Gaming crashes KDE

Issues & Assistance Games & Emulators
, , ,
1

Hello, I am having issues when I play videos games. After a while of playing my screens will all go blank for several seconds then come back but glitchy and without the PC responding to buttons or mouse inputs. After several minutes and a few black screens, it seems that KDE resets itself and the computer works fine again for a while but it will eventually happen again if I am playing video games. This doesn’t happen at all when just using the computer normally.

Here is a picture of one of the times the screen has gone glitchy, but it isn’t like this every time (a little random.. probably obviously)

PXL_20250320_124018771
PXL_20250320_1240187711920×2560 489 KB

This is about all the details I can think to describe RN so feel free to ask questions to help clarify things… it may take a few days to respond as I am currently on my work weeks and work 12 hour shifts so I don’t get on the PC often during these 3 days (Sat-Mon) I will be more able to respond on Tues-Friday.

Thank you for the help.

System:
Kernel: 6.13.6-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=822bdc17-1dfe-4416-bbb0-61bec1c21a66 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet resume=UUID=0f2a7bea-18ef-4870-8a89-c86eb5a7a066 loglevel=3 ibt=off
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.3 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.11.0
wm: kwin_wayland with: krunner vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda
base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: X570 Taichi serial: <superuser required>
uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: P5.60
date: 01/18/2024
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech K350 serial: <filter>
charge: 70% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 gen: 2
level: v3 note: check built: 2020-22 process: TSMC n7 (7nm)
family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 0x8701034
Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 1 cores: 16 threads: 32 tpc: 2
smt: enabled cache: L1: 1024 KiB desc: d-16x32 KiB; i-16x32 KiB L2: 8 MiB
desc: 16x512 KiB L3: 64 MiB desc: 4x16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1750 min/max: 550/4762 boost: enabled scaling:
driver: amd-pstate-epp governor: powersave cores: 1: 1750 2: 1750 3: 1750
4: 1750 5: 1750 6: 1750 7: 1750 8: 1750 9: 1750 10: 1750 11: 1750 12: 1750
13: 1750 14: 1750 15: 1750 16: 1750 17: 1750 18: 1750 19: 1750 20: 1750
21: 1750 22: 1750 23: 1750 24: 1750 25: 1750 26: 1750 27: 1750 28: 1750
29: 1750 30: 1750 31: 1750 32: 1750 bogomips: 224007
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21 [Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT
/ 6900 XT] vendor: Sapphire driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2
code: Navi-2x process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22 pcie: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1
empty: DP-3,Writeback-1 bus-ID: 10:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73bf class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
unloaded: modesetting,radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi
gpu: amdgpu d-rect: 9600x3360 display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: DP-1 pos: primary,top-left model: Dell S2721Q serial: <filter>
built: 2021 res: mode: 3840x2160 hz: 60 scale: 150% (1.5) to: 2560x1440
dpi: 163 gamma: 1.2 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (27")
ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 720x400
Monitor-2: DP-2 pos: top-center model: Dell S2721Q serial: <filter>
built: 2021 res: mode: 3840x2160 hz: 60 scale: 150% (1.5) to: 2560x1440
dpi: 163 gamma: 1.2 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (27")
ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 720x400
Monitor-3: HDMI-A-1 pos: bottom-r model: Dell MR2416 serial: <filter>
built: 2018 res: mode: 1920x1200 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 94 gamma: 1.2
size: 518x324mm (20.39x12.76") diag: 611mm (24.1") ratio: 16:10 modes:
max: 1920x1200 min: 720x400
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi
wayland: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.3.4-arch1.1
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (radeonsi
navi21 LLVM 19.1.7 DRM 3.61 6.13.6-zen1-1-zen) device-ID: 1002:73bf
memory: 15.62 GiB unified: no display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.304 layers: 10 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: AMD
Radeon RX 6900 XT (RADV NAVI21) driver: N/A device-ID: 1002:73bf
surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 1 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM
19.1.7 256 bits) driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 10:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 12:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
Device-3: SteelSeries ApS Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 5-4:5 chip-ID: 1038:12e5 class-ID: 0300
API: ALSA v: k6.13.6-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: gen: 2
speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp6s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: ASRock driver: igb v: kernel
pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 08:00.0
chip-ID: 8086:1539 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp8s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-2:2 chip-ID: 8087:0029
class-ID: e001
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: N/A
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.5 TiB used: 338.42 GiB (22.1%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:4 vendor: Kingston model: SNVS500G
size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: S8542105 temp: 23.9 C
scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Intel model: SSDPEKNW010T8
size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 002C temp: 29.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-3: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Kingston model: SV300S37A120G
size: 111.79 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: BBF2 scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 919.18 GiB size: 919.18 GiB (100.00%)
used: 338.42 GiB (36.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 608 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme1n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 919.18 GiB size: 919.18 GiB (100.00%)
used: 338.42 GiB (36.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 919.18 GiB size: 919.18 GiB (100.00%)
used: 338.42 GiB (36.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 919.18 GiB size: 919.18 GiB (100.00%)
used: 338.42 GiB (36.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 31.26 GiB used: 18.8 MiB (0.1%)
priority: 100 comp: zstd avail: lzo-rle,lzo,lz4,lz4hc,deflate,842
max-streams: 32 dev: /dev/zram0
ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 34.39 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme1n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 32.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 37.0 C
mem: 36.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Info:
Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.26 GiB used: 5.52 GiB (17.7%)
Processes: 624 Power: uptime: 2m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
suspend, test_resume image: 12.49 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical
tool: systemctl
Packages: 1574 pm: pacman pkgs: 1568 libs: 446 tools: octopi,paru
pm: flatpak pkgs: 6 Compilers: clang: 19.1.7 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: garuda-inxi
default: fish v: 4.0.1 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.37
Garuda (2.7.2-1):
System install date:     2025-01-12
Last full system update: 2025-03-13
Is partially upgraded:   No
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager dracut
Windows dual boot:       Probably (Run as root to verify)
Failed units:
2

When it starts?
BIOS update possible?
Try with X11, change on login screen.

Update your PC,

upd

in terminal, reboot, try again.
Check with htop cpu, memory and temp values.

5 Likes
3

Make sure your kwin compositor is disabled when playing any games.

3 Likes
4

How would I do this?

5

grafik
grafik1440×1328 234 KB

3 Likes
6

That honestly looks like a gpu memory error maybe install lact (it’s on rani under gaming) and under clock the memory a bit.

5 Likes
7

Updated PC, Didn’t help.

Tried disabling compositor… doesn’t appear to be a compositor on Wayland.

Currently switched to X11 to test that… Don’t like X11, I have 2 different size monitors and can’t individually scale them, and the scale doesn’t apply to the desktop only applications from my little bit of messing with settings that I did.

Will post here what I figure out.

8

Alright, another update.

X11 with compositor, Crash really quickly
X11 without compositor, still ended up crashing but took several hours

9

ANNNNDDD now it is crashing quite regularly on X11, even with compositor disabled… Moving back to Wayland for now as I like it more and at least it doesn’t crash to login screen.

10

Please just edit your last post if you want to add new information and no one has replied yet.
Thank you. :slight_smile:

1 Like
11

Alright, my apologies, I forgot you could do that.

Here is the photos of Htop, Normal PC idle, PC idle with MC open (but not in world), and I managed to get one when Wayland crashes, it got frozen on the screen so I took a photo.

PC Idel
PC Idel3779×237 110 KB

PC MC Innital
PC MC Innital3818×243 144 KB

PC MC Crash
PC MC Crash2736×234 120 KB

12

The pics are not very helpful because the lower part is missing and it is not clear what causes the most cpu/mem utilization.

Do you have the issue from the beginning?

Do you have the issue even if you only have one monitor connected?
Do you also have the issue when all three monitors are running at 100% scaling (wayland)?

According to the screenshot in the startpost I agree with @elite.
You have windows dualboot, do the same issues occur under windows?

Since your system obviously does not freeze, but probably quits and restarts plasma/kwin, run a live journal and then trigger the issue:

sudo journalctl -f --no-pager
2 Likes
13

Alright, will do a lot of this troubleshooting next week.

I didn’t realize you wanted the bottom part of Htop, apologies.

14

That. I would also limit the GPU clock (burst) and then run some benchmarks to test the card behavior (clocks, temps, crashes) under load.

In my experience, software incompatibilities usually crash the game, not the driver. And if this only happens during gaming and not on desktop it’s likely load-related.

( I had a very similar behavior on my last AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Had to limit the GPU clock because the card could not handle (sustain) the stock burst frequency without crashing the driver. A positive side-effect of underclocking was that the temps were lower, the coolers more silent, and the coil-wine much weaker, because of the lower FPS. Used that workaround for about two weeks, then sold the card on eBay and bought Nvidia again. )

15

Do you play with a controller? When I do that, after a little while (definitely not hours) the screen starts to dim and seems to go blank, when I move the mouse or press a key it goes back to normal. Looks like a powersave function. I have not yet seen garbled images like you do though, but I’m curious to find out if you use a controller too.

16

Have you checked System Settings → Power Management? KDE actually comes with a default setting that dims the screen after 15mins. Of course, it shouldn’t do that while there is input, but who knows…?

17

No I don’t. And it isn’t the screen just turning off. It is KDE crashing, sometimes I even get a notification that KDE/Wayland restarted. Plus I get weird screen effects and stuff sometimes.

18

I currently have a Zotac Radeon 6900XT. How would I underclock it?

19

Use LACT,

Its a good damm app. You can Install it via Rani.

1 Like
20

Alright, I’m setting “maximum GPU clock” to 2250 from 2474. Would you recommend going lower? Any other settings I should change?