Weird lag happening recently on Tumbleweed

Baboon · October 11, 2025, 8:34pm

Media and later on games too began lagging. It could be a quick cut but especially on youtube videos it would do random audio rewind by second and back, almost like a casette tape. It tends to run well and then suddenly a single lag or several in order. The yt video is buffered, so it can’t be connection, and Subnautica (offline game) began doing those little lags too.

I am on a Ryzen 3 1200 (budget ran out) with 24 GB of RAM and an RX 6650 XT all running plugged into TUF GAMING B550-PLUS.

I am running KDE Plasma with X11 but the lags are the same when I switch to Wayland as well.

I am fully updated too.

deano_ferrari · October 11, 2025, 9:16pm

Please provide graphics hardware and environment details…
inxi -GSaz

When the lag occurs, watch for associated driver events in a terminal window…
dmesg | grep amdgpu

Also watch system activity via top while the lag occurs. Report back with your findings.

The other thing to exclude is CPU frequency scaling / power management issues. Are you running in performance mode?

cpupower frequency-info

Baboon · October 12, 2025, 8:50am

Here’s my result of inxi -Gsaz

Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6650 XT /
    6700S 6800S] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2
    code: Navi-2x process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22 pcie: gen: 4
    speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-3 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1,
    Writeback-1 bus-ID: 0c:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73ef class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.15 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: vesa
    alternate: fbdev dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: DP-3 model: Dell P2214H serial: <filter> built: 2015 res:
    mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 102 gamma: 1.2
    size: 477x268mm (18.78x10.55") diag: 547mm (21.5") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.2.4 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (radeonsi navi23 LLVM
    21.1.2 DRM 3.64 6.17.0-2-default) device-ID: 1002:73ef memory: 7.81 GiB
    unified: no
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.321 layers: 5 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: AMD
    Radeon RX 6650 XT (RADV NAVI23) driver: mesa radv v: 25.2.4
    device-ID: 1002:73ef surfaces: N/A device: 1 type: cpu name: llvmpipe
    (LLVM 21.1.2 256 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 25.2.4 (LLVM 21.1.2)
    device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 33.9 C mobo: 31.5 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 39.0 C
    mem: 38.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0

Monitoring with btop, there were no spikes in either gpu or cpu, not even in network. RAM is sitting at a comfortable ~5GB

Here’s my result of cpupower frequency-info when not playing video

analyzing CPU 2:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 2
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 2
  maximum transition latency:  Cannot determine or is not supported.
  hardware limits: 1.55 GHz - 3.30 GHz
  available frequency steps:  3.30 GHz, 2.80 GHz, 1.55 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: ondemand performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.55 GHz and 3.30 GHz.
                  The governor "schedutil" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: 1.38 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: no
    Active: no

when playing the video

analyzing CPU 3:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 3
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 3
  maximum transition latency:  Cannot determine or is not supported.
  hardware limits: 1.55 GHz - 3.30 GHz
  available frequency steps:  3.30 GHz, 2.80 GHz, 1.55 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: ondemand performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.55 GHz and 3.30 GHz.
                  The governor "schedutil" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: 3.30 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: no
    Active: no

The dmesg | grep amdgpu output did not have any changes after the lag occured. (I am posting it here anyway)

[    4.799248] [    T367] [drm] amdgpu kernel modesetting enabled.
[    4.806965] [    T367] amdgpu: Virtual CRAT table created for CPU
[    4.806978] [    T367] amdgpu: Topology: Add CPU node
[    4.807079] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: enabling device (0006 -> 0007)
[    4.807114] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: initializing kernel modesetting (DIMGREY_CAVEFISH 0x1002:0x73EF 0x1043:0x05E1 0xC1).
[    4.807125] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: register mmio base: 0xFCB00000
[    4.807127] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: register mmio size: 1048576
[    4.811880] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 0 <nv_common>
[    4.811883] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 1 <gmc_v10_0>
[    4.811885] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 2 <navi10_ih>
[    4.811886] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 3 <psp>
[    4.811888] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 4 <smu>
[    4.811889] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 5 <dm>
[    4.811891] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 6 <gfx_v10_0>
[    4.811892] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 7 <sdma_v5_2>
[    4.811894] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 8 <vcn_v3_0>
[    4.811895] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 9 <jpeg_v3_0>
[    4.811906] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: Fetched VBIOS from VFCT
[    4.811909] [    T367] amdgpu: ATOM BIOS: 115-D532BP2-100
[    4.908519] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: vgaarb: deactivate vga console
[    4.908522] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: Trusted Memory Zone (TMZ) feature disabled as experimental (default)
[    4.908561] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: vm size is 262144 GB, 4 levels, block size is 9-bit, fragment size is 9-bit
[    4.908569] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: VRAM: 8176M 0x0000008000000000 - 0x00000081FEFFFFFF (8176M used)
[    4.908571] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: GART: 512M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000001FFFFFFF
[    4.908680] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: amdgpu: 8176M of VRAM memory ready
[    4.908683] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: amdgpu: 11971M of GTT memory ready.
[    8.936454] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: STB initialized to 2048 entries
[    8.936615] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: [drm] Loading DMUB firmware via PSP: version=0x02020021
[    8.937142] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: Found VCN firmware Version ENC: 1.33 DEC: 4 VEP: 0 Revision: 13
[    9.016285] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: reserve 0xa00000 from 0x81fd000000 for PSP TMR
[    9.142108] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: RAS: optional ras ta ucode is not available
[    9.163620] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: SECUREDISPLAY: optional securedisplay ta ucode is not available
[    9.163641] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: smu driver if version = 0x0000000f, smu fw if version = 0x00000013, smu fw program = 0, version = 0x003b3100 (59.49.0)
[    9.163644] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: SMU driver if version not matched
[    9.163672] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: use vbios provided pptable
[    9.211454] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: SMU is initialized successfully!
[    9.212134] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: [drm] Display Core v3.2.340 initialized on DCN 3.0.2
[    9.212137] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: [drm] DP-HDMI FRL PCON supported
[    9.213300] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: [drm] DMUB hardware initialized: version=0x02020021
[    9.396919] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: kiq ring mec 2 pipe 1 q 0
[    9.428093] [    T367] amdgpu: HMM registered 8176MB device memory
[    9.428798] [    T367] kfd kfd: amdgpu: Allocated 3969056 bytes on gart
[    9.428814] [    T367] kfd kfd: amdgpu: Total number of KFD nodes to be created: 1
[    9.428969] [    T367] amdgpu: Virtual CRAT table created for GPU
[    9.429318] [    T367] amdgpu: Topology: Add dGPU node [0x73ef:0x1002]
[    9.429321] [    T367] kfd kfd: amdgpu: added device 1002:73ef
[    9.429343] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: SE 2, SH per SE 2, CU per SH 8, active_cu_number 32
[    9.429348] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring gfx_0.0.0 uses VM inv eng 0 on hub 0
[    9.429350] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring gfx_0.1.0 uses VM inv eng 1 on hub 0
[    9.429351] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.0.0 uses VM inv eng 4 on hub 0
[    9.429353] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.1.0 uses VM inv eng 5 on hub 0
[    9.429354] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.2.0 uses VM inv eng 6 on hub 0
[    9.429355] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.3.0 uses VM inv eng 7 on hub 0
[    9.429356] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.0.1 uses VM inv eng 8 on hub 0
[    9.429357] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.1.1 uses VM inv eng 9 on hub 0
[    9.429358] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.2.1 uses VM inv eng 10 on hub 0
[    9.429360] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.3.1 uses VM inv eng 11 on hub 0
[    9.429361] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring kiq_0.2.1.0 uses VM inv eng 12 on hub 0
[    9.429362] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring sdma0 uses VM inv eng 13 on hub 0
[    9.429363] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring sdma1 uses VM inv eng 14 on hub 0
[    9.429365] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring vcn_dec_0 uses VM inv eng 0 on hub 8
[    9.429366] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring vcn_enc_0.0 uses VM inv eng 1 on hub 8
[    9.429367] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring vcn_enc_0.1 uses VM inv eng 4 on hub 8
[    9.429368] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: ring jpeg_dec uses VM inv eng 5 on hub 8
[    9.430806] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: amdgpu: Using BACO for runtime pm
[    9.431315] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: [drm] Registered 5 planes with drm panic
[    9.431317] [    T367] [drm] Initialized amdgpu 3.64.0 for 0000:0c:00.0 on minor 1
[    9.435640] [    T367] fbcon: amdgpudrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[    9.590297] [    T367] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: [drm] fb0: amdgpudrmfb frame buffer device
[   11.240256] [    T689] snd_hda_intel 0000:0c:00.1: bound 0000:0c:00.0 (ops amdgpu_dm_audio_component_bind_ops [amdgpu])

deano_ferrari · October 12, 2025, 9:09am

Ok the cpupower results confirmed that performance mode is not active. The acpi-cpufreq driver is the older ACPI CPU frequency driver. I guess you have an older AMD CPU? You can use inxi -Cx to get the details.

Try setting performance mode explicitly…
`sudo cpupower frequency-set -g performance’
…and test the video playback / gaming behaviour again. Note that the CPU will then run at it’s maximum frequency all the time, so will run hotter. No dynamic scaling as such. You can also do this via System Settings > Power Management > Energy Saving, switching the power profile as required.

BTW, as you’re using KDE Plasma X11, examine System Settings > Display and Monitor > Compositor, and enable “Allow tearing” as stutter is compounded by compositor frame timing. See if that makes a difference here.

Baboon · October 17, 2025, 9:01pm

Yeah, I am on an older AMD CPU, mentioned the basic specs in the initial post.

Set the performance mode, the both audio and visual lag still persists, sort of makes sense to me since if this was a problem, i would have the lag issues since the install, but that is not the case, this issue appeared roughly 1 month since the install.

as for the inxi -Cx,

baboon@localhost:~> inxi -Cx
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 2
    cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 2 MiB L3: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1550 min/max: 1550/3300 boost: disabled cores: 1: 1550
    2: 1550 3: 1550 4: 1550 bogomips: 26401
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3
baboon@localhost:~>

Power management settings have no energy saving option for me, perhaps that only appears on laptops.

In my case the compositor does not have the “Allow tearing” option.

deano_ferrari · October 17, 2025, 9:08pm

Oh right, that option is only facilitated in Plasma Wayland.

deano_ferrari · October 17, 2025, 9:47pm

I’m not sure what else to advise here really. With respect to the YouTube lag, which browser are you using? Just wondering if hardware acceleration is working properly with it. You could test with another browser perhaps?

What does vainfo report?

Speculating that if YouTube is playing 1080p+ content and your GPU can’t fully decode the streaming codec in hardware, that might introduce the lag you’re observing. Not sure what regression might be impacting here.

FWIW, I’m using Slowroll with an ordinary Intel HD Graphics 620 chipset (laptop), and I’m not observing the issue you describe.

mrmazda · October 18, 2025, 1:56am

If you run inxi -C while playing a video that is laggy, are all the cores reduced to 1550 like this, or is one or more running 3300, or at least, more than the 1550 minimum?

You do have an option to use a different display driver. Your inxi output shows loaded the default modesetting driver. Is xf86-video-amdgpu installed? If not, install it, check if it gets loaded, and see if loaded if it makes any difference.

Baboon · October 18, 2025, 12:17pm

I am using Vivaldi browser. It is certainly not a browser issue, since I also have a separate laptop (also with intel hd 620) running Linux Mint which never experiences such lag. And the lag isn’t a choppy video which one gets when hardware is not able to catch-up, it’s more like every 4-8 minutes there is a short random cut-off or weird re-play of last one second of audio, same with any games.

I presume you think it is a configuration/app issue, but I repeat this was not happening about 2 weeks ago at all. Meaning this is likely caused by one of the updates.

Here’s my vainfo result:

baboon@localhost:~> vainfo
Trying display: wayland
Trying display: x11
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.22 (libva 2.22.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 25.2.4 for AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (radeonsi, navi23, LLVM 21.1.2, DRM 3.64, 6.17.2-1-default)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileAV1Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointVideoProc
baboon@localhost:~>

In general, desktop linux does seem much less stable than on laptops, I remember encountering issues (different ones but roughly one a week during usage) when trying Fedora, Nobara, Tuxedo or even Leap.
While funnily enough any laptop hunk of junk I take out of the garbage can (no matter the age) run with next to 0 issues no matter its age or the distro I put on it. I mean it does sort of make sense, since laptops likely are designed with compatible combinations of components in mind.

Also I only recently found out about slowroll and would love to rebase to it whenever that will be an option just like in Fedora. Complete reinstall is out of the question since backups and moving over data does not fit into my uni schedule sadly (might have to wait for the next summer break for that lol).

mrmazda · October 18, 2025, 2:23pm

Roughly half my 20 Slowrolls were originally created as “downgrades” from TW, by skipping TW updates for two or more weeks, then on announcement of a fresh SR release, changing all its repos from TW to SR, then doing an otherwise normal zypper dup, all done before the Slowroll Portal page and opensuse-migration-tool existed.

Baboon · October 27, 2025, 1:55pm

I didn’t know how to check whether it is installed, so I just installed it (since it would let me know if it is already there)

Though could you point me in the right direction on how to check whether it is loaded now? Thanks!

mrmazda · October 27, 2025, 10:23pm

The device section of your inxi output is showing your kernel device module (driver) for your Navi was amdgpu. The display section of your inxi output is showing your display driver for your X configuration was modesetting. In this setting, as alternative to using inxi, when file /var/log/Xorg.0.log exists for the currently running session, the display driver in use, in this case modesetting, will appear on a multitude of lines as modeset(0). With the amdgpu driver from the xf86-video-amdgpu package in use, instead of modeset(0), you’ll find AMDGPU(0).