Games stuttering at a 1s interval when using i3wm

General system Newbie
1

Hello! I’ve been trying to fix my very poor 3D performance in most games. I tested CS2, Derail Valley, Teardown, and Portal.
My GPU is pinned at 100% unless I turn the graphics down to the minimum, this does not happen in WIndows.

I have done quite a bit of research but I could not find any solution. I tried a few different Proton versions, but no dice.

EndeavourOS Cassini Nova
6.5.8-arch1-1
i3

Hardware

R9 7950X
GTX 1060 6GB
X670E Aorus Master

pacman -Qs nvidia 
local/egl-wayland 2:1.1.13-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
local/lib32-nvidia-utils 535.113.01-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit)
local/libvdpau 1.5-2
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/libxnvctrl 535.113.01-1
    NVIDIA NV-CONTROL X extension
local/nvidia-dkms 535.113.01-2
    NVIDIA drivers - module sources
local/nvidia-hook 1.3-1
    pacman hook for nvidia
local/nvidia-inst 23-8
    Script to setup nvidia drivers (dkms version) in EndeavourOS
local/nvidia-installer-common 23-7
    Common scripts for nvidia-installer-dkms and nvidia-inst
local/nvidia-settings 535.113.01-1
    Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
local/nvidia-utils 535.113.01-2
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
lspci 
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14d8
00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14da
00:01.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14db
00:01.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14db
00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14da
00:02.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14db
00:02.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14db
00:03.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14da
00:04.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14da
00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14da
00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14dd
00:08.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14dd
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 71)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e5
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e6
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e7
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GP106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller PM9A1/PM9A3/980PRO
03:00.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f4 (rev 01)
04:00.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
04:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
04:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
04:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
04:08.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
04:0c.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
04:0d.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
09:00.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f4 (rev 01)
0a:00.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
0a:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
0a:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
0a:07.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
0a:08.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
0a:0c.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
0a:0d.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f5 (rev 01)
0d:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I225-V (rev 01)
0e:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz (rev 1a)
10:00.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f7 (rev 01)
11:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f6 (rev 01)
12:00.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f7 (rev 01)
13:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43f6 (rev 01)
14:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller PM9A1/PM9A3/980PRO
15:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Raphael (rev c1)
15:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio Controller
15:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] VanGogh PSP/CCP
15:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b6
15:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b7
15:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller
16:00.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b8
lsusb 
Bus 009 Device 004: ID 046d:c08b Logitech, Inc. G502 SE HERO Gaming Mouse
Bus 009 Device 003: ID 3233:8311 Ducky Ducky One 3 TKL RGB
Bus 009 Device 002: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 010 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0bda:0411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 048d:5702 Integrated Technology Express, Inc. RGB LED Controller
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 2833:0051 Oculus VR, Inc. Rift S
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 2833:2052 Oculus VR, Inc. Rift S USB Hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0bda:5411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5411 Hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0032 Intel Corp. AX210 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Thanks!

2

Read this, especially 2. Requirements - make sure you have those Vulkan packages installed.

P.S. Also perhaps it’s some i3 thing, but i doubt it…

3

Yeah, those vulkan packages are installed.
The pacman output I posted shows that I have both nvidia-utils and lib32-nvidia-utils installed.

I also ran pacman -Qs vulkan and I see both packages.

local/lib32-nvidia-utils 535.113.01-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit)
local/lib32-vulkan-icd-loader 1.3.263-1
    Vulkan Installable Client Driver (ICD) Loader (32-bit)
local/nvidia-utils 535.113.01-2
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
local/spirv-tools 2022.4-1 (vulkan-devel)
    API and commands for processing SPIR-V modules
local/vulkan-headers 1:1.3.264-2 (vulkan-devel)
    Vulkan header files
local/vulkan-icd-loader 1.3.263-1
    Vulkan Installable Client Driver (ICD) Loader
local/vulkan-tools 1.3.263-1 (vulkan-devel)
    Vulkan Utilities and Tools
1 Like
4

You use Steam?

5

Yeah, Steam.

6

So far, no ideas at the moment…

@joekamprad you were an i3 expert…maybe some quirks on that front? :upside_down_face:

7

I will try a different DE, just in case.

8

Wow it runs fine on xfce. With i3, it has a lot of stuttering at a regular 1s interval.
The low frame rate issue seems to have gone away in both DEs somehow, only the stuttering remains on i3.

Performance in both DEs is still lower than it would be on Windows though.

I noticed something very interesting. The stuttering seems to happen in sync with the i3 clock updating every second.

9

Thanks for the idea @keybreak!
I started researching about stutters specifically with i3. Turns out that killing picom fixes the stuttering! I wonder if there is a way to fix the stuttering without having to kill it every time I want to play a game.

11

Use gamemode. You can set it up so it executes a command automatically when you launch a program with it and execute another command when you exit that program.

2 Likes
12

I found a different solution. It involves adding unredir-if-possible = true to ~/.config/picom.conf. Your game must be full-screen though.

I’ll check out gamemode though! Thanks for the tip.

13

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