Feral's GameMode 1.5 Now Supports Changing The CPU Governor Differently For iGPUs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Feral's GameMode 1.5 Now Supports Changing The CPU Governor Differently For iGPUs

GameMode, the open-source daemon led by the game porters at Feral Interactive for dynamically optimizing Linux system performance when running games, is out today with version 1.5 as its newest feature update...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GameMode-1.5-Released

[Britoid]

I appreciate the work done here, but surely we're getting to the point where we're duplicating functionality between daemons, surely this should be implemented into something like tuned.

[audi.rs4]

Weird. I thought 1.5 was already released, as that is what the version shows installed in my Ubuntu 19.10 from the apt repository. I also noticed that this "gamemode" doesn't set the CPU governor either because when I launch Dirt 4, it warns me my governor isn't in performance mode.

Maybe I should remove the version in apt, and use the latest one just released.

[skeevy420]

Weird. I thought 1.5 was already released, as that is what the version shows installed in my Ubuntu 19.10 from the apt repository. I also noticed that this "gamemode" doesn't set the CPU governor either because when I launch Dirt 4, it warns me my governor isn't in performance mode.

Maybe I should remove the version in apt, and use the latest one just released.

1.5-dev or 1.5? Because it was 1.5-dev until a few hours ago and it has been that for the past six months.

[vb_linux]

Weird. I thought 1.5 was already released, as that is what the version shows installed in my Ubuntu 19.10 from the apt repository. I also noticed that this "gamemode" doesn't set the CPU governor either because when I launch Dirt 4, it warns me my governor isn't in performance mode.

Maybe I should remove the version in apt, and use the latest one just released.

How do you run the game - "gamemoderun ./game" or "gamemoderun %command%" in steam?

Edit: Apparently, DiRT 4 should run with gamemode automatically. Still, either install Gnome extension or trying running with command to check if gamemode is running properly.

[audi.rs4]

1.5-dev or 1.5? Because it was 1.5-dev until a few hours ago and it has been that for the past six months.

It might have said 1.5-dev. I didn't look that closely and I'm just going from memory from a month ago. I'll be curious if Ubuntu updates it now that it is finalized.

How do you run the game - "gamemoderun ./game" or "gamemoderun %command%" in steam?

Edit: Apparently, DiRT 4 should run with gamemode automatically. Still, either install Gnome extension or trying running with command to check if gamemode is running properly.

I have nearly every game set to use gamemode. All that are set, are configured with "gamemoderun %command%". Dirt 4 as you stated though, supports it automatically, so I don't have to set it in Steam.

I do have the gamemode Gnome extension installed, so when I launch games, it gives me the notification gamemode is enabled. But it doesn't change my CPU governor. I then manually do that via command line. I did have a Gnome Extension to do this, but it broke at some point, so I removed it. Could it still have a piece hanging around preventing gamemode from adjusting the CPU governor?

[HenryM]

when I launch games, it gives me the notification gamemode is enabled. But it doesn't change my CPU governor. I then manually do that via command line. I did have a Gnome Extension to do this, but it broke at some point, so I removed it. Could it still have a piece hanging around preventing gamemode from adjusting the CPU governor?

I also had this issue, where gamemode runs via "gamemoderun %command%" steam launch option but cannot change the governor, confirmed by running

cpupower frequency-info

I think I fixed it recently by uninstalling gamemode, creating the user group "gamemode" and adding myself to it, then installing gamemode again.

 groupadd gamemode  
 gpasswd -a [I]user[/I] gamemode

should do it

[SilverBird775]

While I appeciate the Feral's GameMode initiative, they cannot beat the power budget equation I believe. The one has to consider too many tweaking variables to get an optimum result. It is not a problem with GameMode daemon, absolutely not. It is just nowhere close to be universal solution. The main challenge here is a persistent system overheat. The modern notebooks are designed to dangerously overheat and trottle on the verge of self destruction. You will sure understand the pain when you actually get alike model. Just as an example, you absolutely dont want to force or even boost to highest nvidia's optimus clocks because the whole system already pushing its temperature limits.

The user has to fine tune his system with ... downclocking, actually! Moderate downclocking\Unboosting the CPU do allow more power budget for discrete GPU in my case while keeping the wattage perfectly safe for both user (keyboard heating and heat exhaust) and notebook. The very same trick do the same effect for my other silent ATOM notebook with integrated GPU, just as an article suggest. I'm getting best results with "powersave" gaming and "performance" desktop on baytrail ATOM. No preinstalled daemon can possibly know such a perversion.

Edit:
To think even better, there is even more power budget scenarios. The one with the BIOS governed fan controller (default) and forced fan spin mode (undocumented). The clocks can be higher in case the fan is locked at maximum. It allows the user to trade the brutal noise for more performance juice.
For a moment I'm fine with scripting all this things in per-application manner but it is tempting to write my own daemon. Sudoing the power budget matter gets extremely annoying very fast.

[audi.rs4]

I also had this issue, where gamemode runs via "gamemoderun %command%" steam launch option but cannot change the governor, confirmed by running

cpupower frequency-info

I think I fixed it recently by uninstalling gamemode, creating the user group "gamemode" and adding myself to it, then installing gamemode again.

groupadd gamemode
gpasswd -a [I]user[/I] gamemode

should do it

Thanks for the input. I tried out your suggestion, but no luck. Gamemode still doesn't automatically switch me to performance mode. I'm on a Ryzen 5 gen 1 CPU.

audi@Ryzen5:~$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: Cannot determine or is not supported.
hardware limits: 1.55 GHz - 3.20 GHz
available frequency steps: 3.20 GHz, 2.80 GHz, 1.55 GHz
available cpufreq governors: conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil
current policy: frequency should be within 1.55 GHz and 3.20 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
current CPU frequency: 1.38 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
boost state support:
Supported: no
Active: no
audi@Ryzen5:~$ groups
audi adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare gamemode

Any other ideas? Should I post this to the Github site for gamemode?

[HenryM]

Thanks for the input. I tried out your suggestion, but no luck. Gamemode still doesn't automatically switch me to performance mode. I'm on a Ryzen 5 gen 1 CPU.

Any other ideas? Should I post this to the Github site for gamemode?

did you configure a gamemode.ini file? by default gamemode uses the powersave governor, but Ryzen seems to perfer the shedutil governor.

if you haven't already done this, there should be an example file at /usr/share/doc/gamemode/example/gamemode.ini set defaultgov=schedutil and save to /home/.config

the file is also accessible here: https://github.com/FeralInteractive/...master/example

I can't remember the exact moment when gamemode started to work fully on my new Zen 2 system, but it was definitely after doing these things

also it's interesting that you have so many governor options, I only get performance and schedutil.

what is the result of running

gamemoded -t