[Bug 66632] New: Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

[Bug 66632] New: Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

[bugzilla-daemon]

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

          Priority: medium
            Bug ID: 66632
          Assignee: dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org
           Summary: Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <->
                    vram swapping)
          Severity: major
    Classification: Unclassified
                OS: Linux (All)
          Reporter: sonichedgehog_hyperblast00@yahoo.com
          Hardware: All
            Status: NEW
           Version: 7.0
         Component: Drivers/DRI/Radeon
           Product: Mesa

Although I heard this issue was discussed, I couldn't find other bug reports
and wanted to post my observations on the matter. At this point it's the only
reason why I'm sticking with fglrx and can't switch to Radeon, and so far
couldn't find a workaround either.

Although Radeon and fglrx seem to run games as fast when no bugs occur, Radeon
has a major problem. If video memory is filled and textures have to be stored
on system memory, FPS drops unusably low. This can be noticed when a program
uses high quality content such as a lot of high resolution textures, enough to
fill up the video memory.

The best and only test case I know of (also the reason this problem affects me)
is the project Xonotic. When ran from the GIT repository, it has a lot of
high-res textures in original format (some as large as 2048px). Even when
texture compression is enabled, they quickly fill up my 1GB of video ram.
Therefore, when looking in certain areas of a map, FPS decreases enormously
(down to 3 FPS).

I ran several tests in the past and tried further debugging this today on IRC.
As other users pointed out, the constant swapping of items between the RAM and
VRAM is the most likely cause of the problem. A better GART formula is
apparently needed in order to swap only when necessary and not all the time.

Someone posted a log based on their tests:
http://bpaste.net/raw/lhJKFAYFyl0DNOMr9hwc/ At least one more user could
replicate the exact behavior I'm getting, and confirmed Xonotic is unplayable
when full-res textures are used and a map loads a lot of them. I was also
linked a patch, which was said to fix the issue although it wasn't accepted
yet. In case it's of any relevance,
http://people.freedesktop.org/~glisse/0001-drm-radeon-keep-original-user-requested-placement-ar.patch

I heard a correct formula on when to trigger VRAM <-> RAM swapping is harder to
find, so I understand why this bug exists. Since it's a major issue and keeps
some engines from working when they could, it would be appreciated if even a
simple solution could be added in the meantime. Such as disabling swapping
altogether (what was placed in vram stays in vram and what's in gart stays in
gart) or only triggering swapping after a longer amount of time rather than
each frame (eg: 30 or 60 seconds).

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #1 from Lauri Kasanen <curaga@operamail.com> ---
I wonder if you could send me memory traces from such cases?

Instructions: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU2Nzk

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #2 from MirceaKitsune <sonichedgehog_hyperblast00@yahoo.com> ---
First of all, I should note that this has gotten a LOT better since Mesa 9.2.
Whereas in Mesa 8 Xonotic would barely run on maps with large textures, I'm now
able to run it almost perfectly with maximum details! It still lags in some
areas however, and I need to use texture compression to reduce memory use as
much as possible.

As for that link: First of all, thank you for looking into the vram issues...
it's comforting to see someone being to the point about it and willing to
tackle the problem. I'll gladly help if I can, and if the fixes you make will
go into Mesa and the Radeon driver. However, I can't do anything that requires
getting unstable / unofficial system packages, or hacking into the system and
drivers... as I can't risk breaking my system and usually fear going too far.

I use openSUSE (13.1 currently) and only the stable system packages provided by
it in the official repositories. Mesa 9.2.3, Xorg-X11 7.6, xf86-video-ati 7.2.
Will the test work with these?

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #3 from Lauri Kasanen <curaga@operamail.com> ---
No, I'm afraid you need git + patches to test.

You can build a local mesa and test it without installing, that way your system
is not at risk.

./configure --etc etc && make
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=lib
export LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=lib/gallium
# now everything in this shell will use the new driver

glxinfo # check the output
xonotic --etc-etc

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #4 from MirceaKitsune <sonichedgehog_hyperblast00@yahoo.com> ---
Oh... so I can build Mesa in any local folder I want, then launch the game's
binary with an URL specifying where to load it from? Without having to boot
with special parameters or making permanent system changes? In that case I
might be able to test.

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #5 from Lauri Kasanen <curaga@operamail.com> ---
Yes, no boot params or system changes needed.

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #6 from MirceaKitsune <sonichedgehog_hyperblast00@yahoo.com> ---
Alright. After a lot of work, I managed to get Mesa to compile from GIT,
together with the libdrm from latest GIT. However, I'm barely able to test
anything with it, as any game I open crashes.

I tried with 3 projects, and they all crash the moment any 3D is to be
rendered. There was however a very simple game that would run, although it uses
very small textures so there's barely anything to test. If you know a simple
application that can use a lot of vram and simulate the transfer, please point
it out.

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #7 from Lauri Kasanen <curaga@operamail.com> ---
Let's fix your crashes first. Can you get a backtrace from one?

You might want to come to #dri-devel on Freenode to debug this (I'm cand
there).

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #8 from MirceaKitsune <sonichedgehog_hyperblast00@yahoo.com> ---
I spoke with Lauri on IRC and we got it working. If anyone else has an use for
the results, this is the compressed log file, containing memory usage
statistics useful to debug the lag: http://www.sendspace.com/file/pjur0t

Taken with Xonotic, 1680 x 1050 full screen. All effects set to maximum,
compression disabled, and using the GIT version of Xonotic (therefore original
uncompressed high-res textures, mostly tga). I played on the map Solarium with
5 bots at maximum skill level, for about 4 minutes.

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #9 from Dieter Nützel <Dieter@nuetzel-hh.de> ---
(In reply to comment #1)
> I wonder if you could send me memory traces from such cases?
> 
> Instructions: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU2Nzk

Hello Lauri,

I read all about this and your thesis on phoronix last night ;-)
But I couldn't get the patch set (compare) from your stats6, tree.
I do not need a complete next Mesa git tree.
How can I check out only the 12 patches for my Mesa git tree?
Do I only have to checkout stats6 in my tree?

I'll do some logs for you on my RV730 AGP (1 GB) with Celestia, Blender,
FreeCAD,...

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #10 from MirceaKitsune <sonichedgehog_hyperblast00@yahoo.com> ---
(In reply to comment #9)

What I did was to simply checkout the stats6 branch and compile it. GIT clone
the repository, then create a local branch and pull stats6 into it. After that
compile, enable the debug flag, and run the application through the new version
of Mesa.

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

--- Comment #11 from Lauri Kasanen <curaga@operamail.com> ---
When you have my mesa repo cloned, you can output a complete patch with "git
diff master..stats6", which you can then apply in other trees. But be aware
that it might not apply to old versions, being against git master.

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66632

Marek Olšák <maraeo@gmail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Version|7.0                         |git
          Component|Drivers/DRI/Radeon          |Drivers/Gallium/r600

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[Bug 66632] Very low FPS when video memory is full (GART & ram <-> vram swapping)

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GitLab Migration User <gitlab-migration@fdo.invalid> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
         Resolution|---                         |MOVED

--- Comment #12 from GitLab Migration User <gitlab-migration@fdo.invalid> ---
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message --

This bug has been migrated to freedesktop.org's GitLab instance and has been
closed from further activity.

You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link
to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/issues/446.

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