Performance Issues with NVIDIA-GPU on Fresh Install

General system Kernel, boot, graphics & hardware
1

I am having huge performance issues on a relatively fresh (few days) install of EndevourOS.

I first noticed that watching a twitch-stream in Firefox uses up 200% CPU, which obviously is not right. It is not a twitch issue, since the same happens on YouTube and it is not a Firefox issue, since on Chromium I have 150% when watching Twitch.
For some reason now the numbers have gone down slightly in Firefox. Watching a stream uses 50-120% (instead of 200%) in one firefox-thread, 30-35% in another and 30% for Xorg. For Chromium it is 125-150% in one thread, 40-45% in another and 40% for Xorg.

I also tested out running Steam games and I have horrendous performance there as well (Slay the Spire running on 15fps with 300% CPU when it was running just fine on my previously installed Antergos). I also had very bad performance when enabling transparency-blur under i3, but I initially thought my machine was just not able to handle that (which it probably should though).

It seems like a graphics driver issue, but I was also under the impression that Firefox did not have hardware acceleration anyways and decoding on the CPU should not bring my machine to sweat. I have installed the NVIDIA drivers through nvidia-installer-dkms and nvidia-settings tells me that driver version 455.28 is installed. glxgears runs with a bit over 1k fps.

I do not think this is a hardware issue, since everything is running fine under Windows.

I am running LightDM and the problem is the same in Xfce and i3, which I have both installed through the OS-installer with all their respective packages.

My Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K
GPU: GeForce GTX 760
RAM: 16GB

I will happily provide any additional information, the output of commands or logfiles as needed.

2

I’m going to guess you’re running kernel 5.9?

If so, try 5.4 instead.

The NVIDIA driver isn’t fully functional yet with 5.9, so run with 5.4 (linux-lts) until NVIDIA releases an update.

3

I am indeed using kernel 5.9.
I just installed linux-lts and tried to boot into it twice, but I do only get a black screen.

4

That sounds like you removed nvidia-dkms (or otherwise don’t have NVIDIA driver installed for 5.4).

Did you install nvidia and then didn’t install nvidia-lts for the LTS kernel?

5

I did not install nvidia directly, but through nvidia-installer-dkms. I did not remove nvidia-dkms

[desmond@desmond-arch ~]$ pacman -Qe | grep nvidia
lib32-nvidia-utils 455.28-1
nvidia-dkms 455.28-1
nvidia-installer-dkms 3.3.8-1
nvidia-settings 455.28-1

But I don’t have nvidia-lts or a driver for the 5.4 kernel

[desmond@desmond-arch ~]$ dkms status
blackmagic, 11.6a26, 5.9.1-arch1-1, x86_64: installed
blackmagic-io, 11.6a26, 5.9.1-arch1-1, x86_64: installed
nvidia, 455.28, 5.9.1-arch1-1, x86_64: installed

So I just install nvidia-lts?

6

Or does dkms status only show the modules of the current running kernel by default? When I ask for the lts-kernel it states that all three modules are added?

[desmond@desmond-arch ~]$ dkms status -k 5.4.72-1-lts 
blackmagic, 11.6a26: added
blackmagic-io, 11.6a26: added
nvidia, 455.28: added
7

No, nvidia-dkms should compile and install the module for all kernels on the system.

This suggests you have a single kernel installed or DKMS is somehow broken. If DKMS is working correctly it will show all modules for all kernels, e.g.:

$ dkms status
vboxhost, 6.1.16_OSE, 5.9.1-1-ck-zen, x86_64: installed
vboxhost, 6.1.16_OSE, 5.9.1-arch1-1, x86_64: installed
vboxhost, 6.1.16_OSE, 5.9.1-zen2-1-zen, x86_64: installed
zfs, 0.8.5, 5.9.1-1-ck-zen, x86_64: installed
zfs, 0.8.5, 5.9.1-arch1-1, x86_64: installed
zfs, 0.8.5, 5.9.1-zen2-1-zen, x86_64: installed
8

I definitely do have both 5.9 and 5.4 installed. I installed linux-lts and can also boot into it. When I put dkms status -k in bash it autocompletes to both versions, further suggesting that I have them both installed.

$ dkms status -k 5.
5.4.72-1-lts   5.9.1-arch1-1

$ pacman -Qe | grep linux
archlinux-xdg-menu 0.7.6.3-2
linux 5.9.1.arch1-1
linux-atm 2.5.2-6
linux-firmware 20201023.dae4b4c-1
linux-headers 5.9.1.arch1-1
linux-lts 5.4.72-1
9

Install also linux-lts-headers.

And welcome! :smile:

10

I installed the headers and now the modules were compiled correctly and I can boot into the lts-kernel, but the issues I described are not fixed.

11

Output of inxi -Gxxx and/or glxinfo | grep -i vendor ?

(Yes, you may have to install inxi and/or glxinfo first)

12 
$ inxi -Gxxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics 
  vendor: ASRock driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0162 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia 
  v: 455.28 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1187 
  Device-3: Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro 4K driver: blackmagic-io 
  v: 11.6a26 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: bdbd:a139 
  Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting FAILED: nvidia 
  resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.1 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.1 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

$ glxinfo | grep -i vendor
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
    Vendor: Mesa/X.org (0xffffffff)
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa/X.org
13

OK, so it appears that it’s running on your Intel iGPU rather than the NVIDIA card.

Are you running your display on the correct output?

1 Like
14

I am running both my displays on the outputs of my graphics card.

15

Please show the output of:

  lsmod | grep -P 'i915|nvidia|nouveau'
  lspci -vnn | grep -PA9 'VGA|3D|Display'
16 
$ lsmod | grep -P 'i915|nvidia|nouveau'
nvidia_drm             57344  1
nvidia_modeset       1216512  2 nvidia_drm
nvidia              27701248  72 nvidia_modeset
i915                 2392064  1
i2c_algo_bit           16384  1 i915
drm_kms_helper        221184  2 nvidia_drm,i915
intel_gtt              24576  1 i915
drm                   520192  5 drm_kms_helper,nvidia_drm,i915

$ lspci -vnn | grep -PA9 'VGA|3D|Display'
00:02.0 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0162] (rev 09)
	Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Motherboard [1849:0162]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 35
	Memory at f7400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
	Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	I/O ports at f000 [size=64]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915

--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] [10de:1187] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:8472]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 37
	Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at e8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
	I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
	Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [virtual] [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
17

Try blacklisting i915, e.g. use kernel parameter module_blacklist=i915.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_module#Blacklisting

2 Likes
18

That did work! Slay the Spire runs smoothly now. :grinning:

The load of watching a YouTube video did not go down much though. That is still around 100% CPU in total, which still seems too high, or am I just crazy?

2 Likes
19

Based on what? HD videos require CPU to decode, and as you say,

so :man_shrugging:

20

I am just crazy then. I can live with that. :upside_down_face:

Thank you @jonathon and @manuel for your help and fixing the problem. Greatly appreciated!

3 Likes