AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 slow memory loading problems

Support Graphics & Display
, ,
1

Hi there!
I recently got myself a AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 with 8GB of vRAM replacing my old graphics card which just had 2GB of vRAM. But interestingly enough I have now encountered extreme stuttering when trying to play Phasmaphobia which worked flawlessly on my card before. The stuttering seems to occur everytime something new is loaded into the memory, making the game unplayable.
What could be the cause of this?

I am using the AMDGPU driver and have the video-linux driver installed via mhwd.
Output of inxi -Fnzy:

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.5-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1
    Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME X470-PRO v: Rev X.0x
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 5861
    date: 08/10/2021
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2136 min/max: 2200/3800 cores: 1: 2191 2: 2189 3: 2195
    4: 2196 5: 2152 6: 1884 7: 2200 8: 2095 9: 2196 10: 2200 11: 2196 12: 2147
    13: 2060 14: 2200 15: 2200 16: 1886
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Vega 10 XL/XT [Radeon RX 56/64] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.8 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: modesetting dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1680x1050~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: radeonsi,swrast platforms: x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 23.1.9-manjaro1.1
    renderer: AMD Radeon RX Vega (vega10 LLVM 16.0.6 DRM 3.54 6.5.5-1-MANJARO)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.264 drivers: amd surfaces: xcb,xlib
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Vega 10 HDMI Audio [Radeon 56/64] driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-3: C-Media TONOR TC-777 Audio Device
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.5-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network driver: igb
  IF: enp7s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: TP-Link Archer T3U [Realtek RTL8812BU] driver: rtw_8822bu
    type: USB
  IF: wlp12s0f3u1 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.05 TiB used: 139.64 GiB (6.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 980 PRO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB
    size: 931.51 GiB
  ID-3: /dev/sda model: SATA SSD size: 238.47 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 881.69 GiB used: 139.64 GiB (15.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 34.38 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p3
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 38.1 C mobo: 42.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 52.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 case-1: 0 case-2: 0 case-3: 0 gpu: amdgpu
    fan: 1439
Info:
  Processes: 383 Uptime: 21m Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.25 GiB
  used: 4.54 GiB (14.5%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.30
2

What do you use to start this game? Steam/Lutris/Bottles/your own wine etc.

The proton DB, might have some hints.

Using a newer/older/specific version to achieve compatibility might help in this regard.
Steam has some builtin options to try in compatibility mode.
Lutris has some runners to choose from.

Starting the game from a terminal might give some hints.

3

I can’t see anything wrong with your system info.

Try clearing shader caches. Close Steam if using that, then;

rm -rf ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/shadercache
rm -rf ~/.cache/mesa_shader_cache

If that doesn’t help then the next thing I’d try is updating motherboard BIOS.

4

I am using Steam to start the game which worked out of the box with no problems until now.
What I found on ProtonDB which might be related(?) is this:
Because my gpu has only 8GB of vram (thanks nvidia), it cant run textures at full without my vram filling up, but on windows I can run on full with barely enough vram

Is the game maybe not utilizing my system ram, or is that even possible to utilize it?

5

Deleting the shaders sadly didn’t help, I’ll try updating the BIOS now.

6

Updating the BIOS through fwupd also didn’t help :smiling_face_with_tear:

7

Do you have shader pre-caching turned on in Steam → Settings → Downloads? Without that many games will experience initial stuttering when shaders need to be compiled for the first time, but should run smoothly afterwards.

8

Yes, I have enabled it.

9

I’m out of ideas then, sorry :frowning:

10

This probably the memory of the gpu.

In the compatibility options in steam selecting experimental might be an option, or not running it in dx12 as one users reported. The default compatibility mode usually works, there are some users reporting that the GE version works for them.

11

Shucks, no worries though. Thanks for the help :smiley:

12

I actually already was running on Proton Experimental, I just noticed, but switching to the latest version also doesn’t help.
I’ll try to look into the other suggestion from protondb users.