So, in a nutshell, the problem is that I'm getting FPS drops every couple of seconds in most games I've played. The number of seconds in between doesn't seem to vary all that much in between games, with Counter-Strike Source (from steam on linux) it was 5-10 seconds, while with quake3-cpma, it was a bit more. It doesn't seem to vary at all when changing the games configuration.
I'm not a very experienced linux user (less than 4 years, less than 2 on gentoo), so please excuse any stupid mistakes on my part.
(I really wish there were spoilers in this forum, the length of the post would be more bearable).
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So, the details. I have a Sony Vaio VPC-SB1A9E:
(http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vaio-s-series/vpcsb1a9e)
intel 2nd gen core i7-2620M (2.70-3.40 Ghz, 2 cores)
Intel HM65 Express Chipset
1x8GB (I think) DDR3 SDRAM, 1333MHz
128GB SSD, TOSHIBA THNSNC128GMMJ (according to hddtemp)
Using external monitor via hdmi, 1680x1050
AMD Radeon HD6630M (1GB VRAM) + Intel HD3000
Battery (according to official specs): VGP-BPS24, lithium polymer, 48.84 Wh
lspci
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00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6600M/6700M/7600M Series] (rev ff)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak]
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
04:00.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)Code: Select all
Portage 2.1.12.2 (default/linux/amd64/13.0, gcc-4.7.3, glibc-2.17, 3.9.4-gentoo x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-3.9.4-gentoo-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7-2620M_CPU_@_2.70GHz-with-gentoo-2.2
KiB Mem: 8091288 total, 6708332 free
KiB Swap: 786428 total, 786428 free
Timestamp of tree: Mon, 03 Jun 2013 11:15:02 +0000
ld GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.23.1
app-shells/bash: 4.2_p45
dev-java/java-config: 2.2.0
dev-lang/python: 2.7.5, 3.2.5, 3.3.2
dev-util/cmake: 2.8.10.2-r2
dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.28
sys-apps/baselayout: 2.2
sys-apps/openrc: 0.11.8
sys-apps/sandbox: 2.6-r1
sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.69
sys-devel/automake: 1.11.6, 1.13.2
sys-devel/binutils: 2.23.1
sys-devel/gcc: 4.7.3
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.8
sys-devel/libtool: 2.4.2
sys-devel/make: 3.82-r4
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 3.9 (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc: 2.17
Repositories: gentoo x11 science
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -march=corei7-avx -mno-movbe -mno-abm -mno-lwp -mno-fma -mno-fma4 -mno-xop -mno-bmi -mno-bmi2 -mno-tbm -mno-avx2 -mno-lzcnt --param l1-cache-size=32 --param l1-cache-line-size=64 --param l2-cache-size=4096 -mtune=corei7-avx"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/php/apache2-php5.4/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5.4/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5.4/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -march=corei7-avx -mno-movbe -mno-abm -mno-lwp -mno-fma -mno-fma4 -mno-xop -mno-bmi -mno-bmi2 -mno-tbm -mno-avx2 -mno-lzcnt --param l1-cache-size=32 --param l1-cache-line-size=64 --param l2-cache-size=4096 -mtune=corei7-avx"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles merge-sync news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch xattr"
FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://91.121.124.139/gentoo-distfiles/ ftp://ftp.free.fr/mirrors/ftp.gentoo.org/ http://91.121.124.139/gentoo-distfiles/ http://91.121.125.139/gentoo-distfiles/"
LANG="en_US.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
MAKEOPTS="-j5"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/var/lib/layman/x11 /var/lib/layman/science"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.fr.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 avahi berkdb bzip2 cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt css cups cxx dbus dga dhcpcd directfb divx djvu dri dts dv dvd dvdr dvdthread encode fbcon ffmpeg firefox flac fortran ftp gdbm gif git gnutls gpm iconv ipv6 jpeg jpeg2k ladspa libnotify lm_sensors lock mad matroska midi mmx mmx2 modules mp2 mp3 mpeg mpeg4 mplayer mudflap multilib musepack nas ncurses networkmanager nls nptl offensive ogg openal opengl openmp pam pcre pdf png policykit ppds quicktime readline resolvconf sdl session sse sse2 ssl ssse3 startup-notification subtitles subversion svg symlink tcpd theora threads tiff timidity truetype udev unicode upnp v4l v4l2 vaapi vcd video vorbis wifi x264 xanim xattr xine xinerama xorg xv xvid zlib" ABI_X86="64" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump author" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" GRUB_PLATFORMS="pc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse synaptics joystick" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LINGUAS="en fr bg" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php5-4" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_2" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby19 ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel vga radeon" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, USE_PYTHON* when using radeon:
video=uvesafb:off video=vesafb:off i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 radeon.pcie_gen2=1 modprobe.blacklist=fglrx,radeon root=/dev/sda2
* when using fglrx:
video=uvesafb:off video=vesafb:off i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 root=/dev/sda2
I have not messed with the i915 options, it seems the laptop runs hotter without them.
I have tried running anything with the OSS radeon driver, but X won’t start, and the virtualgl method posted here (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-90 ... art-0.html) doesn’t work either (X fails with “No modes” error). I keep it anyway for vgaswitcheroo, so I can at least stop the card.
So, for the most part, I have played games either with just the intel card, or with fglrx. I get the same hiccups with both.
When using fglrx, I disable sna and enable uxa for xf86-video-intel, because X fails to start otherwise. While using it, (aticonfig --px-dgpu, etc), urxvt seems pretty slow, and there are some problems which seem to me like rendering glitches (urxvt refreshes too slowly, or renders too slowly, or does not update,..).
I started noting the issue with Counter-Strike Source from the linux port of Steam (I followed the wiki’s guide for the installation, no overlay). It also happened with any other source engine game I’ve tried (Portal, Half-Life 2).
(before you say it’s steam specific, I had the same with unreal tournament 3 from steam under wine, and, I think, Supreme Commander under wine).
I played the games with just the intel card then, because when using fglrx, I got an unbelievable lag everytime I moved the mouse (on move, the view changes 1-2 seconds late, slowly), huge fps drop, and in general, there were drops all the time.
Note that I only played offline with bots, usually filling the server.
I’ve tried everything I could imagine:
* changing the cpufreq governor to performance (was ondemand);
* tweaking the kernel config (was using CONFIG_PREEMPT);
* installing different versions of xf86-video-intel, ati-drivers, mesa, libdrm (now using live versions from x11-overlay);
* changing all settings in amdcccle, disabling/enabling vsync,AA (note: i915 uses triple buffering by default);
* changing all games settings, by editing conf files, using absolutely all options for maximum performance, or max-ing everything out;
* stopping laptop-mode-tools, or changing its configuration, and disabling/enabling everything in powertop;
* switching WMs, from fluxbox to dwm (though I don’t know if there would be a huge difference between the two anyway);
* disabling mouse acceleration (using a Logitech G500, I detected a 500MHz polling rate, I don’t remember what tool I used);
* disabling touchpad completely, or modding its settings, using it as the only mouse;
* editing xorg.conf or removing it: played with BackingStore, IgnoreABI options in ServerLayout, DPMS for the Monitor, UseFastTLS and AccelMethod for fglrx under Device;
* using an older kernel (3.7.10-gentoo), with older options (can provide .config if necessary);
* using fullscreen/windowed modes in games, lowering resolution, using a different aspect ratio;
* there is an update for the BIOS (Insyde H20), but I cannot apply it without windows, the freedos method does not work; because of how this BIOS is on most laptops of this series, I only have access to a couple of options in its settings, none relating to video;
* whatever I’m forgetting at the moment.
Now, here is what is driving me nuts: at one point, after doing some changes absent mindedly, Counter-Strike Source started working perfectly, with the intel drivers. No hiccups at all. Then, I wanted to see if there was any improvement with fglrx. Surprise - there was, but the hiccups were back, full force, with both intel and fglrx. I *had* rebooted a couple of times before that, so it didn’t seem like some weird automagical fix. I switched cards with aticonfig --px-dgpu && eselect opengl set ati.
My memories are already blurring, since I’ve struggled for quite some time now, and tried so many things. What I do remember changing in between the switch to fglrx, was recompiling prelink, an update to libpng (latest unstable), changing kernel options (I had changed them back afterwards, I think, no difference), and musing briefly on mtrr (I thought the VRAM maybe wasn’t correctly detected, as has been reported elsewhere with ati-drivers, but I did not change anything).
The only other thing that happened was Counter-Strike Source automatically changing its settings every time I swap cards (aticonfig --px-igpu, or --px-dgpu), so at first, I blamed that. But since then, I’ve tried every combination of settings I could come up with, with no effect. Between ultra high settings and ultra low, the overall FPS are different, but the FPS drops occur at virtually the same time, always. Because the bot count is pretty big (?), There’s usually a big FPS drop in the beginning of the round, and then the hiccups happen ~10 seconds later, and then every 5 seconds or so.
Removing all bots ups overall FPS, and the hiccups happen later, but they happen. Steam overlay is disabled.
Using htop and intel-gpu-tools, I saw that cpu usage is never more than 65-70%, only on one core (I don’t know too much about this stuff yet, though, so forgive possible noobness). When the stutters happen, intel-gpu-tools reports everything to be at 100% usage while they last, but that happens very suddenly, not progressively, i.e. the stats stay relatively low, and then are on 100% all of a sudden.
Steam’s big picture mode runs horribly (with the same insane lag I described before, only it still does now), and reports only ~256MB found for ATI card, but that’s a reported issue. Since there’s no improvement at all when modifying all the video settings in the game, I don’t think this is relevant. Xorg.0.log detects 1GB fine, from what I can gather (with grep -i kb /var/log/Xorg.0.log, I can’t paste the results now since I don’t have fglrx installed).
The only thing that seems to alleviate the problem, is using the laptop’s screen instead of the external monitor (with or without xorg.conf). Here’s some more info on setup:
xrandr
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Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1680 x 1050, maximum 32767 x 32767
LVDS1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1366x768 59.9 +
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3 56.2
640x480 59.9
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 connected primary 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
1680x1050 59.9*+
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
720x400 70.1
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)set_screen
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#!/bin/sh
OUTPUT="HDMI2"
DEFAULT="LVDS1"
TEST="$(xrandr | grep "${OUTPUT} connected")"
if [ "${TEST}" != "" ]; then
xrandr --output ${OUTPUT} --auto
xrandr --output ${OUTPUT} --primary
xrandr --output ${OUTPUT} --left-of ${DEFAULT}
xrandr --output ${DEFAULT} --off
fi.xsession
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#!/bin/sh
# use correct screen
/home/quux/set_screen
# source ~/.Xresources (used by urxvt)
xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
# Run urxvt daemon
urxvtd -q -o -f
# for gnome-keyring support; this eases passwd management for GnuPG, ssh and Wifi
eval $(gnome-keyring-daemon --components=pkcs11,secrets,ssh,gpg)
export GNOME_KEYRING_PID
export GNOME_KEYRING_SOCKET
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK
export GPG_AGENT_INFO
# Set xserver parameters
xset s0
xset dpms 0 0 1800
# start syndaemon (synaptics), correct place?
/usr/bin/syndaemon -d -t -k -i l
# from suckless.org: "set window manager name property of the root window
# utility to fix problems with jdk versions and other broken programs assuming
# a reparenting window manager for instance"
# example: steam (native)
wmname LG3D
# Launch dwm and create consolekit session, when no DM is used, eg.xdm
# allow restarting dwm without logging out or closing programs
exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session /usr/local/bin/dwmloopThat was a couple of weeks ago, I’ve since noted similar hiccups in quake3-cpma (usually running at 125fps), Dawn of War - Soulstorm (in wine), Unreal Tournament 3 (in wine, through steam). The one with quake3-cpma doesn’t seem consistent, it only happened once.
Another note: the laptop has always had problems with temperatures; overall, it has overheated over 25-30 times; when running anything that requires some juice, the cpu goes from circa 42-50C to over 70C (according to lm-sensors), but does not overheat if the ATI card is off. I did not monitor it when I was using fglrx, because I suck and I didn’t know how to configure lm_sensors, or that I could use aticonfig --odgt.
Now, while idle, when turning the radeon on using vgaswitcheroo, lm-sensors reports 44C, and then temp is steadily rising to 60C (cpu also rises to ~58C).
Sometimes, there’s a weird smell coming from the laptop, but it doesn’t really seem to happen in most circumstances, I have no idea what’s that about.
Cleaning the laptop with compressed air, by blowing it in the vents is completely ineffective. I opened it up and a lot of dust had collected in the fan (of the cpu? gpu?). Cleaning that up as much as I can did not do anything, the temps were the same. However, I could not reach the cpu or gpu, as I’d have to completely disassemble the whole thing to access them (completely), and given that there’s a ton of screws to unscrew, and a lot of duck tape to remove, I’m not confident enough to do this. So, no thermal paste replacement, no assessment of damage, if any.
Looking at the internets, there have been quite a bit of complaints about this one and other similar models, with the sony guys being completely ineffective at solving the issue, so it seems like it’s a design problem, or something. The hot air certainly doesn’t seem to be evacuated very efficiently, though that’s just my uneducated opinion.
So, skimming on windows related topics on the internet, this sort of issue usually relates to voltage problems, or overheating, so the latter may be it.
That’s all I could think of right now. I can’t really test a whole lot anymore, because I have a big exam in a week, even if this is driving me insane. So, excuse any delay in replying, if you request more details.
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Good lord, I’ve probably invested a bit too much time in this.
TL;DR: Skimming over all this data, does this seem to be more of a hardware issue, or a software one? What's a probable cause/fix?
