Performance on FX CPU in Linux is unbarable

[VuurDraak]

The game runs like a slow moving snail on one of the fastest FX CPU's in Linux Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS 64bit.

I recently "upgraded" my Phenom II x4 965 @3.4Ghz for an FX 8370E @3.415Ghz/3.725Ghz(8Cturbo)/4.450Ghz(4Cturbo) (207Mhz NB)

As many people will know the FX has 33% less ALUs per core then the Phenom despites it's 33% wider pipeline and 1050Mhz clock advantage, the FX has a problem with single treaded games like ETS2.

ETS2 is at the moment the only game, where I have to reduce the graphics settings, due to CPU bottle necking, as my GTX 1060 3GB has no problem with the graphics it self.

I have read that ETS2's performance on Linux is very bad comaipred to Windows, and since the game runs on a crappy old game engine that is single threaded, the game runs more crap, then with my Phenom + GTX 660.

I there for have decided to no longer invest money in this game, as any money I give is used to get more speed on Intel + Windows setups.

[Zipristin]

I'm also very sad for this. The performance is very bad compared to Windows with the same hardware in my PC as well. But I don't think the CPU is bottlenecking according to my system monitor, i think the game is just poorly optimized for opengl although I'm not an expert.

[room217au]

From what I've seen in most comments and issues with this game in terms of performance is that it does not run well on OpenGL. Case-in-point from the OP.
My system is Win7-64bit / AMD FX6300 6-core / 16gb RAM / 128-bit GTX750 / 240gb SSD and it runs great.
Not perfectly? But good enough for me.
Speaking of threads in use by the game.. is this not what you mean?

00:00:00.000 : [sys] using 2 worker thread(s)
00:00:00.000 : [sys] and 3 worker threads for IO.
00:00:00.000 : [sys] plus 2 real-time worker threads.

[VuurDraak]

Is the game more multi threaded allready ?
I'm not sure how multi threaded it realy is, I think a lot of load is still on one thread.
The game performs worse anyway on the FX compard to the Phenom, which in the end is all due to bad code optimization.
And yes the game seems to perform a lot more poorly in OpenGL.

The game is poorly optimized for the FX CPU, a CPU that unknown to many people actualy does have the same compute capibilities as a Core i7 clock for clock with Integer calc, if all stuff is properly optimized for the FX, even single threaded.

from : http://www.agner.org/optimize/microarchitecture.pdf
-----
Execution units (of Buldozer,Piledriver & Steamroller)

- The integer execution units are poorly distributed between the four pipes. Two of the pipes
have all the integer execution units while the other two pipes are used only for memory read
instructions and address generation (not LEA), and on some models for simple register
moves.
- This means that the processor can execute only two integer ALU instructions per
clock cycle, where previous models can execute three. This is a serious bottleneck for pure
integer code. The single-core throughput for integer code can actually be doubled by doing
half of the instructions in vector registers, even if only one element of each vector is used.
-----

In other words if coders would optimize the critical code in their program to make the CPU calc halve of the integer code on the FPU, then the FX can actualy execute 4 integer operations per clock single threaded, just like the i7, and just like the i7 it has 2 threads per module(core), and just like the i7 it has 4 decoders per module/core/double-thread.

Most FX CPU's owned out there have higher base clocks then i7s, my single threaded CPU speed is 4450Mhz.

Ofcause the FX underperforms in legacy ALU-only code, but the fact that the FX CPU performs so bad in many single threaded games is in the end the fault of the coders and not the lack of executions units in the FX CPU.

[sgpch1983]

maybe try and upgrade to the next lts.

[saktiris]

Originally posted by VuurDraak:

As many people will know the FX has 33% less ALUs per core then the Phenom despites it's 33% wider pipeline and 1050Mhz clock advantage, the FX has a problem with single treaded games like ETS2.

I there for have decided to no longer invest money in this game, as any money I give is used to get more speed on Intel + Windows setups.

ETS2 its a DX9 game,one core perf matter,you dont need to invest more money in a GPU,just get a good IPC Intel CPU. Or wait for AMD Zen CPU.

FX CPU ist not real 6-8 cores Cpu,its 3-4.

Edit: For non Intel Cpu users you can try this:

Intel Compiler Patcher (ICP) scans your hard drive for executable files compiled with the Intel C++ Compiler making it possible to disable the CPU Dispatcher in detected files, thus, increasing performance of the software that uses these files with CPUs other than Intel.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/Patchers/Intel-Compiler-Patcher.shtml

[VuurDraak]

@[D]sgpch1983
I doubt it will help much, as 14.04 is now using the same Xenial Kernel as the 16.04 version, OpenGL drivers also will be the same, as I'm using the Nvidia Binairy driver 370.28, the 375 driver is not working propperly on my GTX 1060 3GB, and for the most part Steam games are using the Steam suplied function libraries.

@saktiris
I just replaced my Phenom, with an FX 8370e for 157€, and no I'm not going to invest 400€ in a new motherboard and DDR4 memory + crap Intel CPU(like an i3)

A very nice gesture that Intel Compiler patcher thingy, sadly I'm using Linux, so it won't help me.

If you want to call the FX 8370e a 4 core or 8 core CPU, I don't care about that, reality is that if coders/game makers, would properly optimize for the FX CPU then it can do just as many integer operations either single threaded or multi threaded, clock for clock, as the newest Skylake core i7, the only reason it performs so badly is that people like SCS do not care about propper optimazation for the FX CPU, the game is probebly not optimzed at all in anyway, and it would not surprice me if they used Intel C++ compilers, who purposefully chose the slowest instruction path for non-Intel CPU's, iaw letting an AMD or VIA CPU run x87 code while the Intel CPU runs SSE3 or what ever, but you seem to know about that already ;)

For more fun reading about how Intel, cripples AMD CPU's for the past 12 or more years:
http://www.agner.org/optimize/blog/read.php?i=49

Reality though is that the FX CPU performs amazingly in Wine + CSMT (Command Stream Multi Threading)
I have been able to go from low standard SD settings in World of Tanks, to maximum enhanched SD settings while running at 30 to 75 FPS.
When stuff becomes highly multi threaded like with CSMT, the FX shows it's mussle, I would not want to go back to the Phenom, or trade the FX in for an i3, who performs extreemly badly with CSMT, where the core i3 can run as slowly as 25 fps in WoT with lowest SD settings.

Edit:
The amazing performance in Wine + CSMT, also shows that when games will fully support Vulkan, and go multi threaded, that the core i3 has to bite in to the dust compared to the FX CPUs, as it simply has halve the execution units of a 4 module FX, coupled with mostlikely higher CPU frequencies of the FX, the core i3 will simply break down and the FX CPU will shine, unless game makers will continue to use only OpenGL and code single threaded games with Intel C++ compilers, without ever doing any optimizations.

[sgpch1983]

well i would disable the steam overlay stuff.. that even helped in windows.. cant help with nvida but i always say dont cross amd with nvidia cards.. build clean systems.. amd cpu with amd gpu (more optimised) or intel with nvidia.. oh well.. if it runs better in wine i would say use that.. also you may want to post in the scs forum if not done yet, not only here. :)

i would make sure all my libs and drivers are up to date.. also i would think about replaceing the kernel with a newer self compiled one :)

[VuurDraak]

Sadly the AMD OpenGL drivers in Linux have halve the performance of the Nvidia drivers, making a Radeon that performs just as good in Windows as a Nvidia GPU, run twice as slow.

Many people who are dedicated Linux gamers like me, that use AMD GPUs, do it because the AMD drivers are completely open source.
Sadly I can not afford the luxury of being completely clean & open source, I'm already giving up some performance and game choice versus Windows gaming in general. (Some games do run faster on Linux, but most don't)
I don't want to take another 50% performance penalty using a Radeon GPU in Linux, so I stick with Nvidia for the moment.