I have been having this issue for some time and have searched a number of times, going through a bunch of different forum threads to try to use those fixes, and either have not worked, was not applicable, or I got lost from my lack of deep understanding of Linux and Manjaro in general.
For my system, I use an AMD 7700X CPU and an RTX 3080 GPU. I’m running kernel 6.6.10-1 and use KDE at version 5.27.10. The 7700X is technically an APU, as it has integrated graphics, but frankly I don’t care much about that and would be fine with just having the graphics driver for the GPU if that was something that could be done. Using mhwd I currently have the “video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-prime” and “video-linux” drivers installed. The driver version in my Nvidia settings is 545.29.06.
For the Steam matter, some games do actually work for me. Ones that I know work are Creeper World 4 and PowerWash Simulator. Some games that don’t work are Palworld and Techtonica. According to ProtonDB, people have had those games working, and Palworld I have tested and run successfully on my Steam Deck with no configuration or changes needed. Additionally, when launching any games, my computer chugs badly, which is behavior that also occurs when running wine on its own for programs, disregaring proton and Steam, but is something I can live with, as once a game launches successfully or gives up and crashes, the computer runs smoothly again. I am happy to provide more info to clarify what is going on; but for starters I don’t want to put too much info so as to overwhelm or cause confusion with unnecessary clutter.
And who knows, maybe I’m missing something obvious that can be resolved quickly and all will be well. Thanks in advance
My understanding is that you don’t really update BIOS unless something breaks because it can break things. Though I guess this would classify as broken…
As for no SWAP, my impression was that it was not good to have with an SSD because of excess writes, and that when you have a large amount of RAM that you wouldn’t max out, it would just cause slowdowns to go to that instead of RAM. For what it’s worth, I can play Minecraft modpacks which eat up RAM like crazy, and those work as expected.
Apologies for the first reply not having the second info, when I first hit enter your message did not have that yet, and then I had to wait for the message could be approved before editing it to add in that info and improve formatting as recommended in the guide you linked in your first message.
This is odd for a few reasons.
First the mhwd profile you state is installed provides prime-run.
Second we would normally expect the iGPU to be the output of the original command, with the NVIDIA being used when prime-run is executed.
From what I’ve seen in trying to figure this out prior to making this thread, what you said is how I understood for it to intend to function, with the iGPU running by default for basic stuff, and the GPU being called for intensive tasks to not have the fan running when not needed.
mhwd -li -l output:
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME VERSION FREEDRIVER TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-prime 2023.03.23 false PCI
video-linux 2018.05.04 true PCI
Warning: No installed USB configs!
> 0000:01:00.0 (0300:10de:2206) Display controller nVidia Corporation:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME VERSION FREEDRIVER TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-prime 2023.03.23 false PCI
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-470xx-prime 2023.03.23 false PCI
video-nvidia 2023.03.23 false PCI
video-nvidia-470xx 2023.03.23 false PCI
video-linux 2018.05.04 true PCI
video-modesetting 2020.01.13 true PCI
video-vesa 2017.03.12 true PCI
> 0000:0f:00.0 (0300:1002:164e) Display controller ATI Technologies Inc:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME VERSION FREEDRIVER TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-prime 2023.03.23 false PCI
video-hybrid-amd-nvidia-470xx-prime 2023.03.23 false PCI
video-linux 2018.05.04 true PCI
video-modesetting 2020.01.13 true PCI
video-vesa 2017.03.12 true PCI
As for the monitors; yes I use multiple monitors. I have a 4k monitor as my primary display, and 2 1080p monitors. All are plugged into the dGPU. I’m not sure why that would cause a problem, but if you know of some reason that it could be the case, that’s a lead of some sort.
I know that my combo of AMD CPU with integrated graphics + Nvidia GPU is not the most common, as AMD only made the integrated graphics standard as of the 7000 series chips, and Nvidia doesn’t have a great reputation with the Linux community at-large as much as I’ve ever heard. I assume that isn’t the problem though, since there is explicitly a package for amd-nvidia pairing.
I could certainly try following the steps there to make sure that my installation is working properly, but I will avoid getting too deep into that until resolving the other ideas that have been put forward; so as to not get things mixed up.
Oh, nicely spotted. The instructions you gave did let me update the driver package. That being said, the issue I was having with games not launching is still present. The driver is up-to-date now, so unless I misunderstood and there is still a driver issue; there is some other issue at hand.
I saw in another forum thread that someone recommended trying:
steam 2>&1 | tee /tmp/dumps
…to generate a log, and I made a new one of that, with the log of trying to launch a game through Steam and it not working. Is that something I should post here, or is that not a useful piece of information? I have tried looking at it before, but couldn’t really figure out what the actual problem was, and the red warning/error text didn’t help me when searched.
Im not sure if this related to AMD Mainboards, because AMD throwing infinity Bios updates like a rolling release… but for Intel Mainboards there is still the old rule… never change a running system and don’t update your Bios when you don’t have bugs.
The most issues are not fixed by a bios update… atleast this is my 30years old experience with PC’s.
Exactly… this is right. Anyways, AMD has alot issues build in with his stupid (since ryzen release) aegis updates or how they called.
Some few and special games run into issue sometimes and in this situation, from my weak AMD Ryzen Mainboard unterstanding (this is the reason, why i don’t buy AMD Mainboards and choose Intel, when possible), but you shouldn’t run into issue with all games… why i think it doesn’t make sense to update your Bios right now.
I did try that, as it makes sense, but when doing so, I simply get no display output. Which is peculiar because I am plugged into my dGPU for graphics, and as far as I know, the iGPU cannot work its way through a discrete card to provide graphics. I cannot even view my BIOS/UEFI when I disabled the iGPU.
I did use this GPU in a Windows machine prior to switching to Linux, and it worked as expected. And in the handful of games that I can get working, performance is in line with performance expected from the card, as opposed to what the integrated graphics would be capable of.
Are you suggesting I do, or do not update the BIOS with the aegis (as you called it) updates? I am unsure if that’s something related to my issue, or more of a general statement. By-and-large I am unable to run games, but a few do work for me, which is the opposite situation of a few games being affected in the way you say.
There is likely another setting somewhere in the BIOS which says which is the Primary Video Adaptor - integrated graphics (IGD) or external graphics (PEG). If so set it to external, the default setting is probably integrated graphics.
Something is wonky …
Its already been acting like its stuck on the dGPU only.
But setting it to that in BIOS breaks things?
IDK.
The inxi is confusing as well …
Note the DRI indicates the amd/radeon
But then all the API stuff indicates the nvidia
Except vulkan which lists both, in their correct designations
And remember above - the default outputs used nvidia … while prime-run didnt work at all.
(though this may have changed after reinstalling the updated mhwd profile?)
PS and to the side …
As a general rule you should. Especially with newer hardware.
I didnt actually tell them to do it, or state it was related … just mentioned it was out of date.
Looking at the available updates … they improve performance, compatibility, and close security holes.
If you avoid them because of some vague sense of ‘bios update scary’ … then I guess thats your prerogative.
Im not sure if this a AMD iGPU thing, but with my Skylake i had disabled my iGPU on the first day and never experienced something like that.
I think this shouldn’t be normal, maybe its worth to investigate future… from my view point, you don’t need to have a iGPU Enabled when you have a good dGPU.
As i mentioned, i never have owned a Ryzen PC for this particular reason… always flashing your UEFI is a chore.
I don’t have first hand experience with Ryzen Hardware (besides my AMD Laptop)… which i had luckylie never updated yet, because tuxedo send it to me with a fresh bios and since its not the newest brand of technologie, i hope i don’t have too.
Anyways, since you can’t even deactivate your iGPU even when you had your Monitor connected with your nvidia 3080 and you see no signal, i think you may have a Bios bug there… and probably need to do your chore, since you choosed AMD
I also have to add, that Linux don’t like dual Monitor to much, i probably would try to connect just 1 monitor… but its just a blind guess. With only 1 monitor connected, i would probably also try to deactivate your iGPU again… also changing the display ports, when you have a blank screen.
I would also recommend to use a SWAP Partition, i monitored swap usage in Windows for years and i can tell Linux do it much better.
The swap partition/file will mainly not used as you have free RAM (in Linux), but for Windows the usage is crazy dumb.
I wouldn’t worried about the wear from your SSD in Linux because of swap, not with 32GByte RAM… but it can’t hurt.
Indeed it has! Running glxinfo tells me the renderer is the RTX 3080. That is with and without prime-run. Which means that the dGPU is being used by default as intended.
I can definitely try updating my BIOS, and possibly it is the magic fix I need. I can also add some swap space like @Kobold suggests and see if that helps with the tanking performance when launching a game.
I hope the issue isn’t having multiple monitors. I would rather not be able to play some games than be limited to a single monitor, to be honest.
)
