.0-6-amd64
Éditeur du serveur X : The X.Org Foundation
Version du serveur X : 12004000
Gestionnaire de fenêtres X : Mutter (Muffin)
Version d'exécution Steam : steam-runtime_0.20191210.1

Carte graphique :
Pilote : X.Org AMD TAHITI (DRM 2.50.0, 4.19.0-6-amd64, LLVM 7.0.1)
Version du pilote : 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 18.3.6
Version OpenGL : 4.5
Profondeur de couleur du bureau : 24 bits par pixel
Taux de rafraîchissement du moniteur : 60 Hz
ID fabricant : 0x1002
ID périphérique : 0x6798
Révision non détectée
Nombre de moniteurs : 1
Nombre de cartes vidéo logiques : 1
Résolution de l'affichage principal : 1920 x 1080
Résolution du bureau : 1920 x 1080
Taille de l'affichage principal : 20.91" x 11.77" (23.98" diag)
53.1cm x 29.9cm (60.9cm diag)
Mémoire vidéo principale : 3072 Mo

Carte son :
Périphérique audio : VIA VT2020

Mémoire :
RAM : 7782 Mo

Divers :
Langue de l'interface : Français
LANGUE : fr_FR.UTF-8
Espace disque total disponible : 120439 Mo
Plus grand bloc disponible sur le disque dur : 89073 Mo
Casque VR : aucun détecté

I updated my Debian Buster to testing for get Mesa 19 :

Carte graphique :
Pilote : X.Org AMD TAHITI (DRM 2.50.0, 5.3.0-3-amd64, LLVM 9.0.0)
Version du pilote : 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 19.2.6
Version OpenGL : 4.5
Profondeur de couleur du bureau : 24 bits par pixel
Taux de rafraîchissement du moniteur : 60 Hz
ID fabricant : 0x1002
ID périphérique : 0x6798
Révision non détectée
Nombre de moniteurs : 1
Nombre de cartes vidéo logiques : 1
Résolution de l'affichage principal : 1920 x 1080
Résolution du bureau : 1920 x 1080
Taille de l'affichage principal : 20.91" x 11.77" (23.98" diag)
53.1cm x 29.9cm (60.9cm diag)
Mémoire vidéo principale : 3072 Mo

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1957044515
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1957046136

[EL MATADOR IS NO MORE]

First of all, please make a performance test on a game, next I suggest you update your graphics card drivers to the latest stable version, hope I helped ;)

[kentosama]

Hello, when I play with other games, I have no problem. For example, with Shadow Warrrior in ultra, the game works better than under Windows. I will still try to update the drivers manually.

[kentosama]

This commad give better performance but i still have low performance

mesa_glthread=true %command%

[猫耳好软丶]

NVIDIA makes me feel awful

[RelativityGuy]

For what it's worth, I can say this game is not perfectly optimized.
On Windows, with an RTX 2060, I randomly have drops from 60 to 35 FPS.

[Seda]

The game runs better on Mesa 19.x imo.

Upgrading to Debian Bullseye (testing) will probably result in a massive improvement in performance due to the upgraded Mesa.

Version du pilote : 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 18.3.6

Bullseye ships with 19.2.6. It's a pretty big boost.

If your rig is primarily a gaming box you might consider floating along with Debian Testing anyway tbh (obviously consider this for your use case).

[kentosama]

Hello, I just went to Bullseye and I therefore have Mesa 19. I did not notice any significant differences on the framerate except 2/4 fps more. What is strange is that I have very little difference in performance between ultimate / ultra / high.

In the slums I am around 15/20 fps in normal mode.

I also noticed that my graphics card does not heat up and the fans run at low speed. On Windows, I regularly heard the fans run at full speed with a slight vibration noise.

Is there a Linux utility / utility for checking GPU usage?

[kentosama]

Like I said, the GPU usage is very low.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1956851855

When i play with Shadow Warrior, the GPU usage up to 70% and i have 60++ fps in ultra settings

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1957044515
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1957046136

[Seda]

Can you post the output of this command (do not run as root):

lspci -k | grep -A3 -E "3D|VGA|Video" | grep driver | sed -e 's/.*: //g'

The above command queries the lspci command for information about your driver module.

If your driver module is amdgpu, you can try forcing your gpu to the max power state with this command before running the game, but it needs to be run as root;

echo high > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level

Try running the game after setting that command and see if it helps.

As for a usage monitor, you can try radeontop:
https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/radeontop

However I suggest attempting to force a high gpu power level first, and radeontop will provide some inaccurate information on newer cards.

[kentosama]

Thanks a lot Seda

kentosama@desktop:~$ sudo lspci -k | grep -A3 -E "3D|VGA|Video" | grep driver | sed -e 's/.*: //g'
radeon

witch echo high > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level I didn't notice any difference in performance.

[Seda]

You might want to try switching to the amdgpu module.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AMDGPU#Set_module_parameters_in_modprobe.d

Although this wiki entry is from Arch Linux, that same segment is relevant to Debian as well.

e.g.

# nano /etc/modprobe.d/amdgpu.conf

options amdgpu si_support=1
options amdgpu cik_support=0

# nano /etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf

options radeon si_support=0
options radeon cik_support=0

# update-initramfs -u

Once this is complete,

echo high > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level

May be more effective.

Note: my suggestions are based on the fact I remember playing this on an FX-9590 with a Radeon video card so old it didn't meet the requirements (but did run on amdgpu, not radeon). However, I'm in the middle of a smoke-filled location surrounded by fire and heat so it's possible my brain is on memory strike.

Speaking of heat;

$ sensors

Make sure that video card isn't running stupidly hot.

[kentosama]

I loaded the amdgpu module at startup and deactivate the radeon module. When I started Steam, vulkan shaders were downloaded for Tomb Raider.

However, I haven't always noticed a difference in framerate

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1957360467

[Seda]

Haven't always, or at all?
(Also it's 4:21am, I'm out of here for some hours.)

Also just in case it's downloaded the shaders but still executing in classic;

# apt-get install mesa-vulkan-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386

Can you run:

$ glxgears

And post the FPS you receive from that? The FPS will be shown in the terminal.

[kentosama]

I had loaded the amdgpu module from grub, but I used your solution with the configuration files.

Here is the result of glxgears:

kentosama@desktop: ~ $ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
302 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.360 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.998 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.002 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.996 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.999 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.997 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.998 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60,000 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.998 FPS

I noticed that the problem seems the same with Wolfenstein Old Blood, but I know that this game is not very well optimized.

[kentosama]

I have big problem because my score with glmark2 is 3159. It should be > 8000

kentosama@desktop:~$ glmark2
=======================================================
glmark2 2017.07
=======================================================
OpenGL Information
GL_VENDOR: X.Org
GL_RENDERER: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series (TAHITI, DRM 3.33.0, 5.3.0-3-amd64, LLVM 9.0.0)
GL_VERSION: 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 19.2.6
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 3384 FrameTime: 0.296 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 3824 FrameTime: 0.262 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 3541 FrameTime: 0.282 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 3686 FrameTime: 0.271 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 3851 FrameTime: 0.260 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 3483 FrameTime: 0.287 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 3786 FrameTime: 0.264 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 3671 FrameTime: 0.272 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 3504 FrameTime: 0.285 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 3648 FrameTime: 0.274 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 3769 FrameTime: 0.265 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 3896 FrameTime: 0.257 ms
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 3845 FrameTime: 0.260 ms
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 3861 FrameTime: 0.259 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 3951 FrameTime: 0.253 ms
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 2851 FrameTime: 0.351 ms
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 2906 FrameTime: 0.344 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 826 FrameTime: 1.211 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 996 FrameTime: 1.004 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 992 FrameTime: 1.008 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 2007 FrameTime: 0.498 ms
[jellyfish] <default>: FPS: 3732 FrameTime: 0.268 ms
[terrain] <default>: FPS: 1312 FrameTime: 0.762 ms
[shadow] <default>: FPS: 3430 FrameTime: 0.292 ms
[refract] <default>: FPS: 2243 FrameTime: 0.446 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 3470 FrameTime: 0.288 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 3491 FrameTime: 0.286 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 3397 FrameTime: 0.294 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 3086 FrameTime: 0.324 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 3546 FrameTime: 0.282 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 3586 FrameTime: 0.279 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 3313 FrameTime: 0.302 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 3382 FrameTime: 0.296 ms
=======================================================
glmark2 Score: 3159
=======================================================