Sudden perfromance degradation when using higher shader settings.

[DerRidda]

First off, this is a general issue for me in Source games and third party mods but I will bring this up here, because this is also a Source game and has all the eyeballs now, please don't beat me.

When using the shader settings high and very high the game first runs fine with stable and high fps but after some playtime (~30min or more) there is very sudden drop in fps into the single digits from which the game doesn't recover until the game is completely restarted.

System specs:

Processor Information:

Vendor:  AuthenticAMD
CPU Family:  0x10
CPU Model:  0x4
CPU Stepping:  0x3
CPU Type:  0x0
Speed:  3000 Mhz
4 logical processors
4 physical processors
HyperThreading:  Unsupported
FCMOV:  Supported
SSE2:  Supported
SSE3:  Supported
SSSE3:  Unsupported
SSE4a:  Supported
SSE41:  Unsupported
SSE42:  Unsupported

Operating System Version:

Ubuntu 13.10 (64 bit)
Kernel Name:  Linux
Kernel Version:  3.11.0-18-generic
X Server Vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release:  11405000
X Window Manager:  Compiz
Steam Runtime Version:  steam-runtime-release_2014-02-05

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 650 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

Driver Version:  4.4.0 NVIDIA 331.38
OpenGL Version: 4.4
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
VendorID:  0x10de
DeviceID:  0x11c6
Number of Monitors:  2
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 3840 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 20,91" x 11,77"  (23,98" diag)
                                        53,1cm x 29,9cm  (60,9cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 1024 MB
Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
Audio device: Realtek ALC888

Memory:
RAM: 6977 Mb

Miscellaneous:

UI Language:  English
LANG:  de_DE.UTF-8
Microphone:  Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available:  300618 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  105762 Mb

[gabboman]

What desktop environement do you use?

[DerRidda]

Unity. (Ubuntu 13.10 + compiz should speak for themselves ;) )

[ghost]

idk why people use this laggy and unusable DE. Remove Unity and install normal DE (or different linux distribution)

[ghost]

NOT a DE problem. ArchLinux 64bit, E18, RadeonSI HD 7750, same issue. (not just for Portal 2 but all source games)

[ghost]

i think its NOT ONLY DE problem. Unity uses a lot of cpu/ram/videoacc. And a lot of other linux native games works VERY slow when i am using unity. Switching to openbox (4 example) solves low fps.

[PARTYMANX]

Please don't turn this into a distro/DE war. No one cares what DE you use, that's the great part about Linux. This issue has nothing to do with a specific DE, it occurs on SteamOS as well.

I can confirm that this issue is still present from L4D2 on Ubuntu 13.10 running nvidia 319.60 (GTX 560). The issue seems to only pop up when FPS drops below 30 or so.

[ghost]

i know. i have same issue. But the fact is - Unity uses a lof of resources.
Do u have info about this issue about other Valve games? Dota 2?

[ivoanjo]

I also have this. I use fallback gnome (metacity) to play. No issues with DotA 2, which I play a lot.

Processor Information:
Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0xf
CPU Stepping: 0xd
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 2000 Mhz
2 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Unsupported
SSE42: Unsupported

Network Information:
Network Speed:

Operating System Version:
Ubuntu 13.10 (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.11.0-17-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11405000
X Window Manager: Metacity
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release_2014-02-05

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce 9800 GT/PCIe/SSE2

Driver Version:  3.3.0 NVIDIA 331.38
OpenGL Version: 3.3
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
VendorID:  0x10de
DeviceID:  0x614
Number of Monitors:  1
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 18,74" x 10,55"  (21,50" diag)
                                        47,6cm x 26,8cm  (54,6cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 512 MB
Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
Audio device: Realtek ALC883

Memory:
RAM: 3953 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 78616 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 12321 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:

[PARTYMANX]

In my limited experience playing Dota 2 on Linux, it hasn't ever had this type of frame drop.

[DerRidda]

This can also happen in Dota 2 but it is incredibly rare, it is much more common in any of the first person titles.

[Majlo34]

I have exactly same issue in all source games from beginning.

Ubuntu 13.10 , Nvidia GTX 660 , Drivers : 331.38

[georgek]

I have this problem too. Game plays at an easy 60fps then all of a sudden drops down to below 10fps. Xubuntu 13.10, Nvidia 8800GT, driver 319.32.

[bespokebob]

I've also seen this happen while playing, but it doesn't take 30 minutes. The past several times I have noticed this happen immediately on opening a portal in the first few levels, but I'm not sure if that's always caused it. The performance issue carries over into the menus, until the game exits completely. Nvidia GTX 260, driver 319.32.

[mariodonofrio]

Might link this to #128, here's what I asked on that issue - with the additional note on this issue about what difference you might be seeing (between vsync on/off) when your framerate is 'good' vs after your extended play time when it's being reported as 'bad':-

I'd be interested in hearing what difference turning vsync on/off makes, and reporting back to this thread.. use cl_showfps 2, go to map sp_a1_wakeup, after you initially enter the chamber (where framerate is at its worst) sit there and mat_vsync 0 and then 1 (or turn on/off from the video menu) and make a note of ms per frame and fps.
Thanks.

[PARTYMANX]

A while later, but finally replicated it while my system was bogged down. Messing with vsync doesn't do anything to fix the issue, but can work around the issue just due to the nature of refreshing the graphics context.