Video performance in Linux

[Lucas Julian Güerci]

Hi everyone, I'm kinda new here, so sorry if the post is not correct with the rules (I'll correct it if something is wrong).

So here is my problem, I've been using a dual boot Linux/Windows for several years now but I've never been able to have a consistent good graphical performance in Linux, specially in the desktop, where i have a kind of frame lost, and it's very noticeable specially while playing youtube in +1080p at 60fps, things seems to freeze for a milisecond then rush a couple of frames with a video acceleration.

It has happened to me in both in Ubuntu and Manjaro, using Gnome, but i think that the same happened with KDE.

I have a GTX 1080 Strix with a I7 8700k, and tried with latest propietary and linux drivers, having the same result. The same happens with an RX 570 and a Ryzen 1600.

¿Any ideas or is linux just like that?

Thanks!

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day @Lucas Julian Güerci and welcome to linux.org

I am by no means a video/graphics wizard, just a multi-multi-multi-booting Wizard, but I'll ask a couple of questions that might allow others to better assist.

1. Is this confined to youtube videos, or have you tried to run movies or video clips in a media player such as VLC or other, to see if the problem is experienced there too?

2. Are you using Firefox as a Browser or other (specify) and have you tried with another browser?

On a more general note, I advise people to make friends with Timeshift

https://www.linux.org/threads/timeshift-similar-solutions-safeguard-recover-your-linux.15241/

and then before you start changing graphics drivers, take a screenshot so that you can roll back your system if things head south for the winter.

Cheers and good luck, and it's Friday here in Oz so

Avagudweegend

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[Lucas Julian Güerci]

G'day @Lucas Julian Güerci and welcome to linux.org

I am by no means a video/graphics wizard, just a multi-multi-multi-booting Wizard, but I'll ask a couple of questions that might allow others to better assist.

1. Is this confined to youtube videos, or have you tried to run movies or video clips in a media player such as VLC or other, to see if the problem is experienced there too?

2. Are you using Firefox as a Browser or other (specify) and have you tried with another browser?

On a more general note, I advise people to make friends with Timeshift

https://www.linux.org/threads/timeshift-similar-solutions-safeguard-recover-your-linux.15241/

and then before you start changing graphics drivers, take a screenshot so that you can roll back your system if things head south for the winter.

Cheers and good luck, and it's Friday here in Oz so

Avagudweegend

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

Thanks for your answer and the welcome!

I mainly use chrome, but it's not just a browser problem, or a video player problem. For example, just scrolling through any page looks ugly with a lot of tearing, and the same happens in steam and other applications too. It just doesn't work or feel as smooth as Windows

 

[wizardfromoz]

Mate is your Strix AMD or Intel? I know Ryzen is AMD.

I was in a Thread here - https://www.linux.org/threads/intel-gfx-screen-tearing-solved.20489/

and fixing tearing might have a beneficial effect for you.

Wizard

 

[Lucas Julian Güerci]

Mate is your Strix AMD or Intel? I know Ryzen is AMD.

I was in a Thread here - https://www.linux.org/threads/intel-gfx-screen-tearing-solved.20489/

and fixing tearing might have a beneficial effect for you.

Wizard

Thanks but that thread is for Intel integrated gfx, I have a AMD card with the ryzen and a Nvidia card with the i7

 

[TechnoJunky]

First, I'd like to say that Linux is not just like that. Although manufacturers are. While Nvidia does make video drivers for Linux, they don't open the code up for Linux developers to improve them. I have a GTX 1050. Every now and again I get some sort of weird video hicup, but not very often. Usually it's browser related, not OS. I run Neon as my main OS, which is Ubuntu based, and use Software & Updates (in Neon this has to be manually installed, in Ubuntu I think it's there by default) to install the Nvidia driver. If I keep the default Nouveau driver, I have issues.

 

[rado84]

Mate is your Strix AMD or Intel? I know Ryzen is AMD.

I was in a Thread here - https://www.linux.org/threads/intel-gfx-screen-tearing-solved.20489/

and fixing tearing might have a beneficial effect for you.

Wizard

That's for intel and I doubt it would help. For nVidia first he has to make nvidia-settings generate an xorg.conf file:

$ sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then

$ sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

In the xorg.conf file find the section "Screen" and add an option, like this:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
   Option          "metamodes" "1920x1080 +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

If the monitor's native resolution is different than 1920x1080, simply change it to the proper resolution. Then save the file and reboot.

 

[LeoR]

I had same type of video playback problems. In my case it was CPU speed setting. I have Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon on two different laptops, both suffered from short freezing video hiccups. After checking the processor speed with command INXI, it showed that it was not running anywhere near full speed. I installed TLPUI and changed CPU speed on AC power from Powersave to Conservative.

TLPUI Is A Graphical User Interface For TLP Power Management Tool (Ubuntu Installation Instructions)

TLP is a command line tool and it doesn't come with a graphical user interface, but there is a third-party GTK GUI (written in Python) interface for TLP, called TLPUI.

www.linuxuprising.com

https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt

That solved my video issues!

 

[alkion]

Have you added yourself as a bumblebee groups user?
And you checked the logs?:

 /var/log/nvidia-installer.log

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

 

[JulienCC]

Hi,

Which kernel are you using ?

$ uname -a

Your problem reminds me of a similar experience few years ago. Graphics drivers were not configured properly and the system was doing the rendering without hardware acceleration.

Xorg log would be helpful as alkion asked.

When it comes to proprietary drivers I wouldn't use them unless you have a good reason to. It tends to mess with system configuration. You'd better try to use open source drivers with a recent kernel. Your hardware is not that new so there's a high chance that its decently supported by now.

Have you tried to plus another monitor ? It's probably irrelevant but I once had a screen that was pushing its supported resolutions in a strange order and that was messing xorg auto config.