So i have this really weird problem with OpenGL applications, probably all of them. So far i tested: glxgears (started via terminal), devildaggers, quakespasm. The most obvious one would be Devil Daggers. I notice very strong stuttering, despite the framerate being very high. Be it if the screen is busy or merely empty, it just seems to happen at random points, but gets worse the longer the program runs. That wouldn't be surprising to me if the framerate would dip, which it doesn't, it stays at a rock solid 120 FPS, with maybe 1-2 frames dropping here and there. BUT after a few minutes, as i said the graphics begin to "stutter". It looks like the game dropped down to 20 FPS, it's a slideshow almost, BUT the framerate stays consistent at 120 FPS, i could push it even higher, way
above 1000 FPS, which I wouldn't do of course, because that would stress the GPU unnecessarily. Now i've played this
game for many hours on my old machine, which had the same Nvidia provided graphics driver (version 515) and it also ran via steam proton (ge-proton to be exact) or Steam Linux runtime, with no issues at all. Which doesn't make sense, since this system is way less powerfull then my current rig and the game isn't demanding at all.
I did a quick install of quakespasm, because as i understand, this sourceport also uses OpenGL. I noticed very slight stuttering here and there but nothing serious.
glxgears shows stuttering at seemingly random points, with or without Vsync. Yet there are also no drops in framerate.
So far Vulkan applications work fine and games using DXVK as well.
I suspect that somethings up with frame-timing when using OpenGL or my system is broken somewhere deep down, which would be a nice thing to fix.
This would surprise me because this is vanilla and fresh install of Linux Mint 21.1. I checked both hashes of the ISO and the installation-medium, they are both correct. Not that i think it's impossible, but all the more a reason to get to the bottom of this.
Anyway, as i describe below i have sadly no way of confirming this, because everything i try to do exactly that fails.
Further below i have also listed my specs and what i've tried so far to mitigate the problem.
Also worth mentioning, my old machine runs Linux Mint 21, with NVIDIA Drivers 515, has i7 6700k Processor, paired with a Nvidia GTX980ti. This rig runs everything absolutely perfectly. So maybe something has fundamentally changed between version 21 and 21.1 regarding OpenGL?
The PC that has this problem, currently runs Mint 21.1 and is primarily built for calculating fractals, rendering and handling very big eurorack synthesizer setups. Gaming is not it's primary focus, but as i said i'm a bit worried on how reliable this installation will be, if it already fails with a "simple" OpenGL app. So i want to go to the bottom of this problem, so that it doesn't bite me in the bum later.
Regarding the frame-timing, i have no way of confirming this since MangoHUD refuses to work with Devil Daggers, no matter the version (Linux native, proton, etc...), or what variables i feed to MangoHUD. According to pcgamingwiki this game uses opengl 3.3, which should work with mangohud (i checked the man page and followed it's instructions --> game crashes), and again this game has linux a native version, so it's a bit of a head-scratcher for why exactly this game behaves so weirdly. MangoHUD works fine with vulkan applications but OpenGL? Not so much. I dug for days through forums and wikis, to find the right variables. None of them work.
So it would be really helpful for me if:
1. Someone could give his or hers opinion what the culprit of my problem could be and maybe how to mitigate it and
2. If someone knows a alternative to MangoHUD, that is able to work alongside Steam, and also monitor frame-timing, so i can validate or dismiss frame-timing
theory at least.
I also dug through some threads on the Nvidia Forums, regarding OpenGL and the Nvidia Drivers. I have found nothing conclusive, but it seems like the more time goes on, more and more people seem to have trouble with OpenGL applications. Some people had to reseat their graphics card into a other pci slots, use different HDMI ports, swap drivers around etc..., and their problems would vanish. I tried that also, with no results.
So here is what i have done so far:
- Swapped out Nvidia driver 525 for 515 ---> no difference at all
- Checked cabling of the whole computer, re-seat RAM and GPU ---> Nothing unusual, no difference afterwards
- Deleted the shader cache in ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache ---> no difference at all
- Changed CPU Power profile from Schedutil to Performance and to various fixed frequencies ---> also no difference
- Fixed the CPU-Core affinity of the process (Devil Daggers) to a single thread with taskset -cp ---> no change at all
- Fixed the CPU-Core affinity of the process (Devil Daggers) to 4 threads with taskset -cp ---> no change at all
- Changed the GPU's power profile from "auto" to "performance" ---> no change
- Tried out different versions: Steam proton 4,5,6,7, Proton Glorious Eggroll, Steam Linux Runtime ---> every version has the same problem
- Checked the display refresh rate in system settings ---> it is correct
- Enabled in-game VSync ---> horribly laggy
- Disabled VSync (VBlank) on Nvidia driver and made sure via the frame counter from nvidia, that he reports that, vsync is indeed turned off ---> it was turned
off,but again this made no difference at all
- Disabled flipping in the driver settings ---> also no difference
- Disabled conformant texture clamping ---> no change
- Tried out different image quality settings ---> made no difference
- Changed from fullscreen to windowed ---> no change
- Remove and purge Steam and also removed the .steam folder in the home directory, then remove and purge nvidia drivers, followed by apt autoremove, rebooted
the system, then reinstalled everything via terminal, no issues while installing, reboot again ---> same problem as before
- Swapped out mouse (since the mouse would "jitter" sometimes, in and outside games), monitor cables, tried different ports ---> no change at all
- Kept an eye on CPU and GPU Temperatures at all times ---> everything normal also no weird heat spikes
- Tested other games which put way more pressure on the system ---> aside from OpenGL, the problem is not present so far
- Run glxgears to see if the problem also shows up here ---> It does. The gears turn fine for a moment, then they start to "hitch"/"stutter"
Here are the specs (tell me if you need more infos):
System:
Kernel: 5.15.0-58-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0 Desktop: MATE 1.26.0 wm: marco
dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER] vendor: ZOTAC driver: nvidia v: 525.78.01 pcie:
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,DP-3
bus-ID: 4c:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f06
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 compositor: marco v: 1.26.0 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 92 diag: 609mm (24")
OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 525.78.01
direct render: Yes
I'm looking forward to your answers, opinions, suggestions and wish you all a very nice day
