The 4 threads of your Pentium N3710 are only equipped with 2mb of L2 cache (no L3 cache at all) and sharing the system memory with the integrated graphics. And it’s limited to DDR3L-1600. If you’re lucky you already have both memory channels populated with matching pairs of equal size. I can’t really tell, as the initial pastebin isn’t accessible anymore.
In short, with these system specs … it’s already pretty optimistic to host any VMs. It may have been feasible to get Windows 7 running on that kind of hardware back in the day. But anything beyond that would be a stretch.
Checked it… but it’s not registered how many memory modules are actually installed. Only that you’ve got 4 GB system memory.
It should be clear that 4GBs are a severe limitation nowadays, even 8GBs are considered to be not enough for current OSs. And that’s the upper limit your machine will support. In short: There isn’t really a upgrade path … other than replacing the current HDD, the capacity of 500GB might be sufficient. But as it is an 5400rpm device, transfer speeds are de facto atrocious in comparison to a mediocre SATA SSD even.
Sure, you can try to upgrade to a SATA SSD of the same capacity, which shouldn’t be to expensive, and to upgrade to 8 GB of RAM in the from of two identical 4GB modules. But even with these two hardware upgrade options, the overall system would be still bottle-necked by the pretty limited caches of the Pentium N3710 CPU.
It has been simply a low energy cpu for basic computing tasks when it was released back in 2016. And personally, I wouldn’t even run a fully featured OS on it and would opt for a definite light-weight distribution or even go headless.
In my opinion, investing in this machine wouldn’t make much sense economically as there are better machines available on the used market for the same price as the aforementioned hardware upgrades would cost. Even in comparison to an 2010 Core 2 Duo P8600 which has been used in a MacBook Pro 7.1 13", a dual core processor, the Pentium N3710 CPU is 25% slower than the Core 2 Duo in single thread performance which has been released back in 2008, even if it is a 8 years older chip which also didn’t had a L3 cache. But in comparison to the N3710, it has a 3mb L2 cache and that’s the major reason it the older chip outperforms the newer chip in single threaded performance by roughly 25%.
Last but not least, according to your hardware info, the batteries are already down to 61.2% of it’s original capacity.
I know that. However, when a definitively weaker laptop doesn’t stutter in Minecraft randomly, and mine does while we’re fighting something (or each other), having to pause the game is lame as hell.
At this point, upgrading would probably be more expensive than just buying a newer computer. 500GB has done me well for a while, and the “data hoarding” (Windows install images, old games, etc.) is on a 1TB drive (in a 2.5 SATA to USB enclosure) my Dad gave me when he replaced his old hard disk with a solid state drive earlier last year.
Last but not least, according to your hardware info, the batteries are already down to 61.2% of it’s original capacity.
That’s the least of my concern. This laptop and the one I compare it to both have removable batteries, even though the other laptop already has a dead battery that holds absolutely no charge.
And if you scroll up in these threads, memory usage is not the playing factor for why a certain game (Sonic Robo Blast 2) was dropping to 10 FPS every so often.
Here’s the other laptop’s (the one with a broken fan) inxi -Fxza, as such you can probably tell it’s a worse system (it came with Windows 8 for God’s sake).
I’m just trying to fix the problem of “games this laptop can definitely handle on Windows are lagging on Linux for no apparent reason, while it’s grandpa is handling it like a champ (if it didn’t have a broken fan)” .
What I’ve tried: commit=60, BIOS update, journalctl, scx_scheds, memory checks, noatime, no zram, vm.swapiness=1, ext4 system (lol), ibt=off and mitigations=off.
What I haven’t tried: disabling networking completely (lolwut how do you do that).
I literally can pick up an used Lenovo Thinkpad T460 in good condition. With a i5-6300U CPU, 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD for 69,- € (~ $ 81.00). And that’s an overpriced listing from a reseller who is specialized on reselling enterprise hardware.
Even if it’s integrated graphics aren’t something to write home about (Intel HD Graphics 520), it offers almost triple the performance of the Pentium N3710 that you’ve got currently, comes with a 14" FullHD display and would support up to 32 GB of RAM. These specs could serve you well for some years. If it’s just some Minecraft or other old games you’re playing.
If you’re a bit patient, I guess you could make a bargain on used hardware that doesn’t qualify to support Windows 11, due to the lack of supporting trusted platform computing. Usually the old Thinkpads from Lenovo are still popular, due to their build quality, repairablility and the very good availablilty of spare parts. Other hardware vendors may have similar machines with identical spec that would be even cheaper than the Thinkpads.
I’ve got no clue where you’re located. But at least in terms of old SATA SSDs, those could be bought used for next to nothing. Same applies for low capacity DDR3 RAM modules. As both technologies are more or less obsolete nowadays.
Other than that, I can’t really help you with optimizing your current system.
If you’re a bit patient, I guess you could make a bargain on used hardware that doesn’t qualify to support Windows 11, due to the lack of supporting trusted platform computing SSE4.2/PopCnt.
FTFY (my current laptop does [lol], the HP 2000 Notebook does not, as it’s stuck on SSE3)
Other than that, I can’t really help you with optimizing your current system.
I don’t mean to throw hate at you, but this is a “how do I fix a problem I didn’t have before” thread, not a hardware recommendation thread.
What I’ve tried: commit=60, BIOS update, journalctl, scx_scheds, memory checks, noatime, no zram, vm.swapiness=1, ext4 system (lol), ibt=off and mitigations=off.
What I haven’t tried: disabling networking completely (lolwut how do you do that).
Loading the nVme drivers as a kernel module might be counterproductive.
This is added by default during installation of EnOS. And may allocate I/O queue pairs per core that are using 5% of the available system memory per device as the default setting.
Check your journalctl if this is the case and test if you can remove it.
But I still want to emphasize: You can definitely try to get the most out of your hardware and spend hours in the process. But only with pretty limited improvements.
I’ve never said that it is the only option to go hardware shopping. But upgrading the memory and storage by the means of buying “new” old stock doesn’t make sense economically. It is obvious that a SATA SDD and a RAM upgrade are still viable options and as SATA SSDs of limited capacity as well as DDR3L-1600 SO-DIMM memory modules are both outdated you should be able to find both for for next to nothing or even for free.
Installation shouldn’t be that hard. The question is only who many screws you have to remove and if that Laptop features a single or two SO-DIMM slots. Only the CPU and GPU are non-upgradeable as they’re soldered directly to the mainboard.
That being said: The required “investment” shouldn’t be much more than a fast food meal, at least where I’m at.
Loading the nVme drivers as a kernel module might be counterproductive.
I’ll be sure to remove it, but my other laptop has it and definitely doesn’t have this issue.
But I still want to emphasize: You can definitely try to get the most out of your hardware and spend hours in the process. But only with pretty limited improvements.
I’m just trying to restore performance to how it was before whatever change caused this mess.
I’ve never said that it is the only option to go hardware shopping.
I understand, but like you said, upgrading this machine is a waste. It’s probably more expensive in both time and effort to upgrade this machine vs just buying a new one, so it’s the only relevant option you mentioned besides just giving up and playing solitaire for fun instead (boring after a while).
Only the CPU and GPU are non-upgradeable as they’re soldered directly to the mainboard.
So in other words, the main bottlenecks. If I’m not mistaken, Intel advertised this CPU as a SoC.
That being said: The required “investment” shouldn’t be much more than a fast food meal, at least where I’m at.
There’s no way a used laptop better than mine costs less than a burger and fries.
What I’ve tried: commit=60, BIOS update, journalctl, scx_scheds, memory checks, noatime, no zram, vm.swapiness=1, ext4 system (lol), ibt=off and mitigations=off, nvme_load=YES removal.
What I haven’t tried: disabling networking completely (lolwut how do you do that).
You misunderstood, you can upgrade your RAM to the maximum supported 8GBs. And as I’ve checked eBay, a 4GB of DDR3L-1600 SO-DIMM module could be bought used for less than 7,-€ / $8.00 including the cost of shipping, A 2,5" inch SATA SSD with 512GB could be bought new for 16,- € / $18.50 including shipping, 256GB of capacity would be even cheaper.
I’m pretty certain that you can get a hold of both without much effort. Check your local classifieds, facebook marketplace or even ask at a local repair shop if they have suitable used hardware they want to get rid of.
Furthermore there is no way that your AMD E2-1800 supports current nVME technology. It’s also only equipped with an conventional spinning hard drive, a Hitachi HTS545050A7E380 to be precise. Slow spinning with 5400rpm and 8mb of cache. Which is only capable of ~61 MB/s in sequential read/write operations. There is no latency for the read/write head to reposition on the HDD platter… thus alone there several ms would be cut out of the equation. Which is a significant speed up. For comparison a 2.5" SATA2 SSD should be capable of at least 300 MB/s, a good one round about 400 MB/s. A current M.2 nVME drive via PCIe 4.0 … should be capable of 3000 - 7000 MB/s. But both your laptops won’t support it.
I bet that a good portion among the forum users here have some decommissioned 2.5" SATA SSD’s somewhere in storage. I think I’ve got at least two of those which aren’t reviewed and backed up yet…
Furthermore there is no way that your AMD E2-1800 supports current nVME technology.
It does not, but it also doesn’t have this issue.
You misunderstood, you can upgrade your RAM to the maximum supported 8GBs
I think we covered why this is ultimately a lost cause. Besides, if you scroll up you’ll find that the problem is the CPU spiking to 100% (I opened htop when the game was lagging), not memory pressure.
This is the most puzzling computer problem I’ve had to date, and I’ve seen lots.
What I’ve tried: commit=60, BIOS update, journalctl, scx_scheds, memory checks, noatime, no zram, vm.swapiness=1, ext4 system (lol), ibt=off and mitigations=off, and nvme_load=YES removal.
What I haven’t tried: disabling networking completely (lolwut how do you do that).
You know something’s wrong when Minecraft Alpha 1.1.2_01 (a version designed for 2011 computers) lags on a 2016 laptop, but only in Linux. On Windows, the FPS counter seems to be lower (but given this is an Alpha version of the game, it could be bugged), but this never happens. On Linux, it hovers at 60 for a while but then becomes a slideshow, over and over. The same CPU issue in htop occurs.
What I’ve tried: commit=60, BIOS update, journalctl, scx_scheds, memory checks, noatime, no zram, vm.swapiness=1, ext4 system (lol), ibt=off and mitigations=off, and nvme_load=YES removal.
What I haven’t tried: disabling networking completely (lolwut how do you do that).
That an alpha release doesn’t work properly shouldn’t be to surprising at all.
In your other threads you’re mentioning the use of optiscaler in combination with a beta release and that later releases work fine with it, if it’s at least version 1.12 which has been released in 2017 and is definitely outdated as well.
The current client is 1.21 and that’s the one which should work. Not earlier releases in combination with mods that alter the games behavior. In short, giving support to all the older, outdated revisions in conjunction with the use of mods would be software development hell. And is de facto a waste of time as each revision should contain bug fixes, improving the softwares stability and it’s reliability.
Thus, I’ld suggest to only check the current build.
Arch linux, which EndeavourOS is based upon, is a rolling release distro that currently includes the linux kernel 6.15.8 and the current LTS release which should be 6.12.x or so. Earlier kernel versions aren’t supported, thus you also don’t want to roll back to an earlier kernel version that has been released back in 2015 or so.
That being said, usually it is to be expected that current issues are related to current package versions that could be narrowed down, and potential issues could be identified based upon the assumption that we’re looking at the very same package versions. Which are the current releases. Not beta, alpha or other versions that are not supported by the developer themselves anymore.
That an alpha release doesn’t work properly shouldn’t be too surprising at all.
It works on Windows just fine. It’s actually relatively stable and doesn’t contain constant crash bugs like you’d expect from Chromium on Windows for example. It’s like having Chocolate Doom lag spike, it makes no sense, it’s basically the same thing as the DOS game.
optiscaler
OptiFine. optiscaler doesn’t exist. While it can be used for shaders, it’s definitely not required (source: I tested).
Also, the latest versions are what I usually test with (source: I maintain an optimization modpack for the latest version of Minecraft, 1.21.8 (at the time of writing). I decided to test really old versions to see if it was a problem with that version (regressions happen) or if this seems to be an independent issue.
In the end it doesn’t really make a difference if it’s called OptiScaler or OptiFine as you obviously understood what I’ve meant.
Take into account that this is still the forum for an Arch-based linux distribution and within this forums community, there isn’t not much feedback in relation to your issues in this and the other threads you’ve opened up so far.
In short: The median age of the predominantly male user base within this forum, at least in terms of my perception, doesn’t overlap with the players base of Minecraft. And if so, then mostly only due to the reason that ones kid or even grandchild is playing Minecraft.
Good luck with your path, I hope you can get a hold off less-outdated hardware sometime soon. As I’m pretty certain that this would negate most of the issues you’re facing. Even if your system was build in 2016, it was essentially already technically outdated upon release as a pretty basic entry level machine for the consumer market on a budget.
Something’s up. After a kernel upgrade (among other packages too) this seems to quit happening. I won’t mark this as a solution yet in case things go wrong, but the problem seems to be the solution. Random update brought it in, another random update took it out.