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Amazerfulify Jan 30, 2020 @ 6:44pm
Every game has lag - Linux Mint
Hey, so i'm new to linux, and i just installed a few of my games now and each and everyone of them are lagging (i get from 37fps to maximum 58fps). I was quite sold on the fact that on this OS i can get my computer to do mostly anything or to figure out a way to get my stuff to run even better than before.
I was using win7 just some time ago and none of games had this issue.
So my guess is, i'm assuming, that I need to change something using the terminal. I'm quite interested in learning how to deal with that but I lack the know-how.

I searched and read a few forums/threads about similar issues, but they were from older versions of my distro (Mint) dating back 2013.

ANy links, tips are welcomed,
thanks in advance :winter2019happyyul:
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Originally posted by Cat on Linux:
Originally posted by Amazerfulify:
Originally posted by Cat on Linux:
have you checked how much RAM is taken by steam client alone? it can be up to 2Gb on Linux, so your ~4Gb can turn into some free 500Mb for game.
try to run same game without steam or put steam in -nobrowser mode to free some resources. steam on Linux takes doubled resources compared to Windows so maybe that's why you experience degraded performance.

I see what you mean. I know it may sound silly but what is this nobrowser mode? is it something i type in the terminal or it's in Steam settings. I don't see that on Steam anywhere.

there's couple ways to save on resources.
0*. revert to old UI if you upgraded it, that will free some 500Mb-1Gb of RAM by just using less bloated variation of UI. if you already use old UI, read on

1. use -nobrowser (add it to your steam shortcut) or run from terminal "steam -nobrowser"
it can lock you out of community, profile, achievements (anything that uses web views in profile)

2. instead of nobrowser you can create bash script to deny steam webhelpers from spawning. it will give you 70-100Mb footprint and just a library page. it will run, install, uninstall games (only for old UI)
here's my example script (replace user in path with your name and check if you have steam in .steam or /local/share/Steam). it changes permissions on webhelper (denies execution) and runs steam app. then once you exit steam it changes permissions back and exits.
#!/bin/bash chmod -x /home/user/.steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper.sh chmod -x /home/user/.steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper steam steam://open/minigameslist chmod +x /home/user/.steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper.sh chmod +x /home/user/.steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper exit

call this file steam-min.sh, make it executable and place somewhere (I used home/user/scripts - my folder for custom scripts). then copy steam shortcut and edit it, or create new one, my example shortcut
[Desktop Entry] Name=Steam Min Exec=/home/user/scripts/steam-min.sh Type=Application StartupNotify=true Path=/home/user/.steam Icon=10B4_steam.0 StartupWMClass=steam Name[en_US]=Steam Min

now when you run steam with this shortcut it will go in minimal version and if you exit and run it with common shortcut it will have community, chat and all web features (but bigger footprint).

* if you want to keep old UI you can tell steam to never look for updates.
using steam config to deny webhelper activity (incl updates). create file in your .steam folder call it steam.cfg
BootStrapperInhibitAll=enable BootStrapperForceSelfUpdate=disable
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Showing 1-15 of 42 comments
Aoi Blue Jan 30, 2020 @ 7:22pm 
What are your system specs and what drivers are you running.
#1
Amazerfulify Jan 30, 2020 @ 7:27pm 
Computer Information:
Manufacturer: Unknown
Model: Unknown
Form Factor: Laptop
No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: AuthenticAMD
CPU Brand: AMD A4-9120e RADEON R3, 4 COMPUTE CORES 2C+2G
CPU Family: 0x15
CPU Model: 0x70
CPU Stepping: 0x0
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 1500 Mhz
2 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Unsupported
AVX512F: Unsupported
AVX512PF: Unsupported
AVX512ER: Unsupported
AVX512CD: Unsupported
AVX512VNNI: Unsupported
SHA: Unsupported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported

Operating System Version:
Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 5.3.0-28-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 12005000
X Window Manager: Mutter (Muffin)
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime_0.20191210.1

Video Card:
Driver: X.Org AMD STONEY (DRM 3.33.0, 5.3.0-28-generic, LLVM 9.0.0)
Driver Version: 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 19.2.1
OpenGL Version: 4.5
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID: 0x1002
DeviceID: 0x98e4
Revision Not Detected
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
Primary Display Resolution: 1366 x 768
Desktop Resolution: 1366 x 768
Primary Display Size: 13.54" x 7.60" (15.51" diag)
34.4cm x 19.3cm (39.4cm diag)
Primary VRAM: 256 MB

Sound card:
Audio device: ATI R6xx HDMI

Memory:
RAM: 3822 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_CA.UTF-8
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 119170 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 101670 Mb
VR Headset: None detected

The runtime information tool is preparing a report, please wait...


and about the driver, How can I look that up? or, where do I look for that?
#2
SANIC Jan 31, 2020 @ 2:59am 
Originally posted by Amazerfulify:
Kernel Version: 5.3.0-28-generic
Driver Version: 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 19.2.1

More recent versions of the Linux kernel provide better performance in games.

It's also good to note that games run with OpenGL usually and don't have the same performance as they can on Windows. Since Windows 7 reached it's EOL and the specs you provided upgrading to newer versions of Windows might not be an option. Maybe there is something that can be done.

Linux Mint's update manager is conservative about updates usually. Did you happen to configure it for "Safe" updates? You might want to open it and check off the updates highlighted in yellow and install them. See if there is any kind of improvement to performance after that.
#3
Cat on Linux Jan 31, 2020 @ 3:33am 
have you checked how much RAM is taken by steam client alone? it can be up to 2Gb on Linux, so your ~4Gb can turn into some free 500Mb for game.
try to run same game without steam or put steam in -nobrowser mode to free some resources. steam on Linux takes doubled resources compared to Windows so maybe that's why you experience degraded performance.
#4
Mohandevir Jan 31, 2020 @ 5:32am 
Probably talking on top of my head, but CPU Governor issue?

https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/indicator-cpufreq

Could this help?

Still, that's quite a low end cpu. What games are you trying to run?
Last edited by Mohandevir; Jan 31, 2020 @ 5:36am
#5
Marlock Jan 31, 2020 @ 2:09pm 
Originally posted by Garamari:
Linux Mint's update manager is conservative about updates usually. Did you happen to configure it for "Safe" updates? You might want to open it and check off the updates highlighted in yellow and install them. See if there is any kind of improvement to performance after that.

I believe there is no longer need to mess with update configs on Linux Mint... the defaults are very ok, especially if you installed LM 19.x from scratch, which eliminated the mentioned choice screen [with conservative/normal/all updates] in favour of the Timeshift system backup strategy and made applying all updates the default for everyone.

Originally posted by Garamari:
Originally posted by Amazerfulify:
Kernel Version: 5.3.0-28-generic
Driver Version: 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 19.2.1

More recent versions of the Linux kernel provide better performance in games.

the latest stable Linux Kernel version is 5.4 (very recently released), so 5.3 (the latest offered by default on Linux Mint) is quite enough

That Mesa version is pretty good already but maybe mesa 19.3 (the latest stable, and the version number equal to current LM is just coincidence) will actually help.


Given all that, what you should probably do first is follow this instruction for Proton (which can run windows-exclusive games on Linux), it should give you a more recent version of Mesa and maybe fix a couple other missing parts that can help.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Requirements
ps: just make sure not to follow instructions for Nvidia cards by mistake.

If that doesn't help after a reboot, see the rest of item [4] in this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/1636417404917541481/


Originally posted by Mohandevir:
Probably talking on top of my head, but CPU Governor issue?

https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/indicator-cpufreq

AFAIK, it's possible that this may interfere:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/1777136225015918222/?ctp=3#c1642043267251090548

Try changing the governor using this command on the terminal:
echo XXXXXXX | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Replace "XXXXXXX" with either:
- "performance" (theoretically faster but may cause extra heat and battery consumption, sometimes enough that thermal throtling gets in the way and other settings perform better)
or
- "powersave" (theoretically slower but is more clever at cinserving power and can deliver more stable and effective performance in thermally constrained cases such as laptops without special cooling designs... though only proven on Intel chips yet)

ps: Later it can be managed via GUI tools or automatically switched while gaming using Feral's "gamemode" tool too, but for a quick test this is just more practical.
#6
NRG-R9T Jan 31, 2020 @ 2:36pm 
I second the Feral Gamemode advice, what it does is actually just setup the CPU Governor to Performance while you play a game.
check here: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/08/feral-gamemode-ubuntu
or directly here: https://github.com/FeralInteractive/gamemode
#7
Amazerfulify Jan 31, 2020 @ 8:05pm 
Originally posted by Garamari:
Originally posted by Amazerfulify:
Kernel Version: 5.3.0-28-generic
Driver Version: 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 19.2.1

More recent versions of the Linux kernel provide better performance in games.

It's also good to note that games run with OpenGL usually and don't have the same performance as they can on Windows. Since Windows 7 reached it's EOL and the specs you provided upgrading to newer versions of Windows might not be an option. Maybe there is something that can be done.

Linux Mint's update manager is conservative about updates usually. Did you happen to configure it for "Safe" updates? You might want to open it and check off the updates highlighted in yellow and install them. See if there is any kind of improvement to performance after that.

I don't have anything showing up in my Update manager. Is there any specific place to reconfigure it from safe to anything else?
#8
Amazerfulify Jan 31, 2020 @ 8:08pm 
Originally posted by Cat on Linux:
have you checked how much RAM is taken by steam client alone? it can be up to 2Gb on Linux, so your ~4Gb can turn into some free 500Mb for game.
try to run same game without steam or put steam in -nobrowser mode to free some resources. steam on Linux takes doubled resources compared to Windows so maybe that's why you experience degraded performance.

I see what you mean. I know it may sound silly but what is this nobrowser mode? is it something i type in the terminal or it's in Steam settings. I don't see that on Steam anywhere.
#9
Amazerfulify Jan 31, 2020 @ 8:11pm 
Originally posted by Mohandevir:
Probably talking on top of my head, but CPU Governor issue?

https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/indicator-cpufreq

Could this help?

Still, that's quite a low end cpu. What games are you trying to run?

Yeah, I know it's low end.
ha, you may find it silly but the games I "tested" up until now are The Caribbean Sail, Slpistream, Mini Metro. All very small games that, in my understanding, do not demand that much on any systems...
I did try the games on Big Picture Mode and it felt like it helped a bit. Does that make sense? Could Big Picture really help?
#10
Amazerfulify Jan 31, 2020 @ 8:18pm 
Originally posted by Marlock:
Originally posted by Garamari:
Linux Mint's update manager is conservative about updates usually. Did you happen to configure it for "Safe" updates? You might want to open it and check off the updates highlighted in yellow and install them. See if there is any kind of improvement to performance after that.

I believe there is no longer need to mess with update configs on Linux Mint... the defaults are very ok, especially if you installed LM 19.x from scratch, which eliminated the mentioned choice screen [with conservative/normal/all updates] in favour of the Timeshift system backup strategy and made applying all updates the default for everyone.

Originally posted by Garamari:

More recent versions of the Linux kernel provide better performance in games.

the latest stable Linux Kernel version is 5.4 (very recently released), so 5.3 (the latest offered by default on Linux Mint) is quite enough

That Mesa version is pretty good already but maybe mesa 19.3 (the latest stable, and the version number equal to current LM is just coincidence) will actually help.


Given all that, what you should probably do first is follow this instruction for Proton (which can run windows-exclusive games on Linux), it should give you a more recent version of Mesa and maybe fix a couple other missing parts that can help.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Requirements
ps: just make sure not to follow instructions for Nvidia cards by mistake.

If that doesn't help after a reboot, see the rest of item [4] in this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/1636417404917541481/


Originally posted by Mohandevir:
Probably talking on top of my head, but CPU Governor issue?

https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/indicator-cpufreq

AFAIK, it's possible that this may interfere:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/1777136225015918222/?ctp=3#c1642043267251090548

Try changing the governor using this command on the terminal:
echo XXXXXXX | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Replace "XXXXXXX" with either:
- "performance" (theoretically faster but may cause extra heat and battery consumption, sometimes enough that thermal throtling gets in the way and other settings perform better)
or
- "powersave" (theoretically slower but is more clever at cinserving power and can deliver more stable and effective performance in thermally constrained cases such as laptops without special cooling designs... though only proven on Intel chips yet)

ps: Later it can be managed via GUI tools or automatically switched while gaming using Feral's "gamemode" tool too, but for a quick test this is just more practical.

Wow, thanks for all the links and great info ! Good stuff !
#11
powbam Jan 31, 2020 @ 11:08pm 
For me the most pain-free distro for gaming in the Linux world is Manjaro.
https://manjaro.org

If you get tired of Mint ever give it a spin.
#12
Amazerfulify Jan 31, 2020 @ 11:11pm 
Originally posted by powbam:
For me the most pain-free distro for gaming in the Linux world is Manjaro.
https://manjaro.org

If you get tired of Mint ever give it a spin.

Thanks for sharing!
#13
powbam Jan 31, 2020 @ 11:27pm 
Originally posted by Amazerfulify:
Originally posted by powbam:
For me the most pain-free distro for gaming in the Linux world is Manjaro.
https://manjaro.org

If you get tired of Mint ever give it a spin.

Thanks for sharing!
No problem.. and btw it looks to me (looking at the info list you supplied above) the reason why you are getting such bad FPS is because you possibly haven't even installed proprietary drivers yet and are simply using the base installed Linux GPU drivers.

Try opening a terminal and typing in:
inxi -F
and retrieving the input it gives you and pasting it here..

as an example here is how mine looks:
[powbam@pow-manja ~]$ inxi -F
System:
Host: pow-manja Kernel: 5.5.0-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8Z77-I DELUXE v: Rev X.0x
serial: <root required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 1201 date: 06/20/2014
CPU:
Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-3350P bits: 64 type: MCP
L2 cache: 6144 KiB
Speed: 1648 MHz min/max: 1600/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1649 2: 1648
3: 1648 4: 1648
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GM206 [GeForce GTX 960] driver: nvidia v: 440.44
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.7 driver: nvidia
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 440.44
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: NVIDIA GM206 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.5.0-1-MANJARO
Network:
Device-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 60:a4:4c:b0:8b:65
Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n driver: wl
IF: wlp3s0 state: down mac: 9e:27:e0:8e:4e:4b
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.36 TiB used: 79.74 GiB (5.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM003-1CH162 size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 448.79 GiB used: 79.17 GiB (17.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.80 GiB used: 582.5 MiB (6.5%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C gpu: nvidia temp: 55 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Info:
Processes: 224 Uptime: 8h 30m Memory: 7.72 GiB used: 2.90 GiB (37.5%)
Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.37
Last edited by powbam; Jan 31, 2020 @ 11:35pm
#14
Amazerfulify Jan 31, 2020 @ 11:31pm 
Originally posted by powbam:
Originally posted by Amazerfulify:

Thanks for sharing!
No problem.. and btw it looks to me (looking at the info list you supplied above) the reason why you are getting such bad FPS is because you possibly haven't even installed proprietary drivers yet and are simply using the base installed Linux GPU drivers.

Try opening a terminal and typing in:
inxi -f
and retrieving the input it gives you and pasting it here..

CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: AMD A4-9120e RADEON R3 4 COMPUTE CORES 2C+2G
bits: 64 type: MCP L2 cache: 1024 KiB
Speed: 1094 MHz min/max: 1100/1500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1113 2: 1117
Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acc_power aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2
bmi1 bmi2 bpext clflush cmov cmp_legacy constant_tsc cpb cpuid cr8_legacy
cx16 cx8 de decodeassists extapic extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid fma fma4
fpu fsgsbase fxsr fxsr_opt ht hw_pstate ibpb ibs lahf_lm lbrv lm lwp mca
mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe msr mtrr mwaitx nodeid_msr
nonstop_tsc nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae pat pausefilter
pclmulqdq pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_nb pfthreshold pge pni popcnt pse
pse36 ptsc rdtscp rep_good sep skinit smep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2
sse4a ssse3 svm svm_lock syscall tbm tce tsc tsc_scale v_vmsave_vmload
vgif vmcb_clean vme vmmcall wdt xop xsave xsaveopt

Where or how do i install proprietary drivers?
#15
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Date Posted: Jan 30, 2020 @ 6:44pm
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