Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS and AMD + Steam/Proton

Easy Rhino · Nov 29, 2020

I am curious to know about other people's experiences with this kind of setup.

Out of the box, the AMD drivers that are loaded with the Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS install just work. Native Linux games run on Steam great. Proton also works great. I was even able to get the XBOX One Wireless controller working.

However, I have found that proton games seem to suffer from lag and I believe it is because the AMD drivers for Linux do not allow for turning on features like Radeon AntiLag which helps keep frames in sync with this 3440x1440p 144hz monitor.

Is anyone running Ubuntu with AMD drivers and is willing to share their experience?

HTC · Nov 29, 2020

Have you tried oibaf drivers?

If only to rule out features like AntiLag, which i believe they don't support either.

Easy Rhino · Nov 29, 2020

HTC said:
Have you tried oibaf drivers?

If only to rule out features like AntiLag, which i believe they don't support either.

Hrm, never heard of those drivers. I could give them a try. Unfortunately if you check out my system specs I need AntiLag due to a weak CPU. It helps loads in graphics intensive games.

Aquinus · Nov 29, 2020

Oibaf: https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers
Padoka Stable: https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa
Padoka Unstable: https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/mesa

Easy Rhino said:
I need AntiLag due to a weak CPU

Maybe it's something that has less to do with the driver and more to do with how the CPU is driven, so it might be a Windows specific thing. Try setting the CPU governor to `performance` and see where it gets you. It should make clocking up a little more aggressive and clocking down more conservative on a desktop.

Edit: As a side note, Freesync should be working if you have only one display plugged in, so that at least should be a plus.

Edit 2: You can also try installing a mainline kernel if a feature was recently added that you need. This is the one for 5.9.10.

HTC · Nov 29, 2020

Easy Rhino said:
Hrm, never heard of those drivers. I could give them a try. Unfortunately if you check out my system specs I need AntiLag due to a weak CPU. It helps loads in graphics intensive games.

The intention was to install different drivers to rule out your current drivers being the issue with the lag you're experiencing: if with these drivers you continue to have the lag issue, then it's not the drivers and, if you don't anymore, then it IS INDEED the drivers.

Also, @Aquinus : correct me if i'm wrong but Padoka's drivers don't support Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS, right? @ least for now.

Vya Domus · Nov 29, 2020

Easy Rhino said:
However, I have found that proton games seem to suffer from lag and I believe it is because the AMD drivers for Linux do not allow for turning on features like Radeon AntiLag which helps keep frames in sync with this 3440x1440p 144hz monitor.

That's not what antilag is for, if you experience noticeable input lag it's because of something else.

Proton is emulation of the graphics API basically which means it goes through an additional software translation layer and that's likely the source of the lag. In other words, you're not really ever going to get rid of that.

Easy Rhino · Nov 30, 2020

Vya Domus said:
That's not what antilag is for, if you experience noticeable input lag it's because of something else.

Proton is emulation of the graphics API basically which means it goes through an additional software translation layer and that's likely the source of the lag. In other words, you're not really ever going to get rid of that.

Could that be due to my older CPU and the high resolution of the monitor?

Also, interestingly enough when I went from the AMD drivers provided with the Ubuntu 20.04 install to the latest version using the amdgpu-install-pro binaries Steam would no longer launch games. That probably is an unrelated issue...

Aquinus · Nov 30, 2020

HTC said:
The intention was to install different drivers to rule out your current drivers being the issue with the lag you're experiencing: if with these drivers you continue to have the lag issue, then it's not the drivers and, if you don't anymore, then it IS INDEED the drivers.

Also, @Aquinus : correct me if i'm wrong but Padoka's drivers don't support Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS, right? @ least for now.

I'm not sure. I didn't recall having any issues with 20.04 LTS myself, but since I got the MacBook Pro, I have to admit, I haven't turned the tower on in months. When I installed 20.04, everything just worked OOTB. I didn't need to install anything else and performance was decent on my Vega 64 to be frank, so I didn't futz with it.

Easy Rhino said:
Could that be due to my older CPU and the high resolution of the monitor?

Higher resolution requires more GPU power typically, not so much more CPU power. I'd imagine that the kicker is trying to get the high frame rates that your display can handle.

HTC · Nov 30, 2020

Aquinus said:
I'm not sure. I didn't recall having any issues with 20.04 LTS myself, but since I got the MacBook Pro, I have to admit, I haven't turned the tower on in months. When I installed 20.04, everything just worked OOTB. I didn't need to install anything else and performance was decent on my Vega 64 to be frank, so I didn't futz with it.

If you look closely in both of Padoka's drivers links, it does NOT say Ubuntu 20 support, which is why i said "don't support Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS: @ least for now".

Easy Rhino · Nov 30, 2020

Vya Domus said:
That's not what antilag is for, if you experience noticeable input lag it's because of something else.

Oops, I meant enhanced sync, not anti-lag.

FinneousPJ · Nov 30, 2020

Can you post a video of the problem? Is your fps steady in the free sync range? Well first things first make sure free sync and 144 Hz are enabled...

Aquinus · Dec 1, 2020

Easy Rhino said:
I have found that proton games seem to suffer from lag

For what it's worth, DXVK does add CPU overhead compared to running games natively in Windows, so if you're already pushing a CPU with a game in Windows, it's not going to perform better under DXVK. This is unavoidable and that is the cost that we pay to translate DX calls to Vulkan. If games native in Linux and those that don't use DXVK through Proton (like Doom 2015,) run well then I'd say that it's probably DXVK that's pushing your CPU over the edge. Maybe a couple more faster cores are in order?

johnspack · Dec 6, 2020

Wine 6.0 RC1 is out now. Don't know what versions of wine you play with. Wine should have a stable version of dxvk already present. If not, winetricks should
have the newest version. I don't use proton, don't use steam much, so I configure my own fine wine..... Go to winehq.org and set up your own wine!

WineHQ - Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and macOS

Open Source Software for running Windows applications on other operating systems.

www.winehq.org

Easy Rhino · Feb 4, 2021

I am fairly certain the vulkan drivers that are loaded by Ubuntu 20 out of the box are what is holding back the ability of the card to handle enhanced sync properly. I wanted a go at using the properiety drivers but when i installed them it broke gpu acceleration in steam games. Does anyone have experience removing the default AMD vulkan drivers properly and install the amdgpu-pro drivers from amd?

Aquinus · Feb 4, 2021

Easy Rhino said:
Does anyone have experience removing the default AMD vulkan drivers properly and install the amdgpu-pro drivers from amd?

I don't recall having to do anything when I used AMDGPU-Pro with the old 390, but that was also back when Southern Islands were blacklisted on the open source driver. I never tried to use the close source drivers with the Vega 64. I had no reason to.

Easy Rhino · Feb 5, 2021

Aquinus said:
I don't recall having to do anything when I used AMDGPU-Pro with the old 390, but that was also back when Southern Islands were blacklisted on the open source driver. I never tried to use the close source drivers with the Vega 64. I had no reason to.

Hrm... also another annoyance is that opencl is not installed by default which is odd.

lexluthermiester · Feb 5, 2021

Easy Rhino said:
Unfortunately if you check out my system specs I need AntiLag due to a weak CPU.

That's not a weak CPU. Fairly solid one actually.

FinneousPJ · Feb 5, 2021

Easy Rhino said:
I am fairly certain the vulkan drivers that are loaded by Ubuntu 20 out of the box are what is holding back the ability of the card to handle enhanced sync properly. I wanted a go at using the properiety drivers but when i installed them it broke gpu acceleration in steam games. Does anyone have experience removing the default AMD vulkan drivers properly and install the amdgpu-pro drivers from amd?

Do not use the closed source drivers for anything modern. Instead try and download the latest open source drivers and Vulkan. You can check these links

Install And Test Vulkan On Linux - LinuxConfig.org

Install Vulkan support and test it on your Linux distribution

linuxconfig.org

How to Install The Latest AMD Radeon Drivers on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux - LinuxConfig.org

Install either the latest proprietary or open source AMD Radeon Drivers on Ubuntu 18.04

linuxconfig.org

Use the PPA guides.

Easy Rhino · Feb 5, 2021

FinneousPJ said:
Do not use the closed source drivers for anything modern.

I am curious to know why? I was able to get opencl installed using amdgpu-install without it breaking anything else.

FinneousPJ · Feb 5, 2021

Easy Rhino said:
I am curious to know why? I was able to get opencl installed using amdgpu-install without it breaking anything else.

The official page should give a hint: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-radpro-lin-16-40

The newest GPU listed is an RX 480.

Easy Rhino · Feb 5, 2021

FinneousPJ said:
The official page should give a hint: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-radpro-lin-16-40

The newest GPU listed is an RX 480.

I think you were looking in the wrong place...

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-amdgpu-unified-linux-20-45

FinneousPJ · Feb 6, 2021

Easy Rhino said:
I think you were looking in the wrong place...

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-amdgpu-unified-linux-20-45

Strange, the one I linked is number one result on search.

R-T-B · Feb 6, 2021

The closed source drivers do consistently bench slower than the open ones, though.

Easy Rhino · Feb 6, 2021

I think at this point I only want the openCL libraries but it looks like issues with 5.8 series of kernels

Aquinus · Feb 6, 2021

Easy Rhino said:
I think at this point I only want the openCL libraries but it looks like issues with 5.8 series of kernels

Do you have ROCm installed? I'm pretty sure that's where the OpenCL support comes from.

System Name	Desktop
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Video Card(s)	Gigabyte Gaming OC 6750 XT 12GB
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Memory	G.Skill Kit 16GB DDR4 F4 - 3200 C16D - 16 GTZB
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse 6600 8 GB
Storage	1 Samsung NVMe 960 EVO 250 GB + 1 3.5" Seagate IronWolf Pro 6TB 7200RPM 256MB SATA III
Display(s)	LG 27UD58
Case	Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX 850M 80+ Gold
Mouse	Razer Deathadder Elite
Software	Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS

System Name	Desktop
Processor	i5 13600KF
Motherboard	AsRock B760M Steel Legend Wifi
Cooling	Noctua NH-U9S
Memory	4x 16 Gb Gskill S5 DDR5 @6000
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte Gaming OC 6750 XT 12GB
Storage	WD_BLACK 4TB SN850x
Display(s)	Gigabye M32U
Case	Corsair Carbide 400C
Audio Device(s)	On Board
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova 650 P2
Mouse	MX Master 3s
Keyboard	Logitech G915 Wireless Clicky
Software	Fedora KDE Spin

System Name	Apollo
Processor	Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard	Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory	64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage	1TB Apple NVMe, 2TB external SSD, 4TB external HDD for backup.
Display(s)	32" Dell UHD, 27" LG UHD, 28" LG 5k
Case	MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s)	AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply	Display or Thunderbolt 4 Hub
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software	MacOS 15.3.1

System Name	HTC's System
Processor	Ryzen 5 5800X3D
Motherboard	Asrock Taichi X370
Cooling	NH-C14, with the AM4 mounting kit
Memory	G.Skill Kit 16GB DDR4 F4 - 3200 C16D - 16 GTZB
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse 6600 8 GB
Storage	1 Samsung NVMe 960 EVO 250 GB + 1 3.5" Seagate IronWolf Pro 6TB 7200RPM 256MB SATA III
Display(s)	LG 27UD58
Case	Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX 850M 80+ Gold
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Software	Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS

System Name	Good enough
Processor	AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard	ASRock B650 Pro RS
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Video Card(s)	Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage	1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s)	LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case	Phanteks NV7
Power Supply	GPS-750C

Processor	R5 5600X
Motherboard	Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus
Memory	32 GB 3600 MT/s CL16
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Vega 64
Storage	2x 500 GB SSD, 2x 3 TB HDD
Case	Phanteks P300A
Software	Manjaro Linux, W10 if I have to

System Name	System2 Blacknet , System1 Blacknet2
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Video Card(s)	System2 GTX 980Ti System1 GTX 970
Storage	System2 4x SSDs + NVme= 2.250TB 2xStorage Drives=8TB System1 3x SSDs=2TB
Display(s)	1x27" 1440 display 1x 24" 1080 display
Case	System2 Some Nzxt case with soundproofing...
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Mouse	Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum
Keyboard	Ducky
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Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	Intel 5800X Optane 800GB boot, +2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, 1x 2TB Seagate Exos 3.5"
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Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS and AMD + Steam/Proton

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