I3wm Low FPS in Games

Hey all, when I launch games like CS:GO and TF2 I get extremely low FPS. It’s behaving as if the game thinks itself is unfocused? Is there anyway to fix this? Anyone experience the same thing? Google hasn’t helped me really. I also have tried disabling my compositor.

i3 version: i3 version 4.19 (2020-11-15) © 2009 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
i3 config: https://pastebin.com/UysMtBGc

Thanks in advance.

How can you tell the low fps are caused by the window manager?

Because I installed gnome to test and the game ran fine. Where as with i3 it doesn’t.

Return inxi -Fxxxza --no-host from a terminal and copy paste the information here. Please format it by highlighting and then clicking the </> button,

Depending on your GPU and graphics setup GNOME could be possibly run on Wayland where i3 runs on Xorg Session.
On i3 you can also set the way windows are handled per application, it could help to start Games inside floating windows, as this will be the normal way they startup inside a DE…

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System:    Kernel: 5.10.3-arch1-1 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=468a0f43-769e-40c6-83fb-1e351b295e43 rw quiet 
           cryptdevice=UUID=e3aa1b3a-3a93-4549-91ed-69d69dd278a2:luks-e3aa1b3a-3a93-4549-91ed-69d69dd278a2 
           root=/dev/mapper/luks-e3aa1b3a-3a93-4549-91ed-69d69dd278a2 
           resume=/dev/mapper/luks-9bc56d68-c325-4190-a199-0e8ca161ac96 loglevel=3 nowatchdog 
           Desktop: i3 4.19 info: i3bar dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: EndeavourOS 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: X470 Master SLI/ac serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: P3.70 
           date: 12/12/2019 
CPU:       Info: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ family: 17 (23) model-id: 8 stepping: 2 
           microcode: 800820D L2 cache: 3 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 81471 
           Speed: 2459 MHz min/max: 1550/3400 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2459 2: 2577 3: 3817 4: 2313 5: 3793 
           6: 2528 7: 3790 8: 2453 9: 2428 10: 2617 11: 3792 12: 2529 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nvidia v: 455.45.01 
           alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus ID: 0a:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1f08 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: picom v: git-dac85 driver: modesetting FAILED: nvidia display ID: :0 
           screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 69 s-size: 1414x392mm (55.7x15.4") s-diag: 1467mm (57.8") 
           Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 70 size: 698x393mm (27.5x15.5") diag: 801mm (31.5") 
           Monitor-2: DP-2 res: 1920x1080 hz: 165 dpi: 70 size: 698x393mm (27.5x15.5") diag: 801mm (31.5") 
           Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing. 
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 High Definition Audio vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 0a:00.1 
           chip ID: 10de:10f9 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 0c:00.3 chip ID: 1022:1457 
           Device-3: SteelSeries ApS Arctis 7 wireless adapter type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           bus ID: 5-2:2 chip ID: 1038:1260 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.3-arch1-1 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168NGW [Stone Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:24fb 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: ASRock driver: igb v: kernel port: f000 bus ID: 04:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:1539 
           IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-3: SteelSeries ApS Arctis 7 wireless adapter type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           bus ID: 5-2:2 chip ID: 1038:1260 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.28 TiB used: 145.09 GiB (11.0%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-08WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB block size: 
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 1A02 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Toshiba model: MK1637GSX size: 149.05 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B speed: 1.5 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 2C 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Crucial model: CT250MX500SSD1 size: 232.89 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 023 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 215.4 GiB size: 211.02 GiB (97.97%) used: 9.95 GiB (4.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 maj-min: 254:0 
           mapped: luks-e3aa1b3a-3a93-4549-91ed-69d69dd278a2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 424 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdc1 
           maj-min: 8:33 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 17.19 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/dm-1 maj-min: 254:1 
           mapped: luks-9bc56d68-c325-4190-a199-0e8ca161ac96 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 57.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 47 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0% 
Info:      Processes: 297 Uptime: 2h 15m wakeups: 0 Memory: 15.62 GiB used: 2.48 GiB (15.8%) Init: systemd v: 247 Compilers: 
           gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: pacman: 836 lib: 254 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 running in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.2.00 

On steam I’ve forced a windowed mode on start of the application. Using the -windowed option returns a floating window on start. It still has low FPS.

Nvidia and Picom needs some config to work nicely too …
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Picom#Screentearing_with_NVIDIA’s_proprietary_drivers

Also make sure FullCompositionPipeline is enabled for all Displays
I do currently also recommend to not use dkms driver version packages, an to force early boot load for nvidia modules:
https://endeavouros.com/docs/hardware-and-network/graphic-cards-gpu-driver-and-setup/nvidia/nvidia-optional-enhancements-and-troubleshooting/

I’ve followed the optional enhancements and troubleshooting and the Arch linux wiki page but no luck. Also I’m not using the dkms driver. (also rebooted)

Which iso did you use? Have you checked in arandr to make sure the screens are configured properly?

I did check arandr and nothing seems out of the ordinary everything looks fine. I used the latest release torrent to install, I also checked the integrity of it and it passed.

Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nvidia v: 455.45.01
alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus ID: 0a:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1f08
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: picom v: git-dac85 driver: modesetting FAILED: nvidia display ID: :0
screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 69 s-size: 1414x392mm (55.7x15.4") s-diag: 1467mm (57.8")
Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 70 size: 698x393mm (27.5x15.5") diag: 801mm (31.5")
Monitor-2: DP-2 res: 1920x1080 hz: 165 dpi: 70 size: 698x393mm (27.5x15.5") diag: 801mm (31.5")
Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing.

You should install mesa-demos and then again post the output of inxi -G

Here you go. (thank you everyone for trying to help)

Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] driver: nvidia v: 455.45.01 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: modesetting FAILED: nvidia resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           2: 1920x1080~165Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.2 

I should also mention the games that I am trying to run are using OpenGL.

Your Nvidia driver is obviously not installed correctly.
What’s the output of yay -Qs nvidia

I don’t know how I could’ve messed up the install. I just used sudo pacman -S nvidia
Any idea how to fix this? I wonder why Gnome performed well as it did if the driver was not installed correctly…

Output of yay -Qs nvidia:

local/egl-wayland 1.1.6-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
local/lib32-nvidia-utils 455.45.01-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit)
local/libvdpau 1.4-1
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/libxnvctrl 455.45.01-1
    NVIDIA NV-CONTROL X extension
local/nvidia 455.45.01-10
    NVIDIA drivers for linux
local/nvidia-installer-db 2.4.11-1
    Database for the script to setup nvidia drivers in EndeavourOS
local/nvidia-installer-dkms 3.3.8-2
    Script to setup nvidia drivers (dkms version) in EndeavourOS
local/nvidia-settings 455.45.01-1
    Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
local/nvidia-utils 455.45.01-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities

this looks like you do not have nvidia in mkinitcpio.conf modules line and no nvidia-drm.modeset=1 in grub kernel line

@joekamprad
Wouldn*t it be preferable to install nvidia-dkms instead of nvidia?
This would update the system automatically every time there is an update for the driver.

I made a mistake when editing the grub kernel parameters.
The issue is now fixed! Thank you all for your help.

Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] driver: nvidia v: 455.45.01 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: nvidia resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~165Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce RTX 2060/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 455.45.01 
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