Vram usage monitor <SOLVED>

[Daf57]

Hi,

I have a GTX 1080 - sometimes when using Substance Painter I get freeze ups, and I have to restart Cinnamon. During these freeze ups I can sometimes get System monitor to come up (takes a long time!) - the CPU usage and system ram are at normal levels. So I suspect it could be a VRam issue. How can I check video card performance during usage?

Thanks!

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System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-80-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 wm: muffin 5.0.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: MSI product: MS-7850 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: MSI model: Z97 PC Mate(MS-7850) v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: 4.10 date: 08/11/2015 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard K360 
  serial: <filter> charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes 
  status: Discharging 
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech M570 serial: <filter> 
  charge: 40% rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-4790K bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Haswell rev: 3 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 63998 
  Speed: 2301 MHz min/max: 800/4400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2300 2: 2301 
  3: 2301 4: 2300 5: 2300 6: 2300 7: 2300 8: 2301 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 390.144 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1b80 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: none FAILED: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa alternate: nouveau 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1080/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.144 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 9 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:8ca0 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:10f0 
  Device-3: Focusrite-Novation Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 type: USB 
  driver: snd-usb-audio bus ID: 3-1:2 chip ID: 1235:8016 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-80-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Ralink RT5572 Wireless Adapter type: USB driver: rt2800usb 
  bus ID: 3-5:3 chip ID: 148f:5572 serial: <filter> 
  IF: wlx9cefd5fae053 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 6.37 TiB used: 2.62 TiB (41.1%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 3B6Q scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 3B6Q scheme: GPT 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 4B6Q scheme: MBR 
  ID-4: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: Seagate model: Expansion Desk 
  size: 3.64 TiB serial: <filter> rev: 0911 scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.89 GiB used: 241.27 GiB (26.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 49 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 32% 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list 
  1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list 
  1: deb https://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:
  Processes: 240 Uptime: 2h 02m Memory: 31.31 GiB used: 1.87 GiB (6.0%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

[Qurcus]

Can you adjust your motherboard Vram in your BIOS ?

Edit: Disregarding - I was thinking of integrated graphics.

[Larry78723]

I'm not a graphics guru but I spotted this in your inxi:

Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 390.144
bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1b80
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: none FAILED: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa alternate: nouveau
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1080/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.144
direct render: Yes

Somebody else will have to provide guidance.

[Daf57]

HI,

The video driver is not an/the issue.

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Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 390.144 

I'm just wondering how to monitor the vram usage - similar to system monitor.

Thanks
Daf

[Moonstone Man]

The video driver is not an/the issue.

This says unequivocally that video driver is an issue:

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Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: none FAILED: nvidia

This also tells me precisely what the root cause of the lock-ups is highly likely to be:

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Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 390.144 

But since you know better...

[Daf57]

Ugh! Sorry, didn't mean to imply it couldn't be an issue - I thought the thread was going to veer off course. My initial concern was monitoring the vram usage as Substance Painter uses the video card almost exclusively.

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Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: none FAILED: nvidia

Please explain why you believe this to be an issue - I have no doubt you know what you are talking about. I apologize for the attitude - it's just ignorance. I have a lot of trouble with video drivers each kernel update ...

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Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 390.144 

This is the only driver that seems to work out of the 4 that were available in the driver panel.

The freeze ups are infrequent - but aggravating when they do happen. I thought maybe I was running out of video memory

Thanks

[Larry78723]

My understanding is that when the situation detailed (Nvidia fails to load) happens, the total load is transferred to the onboard graphics of your CPU.

[Daf57]

Yikes - that is a problem.

But what about:

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Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 390.144 

That's the driver I chose in the Drivers panel. I don't understand how to load a driver if not through there.

[Larry78723]

I don't know how to fix this or the cause:

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Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: none FAILED: nvidia

Someone with more knowledge will need to jump in.

[Daf57]

Ha - that's fine, Larry, thanks for the help!

[Daf57]

Right, so thanks to Kadaitcha Man and Larry78723 for the push in the right direction. I revisited the Driver Manager and installed the latest Nvidia driver (nvidia-driver-470). On reboot I had the same issue I always do - low res, no dual monitor support - no driver loaded. I found this article https://itsfoss.com/nvidia-linux-mint/ - it said to:

1. Access the modules file using the command:

xed admin:///etc/modules

2. You’ll be prompted to authenticate the access with your account password. Once done, you just need to add the following lines at the bottom:

nvidia
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset

I did so and rebooted and all is fine now. As can see below the graphic segment of inxi -Fxxxrz is looking better. I hope that Kadaitcha Man is correct and the freeze-ups are history. Thanks, and again sorry for the know-it-all attitude.

Daf

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Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 470.57.02 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1b80 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa alternate: nouveau 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080/PCIe/SSE2 
  v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.57.02 direct render: Yes 

[Moonstone Man]

I hope that Kadaitcha Man is correct and the freeze-ups are history.

At this stage, it isn't a matter of being correct or not. It's a case of troubleshooting 101; first eliminate the blindingly obvious. Until that was done in your particular case, there was no way to reliably locate any kind of video-related fault whatsoever. Proceeding down your originally preferred path would have been a waste of time for you and the silly sap willing to help you get there. It's not unlike having a car tyre shredded right down to the wheel hub and insisting to the mechanic that the horrible noise coming through the floor of the cabin when you drive means that the bearings need to be replaced, and also insisting that the car running on its wheel hub isn't an issue.