Worse than expected performance, weird cpu behaviour

[Shadow_Wallaby52]

Hello,
I recently upgraded my cpu (R3 2200G to R51600AF) and I'm experiencing unexpected slowness cpu usage readings in some games.

It all started when I launched GTA Online on my cpu and continued to see similar performance issues, where I am unable to get the framerates I expect from my hardware (1600AF, RX 570 and 16GB of RAM). I got sick of this and decided to use mangohud to measure performance and I got some weird results. When playing (via attached image). You can see that my framerate is under 60 (Im running a mix of high and v. high settings, no msaa), but i know that it could do better, my gpu is using 63 W of power, though it is easily capable of over 100W (via apex legends screenshot), so the answer must be a cpu bottleneck, though that confuses me, I would have thought that my cpu is easily capable of handling an RX570(over 6000 points in geekbench 5). But my cpu is only being 27% used on average, which makes no sense, but when looking at the clock speed I can see that every core is running at its highest clock (3.7Ghz), which makes me even more confused and I have no idea what could be causing this issue. The only thing that makes a difference is deactivating feral gamemode, which allows the cpu usage to be equal to the usage, but the cpu runs at a lower clock and the fps is even more unstable (see other gta screenshot).

I honestly have no idea what to do and am in dire need of help. This problem also occurs in RDR2 and Star Citizen.

Thanks for any and all help,
Wallaby

[Storm]

With AMD cards it's a bit a hit'n'miss in Linux regarding performance, but you can try upgrading the driver and see if it helps.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade

which will give you the latest driver.

For the CPU you could try a newer kernel, but be warn it may brick Zorin so backup is essential. I'll see if I can find a easy way to (PPA) install it.

EDIT: This may be something - again this is for testing purpose kernels so backup - scroll to the bottom to find the lastest .debs
https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

[Shadow_Wallaby52]

Hello,
I am already using oibaf drivers actually (sorry for not mentioning it).
Anyways,
I have updated to the latest mainline kernel and performance has stayed practically the same, though I do have some interesting observations, some things always fail or do weird things when I update my kernel.

The first error is:
dpkg: error processing package linux-headers-5.18.0-051800rc7-generic (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

The second error is:
Building module:

cleaning build area...

KERNELDIR=/lib/modules/5.18.0-051800rc7-generic/build make driver...(bad exit status: 2)

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.18.0-051800rc7-generic (x86_64)

And then I have this weird message come up about my drivers:
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.18.0-051800rc7-generic

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/ip_discovery.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/vega10_cap.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sienna_cichlid_cap.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/navi12_cap.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/psp_13_0_8_ta.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/psp_13_0_8_toc.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/psp_13_0_8_asd.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/psp_13_0_5_ta.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/psp_13_0_5_toc.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/psp_13_0_5_asd.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_cap.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_7_rlc.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_7_mec2.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_7_mec.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_7_me.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_7_pfp.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_7_ce.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_6_rlc.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_6_mec2.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_6_mec.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_6_me.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_6_pfp.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/gc_10_3_6_ce.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sdma_5_2_7.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sdma_5_2_6.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sienna_cichlid_mes.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/navi10_mes.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/vcn_3_1_2.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/dcn_3_1_6_dmcub.bin for module amdgpu

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/dcn_3_1_5_dmcub.bin for module amdgpu

Though I have a polaris gpu so I have ignored these previously, maybe that's the problem?

Thanks again for any help or guidance

[Aravisian]

@Shadow_Wallaby52

dpkg: error processing package linux-headers-5.18.0-051800rc7-generic (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

How did you install the 5.18 kernel?
Zorin OS is currently on the 5.13.0-41 kernel, I believe.

If you are using a higher kernel, I would recommend using the TuxInvader release or the Liquorix kernel.
It can be very difficult to troubleshoot a non-vetted kernel on the OS.

[Elegant_Emperor]

@Shadow_Wallaby52

linux-headers-5.18.0-051800rc7-generic

@Aravisian

How did you install the 5.18 kernel?

However and for whatever reason you did...That is a release candidate and not yet stable. The latest stable kernel is 5.17.9.

[Shadow_Wallaby52]

I used the foss tutorial: How to Upgrade to the Latest Mainline Kernel In Ubuntu Linux
Yes Zorin is on kernel 5.13
I’ll have a look at your suggestions
thanks

[Shadow_Wallaby52]

Ok, It's been a while since I posted any progress here, to be honest I just set back to whatever kernel Zorin uses by default and just left it that way, though the issue is still there and I have noticed something else that seemed weird to me. GTA is maxing out my swap memory of all things...could that be the reason for low fps?

[Aravisian]

@Shadow_Wallaby52

GTA is maxing out my swap memory of all things...could that be the reason for low fps?

It Can Indeed.
You might try increasing Swap or more swappiness... But if possible, upgrading your RAM would really be the best move.

[Shadow_Wallaby52]

That's odd,
because I have 16GB of RAM in my system (all of it is detected), and when running GTA is goes up to 60% usage or so, but it doesn't exceed that. And swap is pinned at 100%.

[Aravisian]

Whether Swap is used and how frequently depends on what your swappiness is set to. You can check:

sudo nano /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Default that comes with Zorin is 60. The lower that number is, the less likely the system will use swap as long as there is any RAM left available. Setting it all the way to zero means that Swap will not be used at all until there is zero RAM left available. Setting it to the max 100 would mean that it will use Swap vigorously and immediately, no matter how much RAM is available.

There are good reasons to rely on Swap even when RAM is available, depending on what processing you are doing. If processing with a lot of background applications, more Swap can be beneficial.
But if Gaming, where fast access to Fast memory matters, less swap is better. RAM is faster than Swap.
While running GTA, you might ensure you have less background processes running, as they may also be accessing Swap while GTA is accessing RAM. Memory is not only being accessed by the active process you are currently using. You may have a lot of luck just by killing processes before even changing your swappiness value.