Tiny stutters in games

Hey! With a next to flawless experience with Garuda so far I have a few remaining issues. The largest one being that games sometimes do micro stutters for < 1 sec, 1-2 times a minute. During this microstutter, audio from discord stutters as well, but not music from spotify.. o.O. Factorio is one of the games, Dota 2 menu (but not in game) is another.

I've fiddled with ingame graphics settings, I've tried turning off picom to no avail, but except for this I'm at a loss for how to troubleshoot this. Pointers are most welcome! I want to become better at solving issues like this in Linux, so any general pointers to how I could educate myself are welcome too.

Edit: inxi -Fza

System:    Kernel: 5.12.11-zen1-1-zen x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen root=UUID=69c29b79-da5a-4df5-a53b-917ce7295884 rw 
           rootflags=subvol=@ quiet splash rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 
           systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1 loglevel=3 
           Desktop: i3 4.19.1 info: i3bar vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: X570 AORUS ULTRA v: -CF serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: X570 AORUS ULTRA serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F33i date: 04/23/2021 
CPU:       Info: 12-Core model: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3 family: 19 (25) model-id: 21 (33) 
           stepping: 0 microcode: A201009 cache: L2: 6 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 177600 
           Speed: 4654 MHz min/max: 2200/3700 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 4654 2: 3670 3: 3600 4: 3592 5: 3602 
           6: 3597 7: 3732 8: 3698 9: 3597 10: 3590 11: 3739 12: 3598 13: 3828 14: 3592 15: 3740 16: 3701 17: 3593 18: 3796 
           19: 3594 20: 3601 21: 4063 22: 3589 23: 3598 24: 3597 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: always-on, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3070] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nvidia v: 465.31 
           alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2484 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: Logitech Webcam C930e type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 5-4:3 chip-ID: 046d:0843 
           class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter> 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: picom v: git-dac85 driver: loaded: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x1440 s-dpi: 108 s-size: 602x342mm (23.7x13.5") s-diag: 692mm (27.3") 
           Monitor-1: DP-0 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 size: 598x336mm (23.5x13.2") diag: 686mm (27") 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 465.31 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 08:00.1 
           chip-ID: 10de:228b class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 0a:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-3: Logitech G933 Wireless Headset Dongle type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 3-6.1:4 
           chip-ID: 046d:0a5b class-ID: 0300 
           Device-4: Logitech Webcam C930e type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 5-4:3 chip-ID: 046d:0843 
           class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter> 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.12.11-zen1-1-zen running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: sndio v: N/A running: no 
           Sound Server-3: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
           Sound Server-4: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
           Sound Server-5: PipeWire v: 0.3.30 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlp3s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: Gigabyte driver: igb v: kernel port: f000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 
           chip-ID: 8086:1539 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-5:2 chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001 
           Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: no 
           address: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.48 TiB used: 176.47 GiB (11.6%) 
           SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Intel model: SSDSC2CT120A3 size: 111.79 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 300i scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EARS-00Y5B1 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 0A80 scheme: MBR 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 PRO 512GB size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 78.12 GiB size: 78.12 GiB (100.00%) used: 16.06 GiB (20.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 1000 MiB size: 998 MiB (99.80%) used: 560 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 476.93 GiB size: 476.93 GiB (100.00%) used: 160.4 GiB (33.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdc1 
           maj-min: 8:33 
           ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 78.12 GiB size: 78.12 GiB (100.00%) used: 16.06 GiB (20.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
           maj-min: 8:2 
           ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 78.12 GiB size: 78.12 GiB (100.00%) used: 16.06 GiB (20.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
           maj-min: 8:2 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 10 (default 60) cache-pressure: 75 (default 100) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram0 
           ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram1 
           ID-3: swap-3 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram2 
           ID-4: swap-4 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram3 
           ID-5: swap-5 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram4 
           ID-6: swap-6 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram5 
           ID-7: swap-7 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram6 
           ID-8: swap-8 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram7 
           ID-9: swap-9 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram8 
           ID-10: swap-10 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram9 
           ID-11: swap-11 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram10 
           ID-12: swap-12 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram11 
           ID-13: swap-13 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram12 
           ID-14: swap-14 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram13 
           ID-15: swap-15 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram14 
           ID-16: swap-16 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram15 
           ID-17: swap-17 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram16 
           ID-18: swap-18 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram17 
           ID-19: swap-19 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram18 
           ID-20: swap-20 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram19 
           ID-21: swap-21 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram20 
           ID-22: swap-22 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram21 
           ID-23: swap-23 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram22 
           ID-24: swap-24 type: zram size: 1.31 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram23 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.8 C mobo: 16.8 C gpu: nvidia temp: 37 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0% 
Info:      Processes: 499 Uptime: 3h 21m wakeups: 0 Memory: 31.36 GiB used: 6.17 GiB (19.7%) Init: systemd v: 248 
           tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1562 lib: 456 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 running-in: kitty 
           inxi: 3.3.04

One of the most important pointers in my opinion is RTFM.
: Gaming - ArchWiki

Have you tried feral gamemode? Do gamemoderun %command% in steam game’s launch options.

Also post inxi -Fza output for others to help you easily.

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One of the most important pointers in my opinion is RTFM.

I agree, I read a lot on Archwiki. However it’s more of a “do this then it works” which is great for fixing things but less great for building understanding (for me at least).

For example, things that might be related to my problem are: Drivers, window manager, compositor, display server… This terms are pretty much in a big unorganized pool in my head. I want to be able to deduce what problems can arise from what part if you get my drift :slight_smile:

Have you tried feral gamemode?

I have now! It actually seems to have solved the problem :smiley: Magic. Thanks a bunch!

2 Likes

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