The question is: which driver (and related packages) should be installed to get the most of the graphics? Now I see sometimes that videos lag although conky tells me the CPU is running with 2 fingers up its nose, meaning a CPU usage of less than 20%.
Also when I use Flightgear and I have a decent amount of graphics parts switched on (to create a pretty much life-like environment) I get 2-3 frames per second. I can’t even switch everything to the highest setting because that will drop the frame rate even further.
I really believe I can get more out of the graphics processor than what I have now. Who can tell me I am right and knows how to do it?
Hi
All should be there with the amdgpu driver, maybe some tweaks with the amdgpu kernel options may help. Does flightgear have the ability to show FPS?
What you really need to do if changing an option is to then test to see if improvements are made. There should be plenty of web info on specific tweaks, eg changing the ppfeaturemask to allow overclocking control.
You can see what the current parmeter settings are via;
systool -vm amdgpu
Then can see what options are via;
/sbin/modinfo amdgpu | grep "parm:"
Check the clocks, have a look down in /sys/class/drm/card0/device/ (0 should be you card) at the pp_dpm_sclk and pp_dpm_mclk and see they are switching under load;
Thank you for your answer.
Yes, Flightgear can show the actual frame rate and as soon as I switch on scenery (buildings, roads, vegetation) the framerate drops to 2-3 frames/second which makes flying impossible. When I change direction of the plane it takes some time before the plane actually does change the direction.
I have seen the results of your commands but I don’t have a clue how to change parameters and, of course, which one. So I don’t see me doing that.
I was kinda hoping I needed an extra driver, and other driver maybe, to boost the GPU but I now know that’s not possible.
Again, thanks for your help. I guess I have to start living with the consequences of having bought the wrong laptop.
Hi
I’m sure we can tweak it some, ok if you add the following grub kernel option after quiet amdgpu.dc=0 does that make a difference?
If you start from the command line in a terminal (fgfs), what sort of information is provided on gpu performance? Any other warnings seen which may be affecting performance?
When I start Flightgear from the terminal I get this:
$ fgfs
0.13 [WARN]:gui Failed to load default (en) translations
Now checking for plug-in osgPlugins-3.6.5/osgdb_nvtt.so
0.41 [WARN]:general Enabling ATI/AMD viewport hack
0.59 [INFO]:terrasync Starting automatic scenery download/synchronization to '/home/jan/.fgfs/TerraSync'.
8.77 [ALRT]:io mipmapping: texture size not a power-of-two: /usr/share/flightgear/Aircraft/c172p/Models/Effects/interior/lm_fuel-selector.png
8.77 [ALRT]:io mipmapping: texture size not a power-of-two: /usr/share/flightgear/Aircraft/c172p/Models/Effects/interior/lm_fuel-selector.png
[ALSOFT] (EE) Failed to set real-time priority for thread: Operation not permitted (1)
[ALSOFT] (EE) Failed to set real-time priority for thread: Operation not permitted (1)
13.87 [INFO]:nasal Animated jetways ... initialized
14.05 [ALRT]:nasal ERROR: Cannot add listener to tied property /sim[0]/current-view[0]/heading-offset-deg[0]
14.11 [INFO]:nasal KMA20 audio panel initialized
14.11 [INFO]:nasal Hobbs system stopped
14.11 [INFO]:nasal Hobbs system stopped
14.11 [INFO]:nasal Starter off
14.11 [INFO]:nasal KI266 dme indicator #0 initialized
14.12 [INFO]:nasal Electrical system initialized
14.17 [ALRT]:nasal ERROR: Cannot add listener to tied property /instrumentation[0]/gps[0]/mode[0]
14.17 [INFO]:nasal Astro Tech LC-2 Chronometer Loaded
18.11 [INFO]:OSG
18.11 [WARN]:OSG PNG lib warning : iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
19.39 [INFO]:nasal Primer reset to 0
26.48 [ALRT]:flight Failed to save initial FDM property state
28.41 [INFO]:nasal Garmin 196 loading cities
29.27 [INFO]:nasal Garmin 196 loading cities done
32.19 [WARN]:OSG PNG lib warning : iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
32.26 [WARN]:OSG PNG lib warning : iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
32.27 [WARN]:OSG PNG lib warning : iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
32.29 [WARN]:OSG PNG lib warning : iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
32.33 [WARN]:OSG PNG lib warning : iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
I also added the “amdgpu.dc=0” option to the Grub kernel but please don’t suggest that again. When I booted I got a black screen with all sorts of thin colored lines, made up of small blocks. It was hell recovering from it but I managed to do so by restoring yesterdays Timeshift backup. Now I am up and running again.
Hi Svyatko, thank you for answering.
I admit the laptop needs better cooling than what it has. Since a few weeks I am working with a newer BIOS and that did improve the cooling part, it didn’t do anything for the problems with the graphical system.
I have a total of 16GB of ram, conky tells me I have 13.6 so I guess the GPU uses 16-13.6 = 2.4GB. Can I calculate it that simpel or are more things involved?
Flightgear was installed from within the Yast software center, not from their website. Does that make any difference?
Hi
You can edit out or add any options added at grub to recover from this by pressing the ‘e’ key… modify the efilinux or linux line and press F10 key to boot.
Next time you boot investigate this option for future reference
That output looks normal, not sure what the “Enabling ATI/AMD viewport hack” is… what sort of frame rate did you see?
The Vega gpu should be pretty good, have you looked at the partial install of the amdgpu-pro driver?
Yes Malcom, I know about that. But what if you don’t get the possibility to do so. The laptop booted and immediately the screen was black with the colored lines. From then on nothing happened anymore.
I did open the website you mentioned but have no idea what to do here. It all looks pretty outdated: when using kernel 5.8 you need to downgrade to 5.4. I use 5.11.6 already. Websites like that make me cautious.
Hi
Press the esc key should give you the chance? Else set the timeout to 1 second and don’t hide the menu, then once happy with changes revert if required…
No, you don’t use the kernel driver, just the libraries for you card, I’m running it here… I have multiple GPU’s in the desktop. The laptop has older AMD gpu’s and not supported with the R7…
