I wanted to move my old Manjaro installation where I never found out how to fix it to a new drive which is why I freshly installed Manjaro XFCE (Linux xyz 5.17.4-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 20 08:39:40 UTC 2022 x86_64 GNU/Linux) on a very similar drive.
Besides the installer somehow breaking the swap behaviour when using the “hibernate partition” option while also encrypting the system (I just gave up and reinstalled after it didn’t work at all and hibernate doesn’t seem to work anyways on XFCE with my hardware) everything seemed to be running as I was used to.
When I then started playing games again 2 days ago I was baffeled why everything seemed so much laggier than before.
After multiple reboots and reinstalling + resetting all NVIDIA related drivers on my old and new installations I could find only one difference: Using my old installation the G-Sync indicator showed “gsync” while on the fresh installation it showed “normal”.
I updated even the kernel to the latest version and all packages but still nothing seems to use G-Sync even though nvidia settings say its available (it’s listed as recognized and compatible):
- Steam Proton “Apex Legends”: Nope on fresh, Yes on old
- Native osu!lazer (bin) from the AUR or the AppImage from GitHub: Nope on fresh, Yes on old
- On the website testufo (.com) the
gsync test in fullscreen: Nope on fresh, Yes on old
But now it got interesting: I also built and ran an unofficial G-Sync on Linux test from github (just literally search for these words to find it) which mindblowingly showed “gsync” even on the fresh installation.
Don’t worry it gets even more weird: Since I also just installed Manjaro KDE on a PC of my brother and still had the USB stick I just booted it and after that the Manjaro XFCE USB stick with proprietary drivers, installed yay, installed osu-lazer-bin via it and before starting osu!lazer I went into the nvidia-settings and enabled the G-Sync indicator. On the KDE USB stick it showed “gsync”, on the XFCE USB stick it showed “normal”.
I literally have no idea what could be the problem since the hardware is the same, the kernel is the same, the driver is the same and still my old 2 year old XFCE installation has G-Sync per default while the new installation doesn’t but also the KDE USB stick also has it by default?
What could the problem be, I feel really dumb right now like there is something obvious that I did wrong?
I really want to stay on XFCE and not switch to another edition but without G-Sync/VRR working for everything per default there is no chance I can go forward and use it as my main OS (especially for gaming).
My GPU is btw a 3060 TI and the driver for all tests was (or was updated to) 510.60.02.
check then in config Xorg file for Nvidia
@stephane What file(s) do you mean?
The /etc/X11/xorg.conf file is the same for the USB ISO, old install and fresh install:
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 510.60.02
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Dell AW2521HF"
HorizSync 255.0 - 255.0
VertRefresh 48.0 - 240.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"
Option "metamodes" "1920x1080_240 +0+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
The other file that contains “nvidia” I found is /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf which is pretty much the same on USB and the old install but there are bigger differences to the current fresh installation:
$ diff usb_mhwd.d/nvidia.conf old2_mhwd.d/nvidia.conf
2c2
< # nvidia-xconfig: version 510.60.02
---
> # nvidia-xconfig: version 470.63.01
$ diff mhwd.d/nvidia.conf old2_mhwd.d/nvidia.conf
2,5c2
< # nvidia-xconfig: version 510.60.02
<
< # nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
< # nvidia-settings: version 510.60.02
---
> # nvidia-xconfig: version 470.63.01
9c6
< Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
---
> Screen 0 "Screen0"
12d8
< Option "Xinerama" "0"
19d14
<
30d24
<
37,38d30
<
< # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
41,43c33
< ModelName "Dell AW2521HF"
< HorizSync 255.0 - 255.0
< VertRefresh 48.0 - 240.0
---
> ModelName "Unknown"
51d40
< BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti"
60,65d48
< Option "Stereo" "0"
< Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"
< Option "metamodes" "1920x1080_240 +0+0"
< Option "SLI" "Off"
< Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
< Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
The complete old installation file:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 470.63.01
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
Option "NoLogo" "1"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "COMPOSITE" "Enable"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection
The complete fresh install file:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 510.60.02
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 510.60.02
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Dell AW2521HF"
HorizSync 255.0 - 255.0
VertRefresh 48.0 - 240.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti"
Option "NoLogo" "1"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"
Option "metamodes" "1920x1080_240 +0+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "COMPOSITE" "Enable"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection
I’m gonna leave this up for probably a week but after that I’m just gonna install KDE because all in all somehow even the gaming performance on my hardware seems to be much better on it without me doing any optimizations but it could also come from being a totally fresh install idk.
I also noticed that the NVIDIA overlay not only doesn’t use G-Sync but also something called “Flip” when I activate Graphics API Visual Indicator (it’s on the same page as the G-Sync indicator).
Also I validated again the “feeling” I had by using the monitor built in frequency display which is pretty much stable at max frequency on KDE now compared to the fresh XFCE install where it jumps all over the place but I still have no idea why that is. It must be something related to my hardware since nobody else seems to have problems, at least I couldn’t find anything.
Since the problem on XFCE still persists (even after trying out the testing branch and the latest kernel/driver/etc.) I’m gonna now just use KDE.
If anybody wants to try to find what the error could be I can still on request try the latest XFCE ISO (install osu!lazer and check what the NVIDIA overlay says) but other than that I don’t want to annoy anoyone with a problem that apparently only is happening to me.