Game studders & very low FPS while youtube is playing

Newbie Corner
#1
Original Post

Hello again.

EDIT: I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it, deleted the files in /etc/X11/mhwd.d/ since I have save the config file at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/95-mhwd.confand tried again. I tried vertical sync and the game was stil lagging, but it was almost playable. I restarted my pc and it was playing ok. If I turn off vsync its completely unplayable. If anyone has faced something similar I would like to here what you did. I hope I don't have to use vsync on competitive games, because it increases latency.

I just tried to play a game of Rocket league and the performance was really bad. I had the same problem when I first switch to Manjaro KDE a little more than a month ago. The performance was so bad I couldn't play.

I switched to kernel 4.17 and the problem was gone. About a week ago I did a fresh install and the problem wasn't there with kernel 4.14 so I thought it was patched. 2 Days ago I switched to XFCE, so I reinstalled again and I have the same problem again.

I have full composition pipeline on in the nvidia drives to fix screen tearing and I tried turning it off to see if I was getting a performance hit from that, but nothing. Is there something I can do besides using a more recent kernel? I would like to try 4.18 TBH, but I've heard that its better to stick to the recommended kernel.

`inxi -FxxxzD` 
System:
  Host: yiannis-pc Kernel: 4.14.65-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 8.2.0 Desktop: N/A wm: xfwm4 dm: lightdm 1.26.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME X370-PRO v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <filter> UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 4011 
  date: 04/19/2018 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 
  rev: 1 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 76684 
  Speed: 1375 MHz min/max: 1550/3200 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 1375 2: 1370 3: 1375 4: 1373 5: 1367 6: 1371 7: 1375 8: 1370 9: 1375 
  10: 1375 11: 1375 12: 1374 
Graphics:
  Card-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia 
  v: 396.51 bus ID: 0a:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c82 
  Display: x11 server: N/A driver: nvidia resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 396.51 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Card-1: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 0a:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fb9 
  Card-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 0c:00.3 chip ID: 1022:1457 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.14.65-1-MANJARO 
Network:
  Card-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network driver: igb v: 5.4.0-k port: d000 
  bus ID: 08:00 chip ID: 8086:1539 
  IF: enp8s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 253.38 GiB used: 34.44 GiB (13.6%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 950 PRO 256GB 
  size: 238.47 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 2B0QBXX7 
  scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Switch 
  size: 14.91 GiB serial: <filter> rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 227.54 GiB used: 28.94 GiB (12.7%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 
  ID-2: swap-1 size: 6.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 30.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 41 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 gpu: nvidia fan: 28% 
Info:
  Processes: 268 Uptime: 7h 29m Memory: 15.66 GiB used: 3.95 GiB (25.2%) 
  Init: systemd v: 239 Compilers: gcc: 8.2.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.23 
  running in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.0.20

Recap.

Iā€™m having trouble with the game Rocket League.

Iā€™m on Manjaro XFCE, and my system is up to date. I am using the non-free Nvidia drivers. This is a fresh installation and the only 2 settings I have changed are these:
In the nvidia-settings: ā€œForce Full Composition Pipelineā€ is checked
I updated to Kernel 4.18.
I have tested with and without these changes and they make no difference, besides fixing screen-tearing. I tested with and without Force Full Composition Pipeline on both Kernels.

The problem is the following:
I have very high and inconsistent frame-times in Rocket League while watching videos on YouTube or Netflix, on my second monitor. Iā€™m using Firefox.
Watching YouTube or Netflix without the game running is smooth and without any problems. Also, playing the game without any videos on the second monitor, I get high frame-rates like I had on Windows.

If I turn on V sync in the Rocket League video settings, the frame-times get more consistent and the game is ā€œplayableā€ (while watching videos). Although not enjoyable. The frame-rate is low and it makes me dizzy after a while.

I havenā€™t used any other Linux distro besides Manjaro, but I have tried Manjaro KDE. I had problems there too, but not so similar.
In KDE the frame-rates were good enough, both with vsync on and vsync off, both when YouTube was playing and when it wasnā€™t.

BUT, when YouTube was playing and I used ā€˜alt+tabā€™ to get out of the game do something else, the computer was getting almost unresponsive. I would take me up to 30 seconds to move the mouse from on side of the screen to the other. This experience was on a fresh installation of Manjaro KDE, without any changes at all. I only tried Kernel 4.18 to see if it would fix it, but it didnā€™t.

Furthermore I want to add that 1c/2t of the CPU are at 100% while gaming and watching YT, while the rest of the are used less than 10%.

In windows with the same PC/ internet connection I was getting high frame-rates with high settings, and I had no issues whatsoever, even with multiple programs running in the background, and watching YouTube/Netflix. Also I want to add that I had stress-tested all of my systemā€™s parts back when I had Windows.

inxi -FxxxzD

EDIT:

I Run Steam in a terminal and here is what I got

I just spoke to a person using manjaro kde. he had the same exact problems as I did on KDE. Not only with Rocket league, but some other minor problems too. He tried Cinnamon and Mate and the problems were gone. Maybe it's something about XFCE and KDE?

#2

The point of having easy uninstallable kernels on Manjaro is to install one that works for you the most. Many users practice switching to any newer kernel when it becomes available and stay on it if there are no issues with it. If there are, revert back to old one and try newer after some time.

If you know that different kernel solves the issue for you, there is absolutely no point of sticking to the one that isn't working for you.

#3

Well, I don't really know what is the issue. I thought it had to do with hardware support, but when I saw that linux414 was working fine after the format I thought that the problem was fixed. I hadn't done anything different between the 1st and the 2nd install of Manjaro KDE.

So now that I switched to Manjaro XFCE and the problem re-appeared I imagine it could be something other than the kernel. I will try 418 now, but I think it would be cool if a bug is fixed because of a post I made :stuck_out_tongue:

Although I don't even know what information to give to help people troubleshoot.

#4

Those can be numerous things and the issue is not specific so I imagine there won't be much people jumping in to help you. This is too vague and complex.

If you found that kernel switch may fix the issue, just do it and forget about issue.

There are some that suggest that having newest nvidia drivers isn't always most beneficial because cutting edge drivers may be buggy or have regressions. So they recommend to switch to 390xx series and that improves performance for them. But will this be also beneficial for you? I guess it depends on hardware and many specific, individual things so if there will be issues, you can always try this.

You need to ask around for proper command to switch to nvidia 390xx. It was a sticky post a few months ago and now I can't find it anywhere :frowning:

Can someone add it to Manjaro wiki so it was easy findable? @jonathon or anyone who can do that? Thanks

#5

switching to the 390xx drivers I think is pretty straight-forward. I found it the 1st day while looking around the GUI settings. Unless the Gui solution isn't the best way of doing it I don't think its hard for someone to find it.

#6

Hmm... On Manjaro Hardware settings I see 390xx drivers but all I can do is to auto install free and none-free drivers. No way of choosing none-free 390xx ones.

There was some easy command how to use mhwd to install 390xx drivers but I can't remember it. It should be more visible and find-able anyway, just in case. That is why I called @jonathon, he is the forum boss here :wink: .

#7

Just installed 4.18. problem's gone. I home that having a kernel so fresh doesn't cause me other problems.

#8

Great. For me newer kernels fixed many small hardware incompatibility problems so it's always worth to check out the newest one. I usually switch to new kernel as it transfers from experimental to official release.

#9

4.18 is considered stable now upstream, 4.19 is the experimental version so you should be okay. just keep an eye out for which kernel is assigned LTS status if you are bothered about which of the newer kernels is safe to use.

1 Like
#10

Status update. The problem persists!! I have 2 monitors and I usually have youtube playing on the second monitor while gaming. Apparently something is bringing my pc to its knees if I open rocket league and youtube at the same time.

I really need help.

If youtube is not playing I can game perfectly fine. Tried full pipeline composition both on and off, no difference. I noticed however that 1-2 threads at a time where used 100% and the rest were almost idle.

#11

There's a BIOS update available (4012). Always worth trying for performance issues on Ryzen systems.

#12

Thanks for the suggestion. I am 90% sure that the difference could be 1-3 FPS max (speaking from past experience with bios updates), and without vsyng I get about 15. Also its probably for the 2000 series of cpus.

I tried using the youtube classic extension for firefox since the problem only appears while watching videos: https://www.tubefilter.com/2018/07/25/youtube-slow-firefox-chris-peterson/
I disabled vsync to see if there would be any difference and there was. I guess I got to 20-25 FPS. Still unplayable without vsync.

#13

Have a look at my post the very end is what fixed all issues for me.

#14

Could it be that I haven't configured the nvidia settings properly? I read both your post and wiki page, but I can't see how it could apply to me.

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 396.51  (buildmeister@swio-display-x64-rhel04-14)  Tue Jul 31 16:03:40 PDT 2018

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG Electronics LG IPS FULLHD"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 1050 Ti"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"
    Option         "metamodes" "DVI-D-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On, ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On}, HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On, ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On}"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

This is me nvidia.conf file as of right now. I have two monitors connected. The only think I have changed is "Force full composition pipeline", nothing else. Maybe I have to change something?
In the X server Display Configuration: Configuration:
Both screens have the same "X screen 0" status. Should I add "New X screen" for one of the 2 monitos? I don't really know what it does.

#15

If you have old version of this conf use it and see if it helped after reboot. If not, revert back to this one. Probably nothing will happen but it's up to you to test it out. I doubt that someone would know what exactly makes this type of behavior as this isn't common and related probably to your hardware.

#16

Are really using legacy 390xx,drivers that card should use the latest marked plain nvidia

#17

I tried that before opening a new thread :stuck_out_tongue:

I don't understand exactly what you mean.

#18

what nvidia driver are you using nvidia, or nvidia 390xxx legacy that was my question

#19 
Graphics:
  Card-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia 
  v: 396.51

I now managed to ADD a new problem to my list. In the Nvidia drivers, in
X Server Display Configuration --> Configuration:
I changed one of the 2 monitors to X screen 1 instead of having both of them 0. I saved the new confi file, restarted and when I logged in I was greeted by 2 completely empty screens with the default wallpaper. I literally smashed my head on the keyboard and I got in to my normal desktop. I reinstalled the driver, and re configured the confing file but after the restart the same thing happened.

#20

That is what i was asking the installer sometimes gets it wrong that is why i asked,

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