[SOLVED] No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

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[SOLVED] No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by ugly »

This is sort of a difficult issue to describe because I don't know of any way to show that I'm not getting a high refresh rate, other than how it feels.

I have a multi-monitor setup. My primary monitor runs at 2560x1440 and is set at 165Hz (HP 27q). My secondary monitor runs at 1920x1080 and runs at 60Hz (Dell UltraSharp 23 Monitor - U2312HM).

While the 165Hz monitor is set to 165Hz, I can tell that the movement in Cinnamon is not smooth. Particularly when dragging Nemo windows around. Similarly, scrolling in web browsers is not smooth. By 'not smooth' I mean it feels like it's running at 60Hz instead of 165Hz.

If I disable my secondary monitor and only use the 165Hz monitor, then I can tell the movement is smooth again.

This was not an issue when using Mint 20.3 (Cinnamon). I could use both monitors at the same time, and the movement would be smooth on the 165Hz monitor. I was running Mint 20.3 using the 5.15 kernel as well and the Kisak Mesa PPA (I have the 20.3 install on another disk I can boot if more info is needed).

Here is my inxi -FGz output on Mint 21:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-46-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.4.10
    Distro: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C02) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.H9
    date: 05/26/2022
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2360 min/max: 2200/4208 cores: 1: 2200 2: 2198 3: 2094
    4: 2057 5: 3579 6: 2054 7: 2198 8: 2061 9: 2131 10: 2057 11: 3640 12: 2057
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590]
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu,ati
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: 2560x1440~165Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon RX 570 Series (polaris10 LLVM 14.0.6 DRM
    3.42 5.15.0-46-generic)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.6 - kisak-mesa PPA
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590]
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-3: XMOS iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-46-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  IF: enp34s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: ASIX AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet type: USB driver: ax88179_178a
  IF: enx000ec6c77232 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 8.64 TiB used: 6.55 TiB (75.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS500G3X0C-00SJG0
    size: 465.76 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3000DM001-1CH166 size: 2.73 TiB
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HMS5C4040ALE640
    size: 3.64 TiB
  ID-4: /dev/sdc vendor: Toshiba model: HDWD120 size: 1.82 TiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 93.31 GiB used: 18.28 GiB (19.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 475.1 MiB used: 5.2 MiB (1.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 363.05 GiB used: 35.26 GiB (9.7%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 129.5 MiB (6.3%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 65.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 1072
Info:
  Processes: 377 Uptime: 7h 58m Memory: 15.55 GiB used: 4.74 GiB (30.5%)
  Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.13
And xrandr output with both monitors active:

Code: Select all

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 4480 x 1440, maximum 16384 x 16384
DisplayPort-0 connected primary 2560x1440+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 597mm x 336mm
   2560x1440    164.83*+  59.95 + 143.97   120.00    74.97  
   1920x1200     59.88  
   1920x1080    120.00   100.00   119.88    60.00    60.00    59.94  
   1600x1200    164.83  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
DisplayPort-1 connected 1920x1080+0+148 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 510mm x 287mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1680x945      60.02  
   1400x1050     74.87    59.98  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      74.98    59.89  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1366x768      59.79  
   1360x768      60.02  
   1280x800      74.93    59.81  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x768      74.89    59.87  
   1280x720      60.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   1024x576      59.97  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
   848x480       60.00  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
DisplayPort-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-A-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
I switch to the single monitor with these settings:

Code: Select all

xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --primary --mode 2560x1440 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal --output DisplayPort-1 --off --output DisplayPort-2 --off --output HDMI-A-0 --off --output DVI-D-0 --off
I'm not sure if this is related, but in Mint 20.3 I did have an issue with the mixed refresh rate that is specific to Chromium based browsers. While Firefox would work at 165Hz with both monitors active, Vivaldi would not. I found this bug report that confirmed it is a Chromium issue: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/is ... id=1138080

And running Vivaldi with the switch: --use-gl=egl resolved the issue (although caused some minor display artifacts rarely on some web pages).

I'm not sure if this is a regression with the upgrades to Mutter with the Mint 21 update.
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by SMG »

ugly wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:44 pmWhile the 165Hz monitor is set to 165Hz, I can tell that the movement in Cinnamon is not smooth. Particularly when dragging Nemo windows around. Similarly, scrolling in web browsers is not smooth. By 'not smooth' I mean it feels like it's running at 60Hz instead of 165Hz.
The xrandr output you posted indicates it is running at 165Hz and I'm not aware of something which would change the refresh rate. I am aware of mesa version differences affecting movements like that which you have described. I would also think it is possible Cinnamon Effects might be a factor as well.

Am I correct to presume this is fresh install of LM21?
ugly wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:44 pmIf I disable my secondary monitor and only use the 165Hz monitor, then I can tell the movement is smooth again.
That sort of gives the impression this is a resource-related issue. Is the kisak-ppa using the same mesa version on your LM20.3 install? If so, try disabling the Effects and see if that makes a difference.
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by ugly »

SMG wrote: Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:17 pm
ugly wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:44 pmWhile the 165Hz monitor is set to 165Hz, I can tell that the movement in Cinnamon is not smooth. Particularly when dragging Nemo windows around. Similarly, scrolling in web browsers is not smooth. By 'not smooth' I mean it feels like it's running at 60Hz instead of 165Hz.
The xrandr output you posted indicates it is running at 165Hz and I'm not aware of something which would change the refresh rate. I am aware of mesa version differences affecting movements like that which you have described. I would also think it is possible Cinnamon Effects might be a factor as well.

Am I correct to presume this is fresh install of LM21?
ugly wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:44 pmIf I disable my secondary monitor and only use the 165Hz monitor, then I can tell the movement is smooth again.
That sort of gives the impression this is a resource-related issue. Is the kisak-ppa using the same mesa version on your LM20.3 install? If so, try disabling the Effects and see if that makes a difference.
Thanks for the suggestions.

It is a clean install of LM21.

I tried disabling Effects in the settings. But there is no change. Just to be sure, all that needs to be done to disable Effects is to go to Settings --> Effects and then toggle off the first option to disable all.

I loaded up my previous 20.3 install and updated to the latest mesa version from the kisak-ppa. The movement is still smooth even after updating to the latest mesa.

Here is the inxi -FGz output for LM20.3:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-46-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C02) v: 1.0 
  serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.H9 date: 05/26/2022 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  Speed: 2197 MHz min/max: 2200/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2200 2: 2204 
  3: 2224 4: 2029 5: 2200 6: 2200 7: 2199 8: 2198 9: 2199 10: 2200 11: 2570 
  12: 2199 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] 
  driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: amdgpu 
  resolution: 2560x1440~165Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon RX 570 Series (polaris10 LLVM 14.0.6 DRM 3.42 
  5.15.0-46-generic) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.7 - kisak-mesa PPA 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590] 
  driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-3: XMOS iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.15.0-46-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  driver: r8169 
  IF: enp34s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: ASIX AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet type: USB driver: ax88179_178a 
  IF: enx000ec6c77232 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 8.42 TiB used: 6.61 TiB (78.5%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3000DM001-1CH166 size: 2.73 TiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HMS5C4040ALE640 
  size: 3.64 TiB 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Toshiba model: HDWD120 size: 1.82 TiB 
  ID-4: /dev/sdd type: USB model: JEYI NVME size: 238.47 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 59.78 GiB used: 25.72 GiB (43.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd2 
  ID-2: /home size: 173.10 GiB used: 71.14 GiB (41.1%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/sdd3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 53 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 3991 
Info:
  Processes: 361 Uptime: N/A Memory: 15.55 GiB used: 1.29 GiB (8.3%) 
  Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.38 
And the xrandr output on 20.3:

Code: Select all

xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 4480 x 1440, maximum 16384 x 16384
DisplayPort-0 connected primary 2560x1440+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 597mm x 336mm
   2560x1440    164.83*+  59.95 + 143.97   120.00    74.97  
   1920x1200     59.88  
   1920x1080    120.00   100.00   119.88    60.00    60.00    59.94  
   1600x1200    164.83  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
DisplayPort-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 510mm x 287mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1680x945      60.02  
   1400x1050     74.87    59.98  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      74.98    59.89  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1366x768      59.79  
   1360x768      60.02  
   1280x800      74.93    59.81  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x768      74.89    59.87  
   1280x720      60.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   1024x576      59.97  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
   848x480       60.00  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
DisplayPort-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-A-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by SMG »

ugly wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:31 pmI tried disabling Effects in the settings. But there is no change. Just to be sure, all that needs to be done to disable Effects is to go to Settings --> Effects and then toggle off the first option to disable all.
An LM21 install is still on my "to do" list so if there is now the ability to turn all effects off with one button then it sounds like they improved on LM20.3 where all had to be turned off individually.

xrandr output is the same for both LM21 and LM20.3. The Xorg version is not that much different so I wouldn't think it would be that. You're using the same kernel for both so it should be the same amdgpu driver.

I have seen a few people mention/report as an issue that Cinnamon 5.4 seems to be using more memory than 5.3 Cinnamon 5.4.x is using a lot more RAM than 5.3.x did #10900 . One person found Lag / stuttering after updating to 5.4.2 (in text inputs, expo mode) #10925 , but that sounds different than what you are describing. There is also Steam and Online Accounts are very laggy/stuttering #10946 . I didn't find anyone mentioning an issue related to the number of monitors attached to their system.

I don't know if there are new tweaks available in System Settings (General) that might help. (That was where one could change the Cinnamon memory reset value in LM20.3. I don't know if it changed for LM21.) That would be the only other idea I have.

Maybe someone else will have some ideas.
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by ugly »

SMG wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 9:12 pm I have seen a few people mention/report as an issue that Cinnamon 5.4 seems to be using more memory than 5.3 Cinnamon 5.4.x is using a lot more RAM than 5.3.x did #10900 . One person found Lag / stuttering after updating to 5.4.2 (in text inputs, expo mode) #10925 , but that sounds different than what you are describing. There is also Steam and Online Accounts are very laggy/stuttering #10946 . I didn't find anyone mentioning an issue related to the number of monitors attached to their system.

I don't know if there are new tweaks available in System Settings (General) that might help. (That was where one could change the Cinnamon memory reset value in LM20.3. I don't know if it changed for LM21.) That would be the only other idea I have.

Maybe someone else will have some ideas.
Thanks for looking into my problem.

I was thinking of filing a bug report. But I wasn't sure if it would be a Cinnamon bug, or maybe a regression that was introduced in the update to Muffin.
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by SMG »

ugly wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 2:28 pmI was thinking of filing a bug report. But I wasn't sure if it would be a Cinnamon bug, or maybe a regression that was introduced in the update to Muffin.
I did take a look at the current listed issues in the Muffin repository and didn't see anything related to this. My guess would be it is a Cinnamon issue, but that is just a guess based on what issues I see posted in the Cinnamon repository versus the Muffin one. I do not know the code well enough to know which might be more appropriate.
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by ugly »

I decided to a do bit more testing before filing a bug report.

I downloaded the ISO for Cinnamon 20.3 (edge) and tried the live environment. And, in the live environment, there is the same issue I have with 21. I also tried Xfce versions of 20.3 and 21 and they also have the same behavior - not smooth with both monitors active, but smooth when I turn off the 60Hz monitor.

So, unless the live environment has some limitations, it would seem it's not exclusively a Mint 21 issue. Now I'm not sure if I either changed some setting or installed something in my old 20.3 setup that might have enabled the multimonitor refresh rate to work properly.
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by SMG »

Unless for some reason you are using a different monitor cable when running that LM20.3 install, I can not think of any ideas why it would be different from the other scenarios you tried.

I went back through some of your older posts on the forum and the only thing I found was this post, but that would seem to indicate it should be better with Mint 21. :?
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by ThaCrip »

I got two screen setup... 1080p @ 144Hz monitor(DP) and a 1080p @ 60Hz TV(HDMI) and my monitor's high refresh rate looks smooth like I would expect on Mint 21.0-Xfce (clean installed) and Mint 20.3-Xfce (both using 5.15 kernel). I am using a NVIDIA GPU though with NVIDIA proprietary driver.

but I wonder if you try 2560x1440 @ 144Hz (or say 1920x1080 @ 120Hz) on your high refresh rate monitor gets it to smooth out at all? ; not that this would be a proper fix, but just to see if it gets it to smooth out. but I figure if that 2560x1440 @ 144Hz works, it might be at least somewhat of a fix since I doubt you would really notice any smooth movement decline of the mouse etc as while I currently use 144Hz I have tried 120Hz in the past and it's pretty much the same as I can't notice any obvious difference like you can going from say 60Hz to 120Hz/144Hz etc.
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by ugly »

Okay, I figured it out.

I looked at my old 20.3 install and discovered that I had an xorg conf file for the amdgpu driver.

So the solution was to make a file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf with:

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
    Identifier           "AMD"
    Driver               "amdgpu"
    Option "TearFree"    "true"
EndSection
In my previous 20.3 install, I also had an additional line in the file Option "DRI" "3", but when testing without the DRI line, it looks like only the TearFree option was needed.

Thanks @SMG for the help. And thanks @ThaCrip for mentioning the Nvidia driver, it got me thinking about my AMD driver and that reminded me that I might have had an xorg conf file.

I'll make this as solved.

One additional question about xorg conf files. I put mine in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf, but I've also seen some people mention putting the conf file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf. Does it matter which one is used?
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Re: No High Refresh Rate in Multi-monitor setup with Mint 21

Post by SMG »

ugly wrote: Sun Aug 28, 2022 4:07 amOne additional question about xorg conf files. I put mine in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf, but I've also seen some people mention putting the conf file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf. Does it matter which one is used?
Custom files, such as yours, should be placed in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d.

The other directory is a system directory. By placing (or modifying) files there, you run the risk a system update will overwrite them.
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