NVIDIA Lands Fix To Avoid High CPU Usage When Using The KDE Desktop

[bearoso]

Dunno, the kwin devs seem pretty on board with it (and the existing call was working to spec).

glXSwapBuffers was in spec (glFlush is only command-queue complete, not buffer-complete), but there's no triple-buffering in the OpenGL spec. kwin was requesting double-buffering from GLX and EGL, so it should have gotten them. Plus, when glXSwapBuffers is hit the second time, glFlush is supposed to make sure the previous one, which is in the command queue, is complete before proceeding. And doing unremovable triple buffering automatically and having an option in the driver called "triplebuffer" that makes it quad-buffering is kind of odd.

What do we have here? https://hardforum.com/threads/how-vs...ost-1035923030
A 9 year old mention of MaxFramesAllowed?

That's for Windows. I definitely played with all the hidden options with the nvidia driver I could find. This would've been more helpful sooner, having saved me from writing all those wrappers to insert glFinish in things.

[Charlie68]

I can personally say that getting rid of Nvidia a year ago was the best thing I did on the computer. To everyone I know who uses Linux I advised against buying PCs with Nvidia cards and they thanked me. Finite problems.
I have nothing against Nvidia, it's a company and does what it wants, but using Nvidia on Gnu / Linux is a contradiction.

[discordian]

I can personally say that getting rid of Nvidia a year ago was the best thing I did on the computer. To everyone I know who uses Linux I advised against buying PCs with Nvidia cards and they thanked me. Finite problems.

Thats a good one. I completely regret buying an RX570 (replacing a GTX 760), and now I am regularly dualbooting to Windows for anything that uses the GPU.
Electrical noise on the line out, OS drivers are way worse than Nvidias, and closed source aren't available for newer kernels. It does boot faster, other than that: eF it.

[bug77]

That's for Windows. I definitely played with all the hidden options with the nvidia driver I could find. This would've been more helpful sooner, having saved me from writing all those wrappers to insert glFinish in things.

Hidden option? The setting is in the header files. I find it highly unlikely (though not impossible) Nvidia neglected to expose that for Linux for so many years.

[skeevy420]

Thats a good one. I completely regret buying an RX570 (replacing a GTX 760), and now I am regularly dualbooting to Windows for anything that uses the GPU.
Electrical noise on the line out, OS drivers are way worse than Nvidias, and closed source aren't available for newer kernels. It does boot faster, other than that: eF it.

And I have nothing but great things to say about my RX 580. The only Linux specific issue I have is having to try 3 different Vulkan implementations when I go to play games: AMDVLK, AMDVLK-Pro, and RADV. The only GPU specific issue I have is that MSI set the damn voltages up a little too high so my GPU requires an undervolt to run at full performance...seriously...stock voltages trigger thermal throttling and that results in horrible performance...

FWIW, outside of AMDVLK-Pro, you really aren't missing anything that important from AMD's closed source driver in regards to playing games. Also, a distribution like Suse Tumbleweed or Manjaro is a good idea to use (Manjaro user myself) since Polaris (and Vega) cards really like rolling release distributions.

if you actually do need the AMDGPU-Pro driver for, like, OpenCL & not playing games, you're better off targeting an OS it directly supports.

Electrical noise could be a sign of bad grounding, your power supply going out, etc. On my PC before last, I started getting the electrical noise a few months before my PS went out. Replaced it and it was somewhat fixed but I could tell that there were grounding issues still. Ended up having to run new 110 to fully fix it. Had to run wire in my current house to fix grounding issues too. You'd be surprised how many places have old style 2 wire with fake grounds.

Anyhoo, anecdotally, I've noticed Linux exacerbates these issues more than Windows does -- each time above where I'd hear the grounding noise, it was only when running Linux. It wasn't until it hit the fan that Windows acted up.

[skeevy420]

Well, it would be a pretty serious bug if sudo picked up any of your user's profile variables, wouldn't it?

Not if that is the goal you want to achieve.

But yeah, it actually would be a pretty serious bug.

[discordian]

And I have nothing but great things to say about my RX 580. The only Linux specific issue I have is having to try 3 different Vulkan implementations when I go to play games: AMDVLK, AMDVLK-Pro, and RADV. The only GPU specific issue I have is that MSI set the damn voltages up a little too high so my GPU requires an undervolt to run at full performance...seriously...stock voltages trigger thermal throttling and that results in horrible performance...

You are lucky, mine crashes in games unless I limit the threshold (heck it sometimes crashes still). You are aware that AMD have bad efficiency because a portion of their chips need that high voltage?

FWIW, outside of AMDVLK-Pro, you really aren't missing anything that important from AMD's closed source driver in regards to playing games. Also, a distribution like Suse Tumbleweed or Manjaro is a good idea to use (Manjaro user myself) since Polaris (and Vega) cards really like rolling release distributions.

Well, with the OS driver I am not playing games...

Electrical noise could be a sign of bad grounding, your power supply going out, etc

Could be but is not for me, its a result of poorly matched Voltage regulators (unlikely as MSI is not known for that, the Geforce was a MSI aswell) or a chip that does a horrible job of limiting EMI.

On my PC before last, I started getting the electrical noise a few months before my PS went out. Replaced it and it was somewhat fixed but I could tell that there were grounding issues still. Ended up having to run new 110 to fully fix it. Had to run wire in my current house to fix grounding issues too. You'd be surprised how many places have old style 2 wire with fake grounds.

Fine, but not in my flat.

Anyhoo, anecdotally, I've noticed Linux exacerbates these issues more than Windows does -- each time above where I'd hear the grounding noise, it was only when running Linux. It wasn't until it hit the fan that Windows acted up.

For me the noise is a matter of RX570-or-not, while the crashes are RX570+Linux-or-not.

[Charlie68]

Thats a good one. I completely regret buying an RX570 (replacing a GTX 760), and now I am regularly dualbooting to Windows for anything that uses the GPU.
Electrical noise on the line out, OS drivers are way worse than Nvidias, and closed source aren't available for newer kernels. It does boot faster, other than that: eF it.

I talked about my experience and I don't have the problems you're referring to and I didn't buy an RX570. The fact that there are no proprietary drivers for Amd is the reason that prompted me to buy an Amd card, the drivers are developed by Amd with the help of the community and this is much better than proprietary shit.

[skeevy420]

You are lucky, mine crashes in games unless I limit the threshold (heck it sometimes crashes still). You are aware that AMD have bad efficiency because a portion of their chips need that high voltage?

The only actual crashes I've had were related to undervolting too much. Yep, I'm aware which is why the first thing I did was to undervolt to fix thermal issues. Guess I got lucky on the silicone lottery...but my standard UV is to lower states 3 & 4 to 1100mv and 5 - 7 to 1125mv, everything else stays the same; nothing major or drastic at all. Give that a try...it's basically the first step you'd do if you followed a random guide (also, use wattmanGTK launched from the terminal and read its output). I could probably push the UV more, but it's good enough to fix all of my thermal issues so that's where I'm going to stop.

Well, with the OS driver I am not playing games...

Without knowing specifics, best I can say is update your kernel and graphics stack. My 580 runs damn well on 5.0.2 with Mesa 18.3.4 using AMDVLK by default and RADV as needed on a per-game basis. KDE has never been better than it is for me now.

Could be but is not for me, its a result of poorly matched Voltage regulators (unlikely as MSI is not known for that, the Geforce was a MSI aswell) or a chip that does a horrible job of limiting EMI.

My last card was an MSI R7 260x and is also the one that had the noises from both bad wiring and a bad power supply. It lasted 6 years and three different PCs...the power supply until I retired that PC two years ago and got the one I have now. The 260x ran very hot...Linux undervolting came too late to save it...

Fine, but not in my flat.

You'd be surprised. 15 years ago the place I lived I'd get PC electrical noise if the wind blew too hard. After 4 years and an ice storm the power lines running to that house were fixed and that fixed my PC electrical noise. All I'm saying is don't rule anything out. That PC had an MSI Geforce 8400 (eventually sli...it sucked). A few months after upgrading that to the R7 260x is when I discovered the power supply and then wiring issues at my next house.

For me the noise is a matter of RX570-or-not, while the crashes are RX570+Linux-or-not.

To me it sounds like your power supply is starting to go...possibly with an LTS distribution using an older graphics stack that'll exacerbate issues on the Linux side. All my GPUs acted like that when the power supply was starting to go and my 260x did not like LTS distributions with AMDGPU after 2016. I've never bothered with less than Tumbleweed or Manjaro with the 580 since I bought it almost two months ago.

Like you said, AMD cards are power hungry. Using something like that is where you'll discover power supply problems. That's how it was for me back in the day.

[RealNC]

No, NVidia is _already_ tripple buffering.

Not sure what you mean. If you set:

Option "TripleBuffer" "True"

in the nvidia driver, then it triple buffers. Otherwise, it doesn't.