Stuttering due to CPU frequency scaling?


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I'm stumped honestly.

 

Been messing about with this for a few days now and can't seem to get any kind of result.

 

Basically, when I try to run games on my R9 290, every 5-10 seconds, there's a 5-10 window where the game lags massively. I believe that this is down to CPU frequency scaling. Switching from the 290 and throwing in a new PSU has eliminated the 5-10 second issue. The issue appears at random points now, every minute or so, then doesn't go away for a minute or two.

 

Setup:

Xeon 2670v3

MSI X99 SLI PLUS

32GB DDR4

R9 290 GTX 1070

GTX 950

Blackwidow Ultimate

Naga Chroma

(I'm including keyboard and mouse, due to reading in a previous thread similar to this that someone was having similar issues with that combination).

 

Not currently passing through any USB controllers. Have passed through USB 2 controller for mouse and keyboard. This fixed any funkiness (random disconnects, sluggishness and random movements).

Things tried:

1. Stopping all docker applications and plugins to reduce overhead

2. Assigning 4-12 cores to the VM (excluding core 0)

3. Using the VM that has the GTX 950 passed to it (works perfectly)

4. Trying both OVMF and SeaBios installs (same issue, though seems more apparent on SeaBios)

5. Passing through the GTX 950 to the Windows install that was running the 290, works perfectly

6. Passing through onboard sound, graphics card sound (from the 290) and having no sound all result in the same issue

7. Trying a fresh Windows 10 install

8. Passing through USB controllers (made no difference, so I removed the passthrough for testing)

9. Disabling Speedstep in BIOS

10. Stress testing both GPU and CPU (neither thermal throttle, and 290 stays at max clock speed throughout, even when in game).

11. Enabled and disabled PCIE ACS, no difference.

 

One thing to note, the motherboard, CPU and RAM are new to this build, the graphics card and storage devices are from a previous build, as is my Unraid install. Is it possible this is causing issues?

 

Also with having no on-board graphics, my primary GPU that Unraid boots to console with is the 290, would it make a difference to swap the 290 and 950 around to see if the issue then occurs on the 950?

 

The only thing I can think of now is trying a different keyboard and mouse combination, which I will do when I get back from work tomorrow.

 

Edit: Used different keyboard and mouse and this made no difference.

 

I've a diagnostic log so hopefully someone will be able to find something.

 

Any other suggestions would be great!

 

Thanks!

limecake-diagnostics-20161108-0120.zip

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You could try swapping the cards. Also try to specify the bios file for the 290. You either have to dump it or find it on tech powerup site.

How to is in the unraid manual for adding the Bios of the card.

 

There is also a guide on the forum on how to dump it yourself.

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Just a quick update on this.

 

It appears there's nothing wrong with the Unraid install/VM's. I tried a fresh install without Unraid and experienced the same issues. Appears to be some sort of PSU issue (possibly that the CPU is drawing too much power) I've been meaning to replace these two components anyway so I have a new PSU and GPU coming. Will update when they've both arrived and see if this has solved my issue.

 

The issue with my 290 does seem to disappear when the second card is unplugged, which as what has lead me to this conclusion. 

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Many things have changed since my previous post.

 

I have a new PSU and I've replaced the 290 with a GTX 1070.

 

Still having the same issues.

 

What I have noticed though, is that if I open CPU-Z whilst running games etc, is that the CPU frequency jumps down and then the stuttering happens. I've been trying since my last post all kinds of stuff, CPU pinning, usb passthrough, using fewer cores, hyper-v on/off.. Pretty much following from what this post include: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46664.105 to no avail. I've also tried disabling C-States, Hyperthreading, Turboboost, EIST etc with no changes.

 

Something interesting to note, if I run a stress test (prime95) and play a game (have been testing with CS:GO/WoW) the framerate jumps back up and the stuttering stops. I have tried to remediate this by disabling p-states, but this had no effect.

 

I did see a forum post somewhere about keeping the CPU pinned/changing min_scale_frequency but when I tried this the setting didn't seem to stick?

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Many things have changed since my previous post.

 

I have a new PSU and I've replaced the 290 with a GTX 1070.

 

Still having the same issues.

 

What I have noticed though, is that if I open CPU-Z whilst running games etc, is that the CPU frequency jumps down and then the stuttering happens. I've been trying since my last post all kinds of stuff, CPU pinning, usb passthrough, using fewer cores, hyper-v on/off.. Pretty much following from what this post include: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46664.105 to no avail. I've also tried disabling C-States, Hyperthreading, Turboboost, EIST etc with no changes.

 

Something interesting to note, if I run a stress test (prime95) and play a game (have been testing with CS:GO/WoW) the framerate jumps back up and the stuttering stops. I have tried to remediate this by disabling p-states, but this had no effect.

 

I did see a forum post somewhere about keeping the CPU pinned/changing min_scale_frequency but when I tried this the setting didn't seem to stick?

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Try installing the tips and tricks plugin and change the CPU guvernor to performance.

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Many things have changed since my previous post.

 

I have a new PSU and I've replaced the 290 with a GTX 1070.

 

Still having the same issues.

 

What I have noticed though, is that if I open CPU-Z whilst running games etc, is that the CPU frequency jumps down and then the stuttering happens. I've been trying since my last post all kinds of stuff, CPU pinning, usb passthrough, using fewer cores, hyper-v on/off.. Pretty much following from what this post include: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46664.105 to no avail. I've also tried disabling C-States, Hyperthreading, Turboboost, EIST etc with no changes.

 

Something interesting to note, if I run a stress test (prime95) and play a game (have been testing with CS:GO/WoW) the framerate jumps back up and the stuttering stops. I have tried to remediate this by disabling p-states, but this had no effect.

 

I did see a forum post somewhere about keeping the CPU pinned/changing min_scale_frequency but when I tried this the setting didn't seem to stick?

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Try installing the tips and tricks plugin and change the CPU guvernor to performance.

 

Wow! There we go! That's a heck of a lot better. Still happening every 5 minutes or so, but much more manageable and only lasts for 10-20 seconds and then speeds way back up! Any other suggestions to eliminate the issue completely? Thanks!

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  • 7 months later...

I know this is an old thread, but for anyone else searching I wanted to add that I see this too and haven't found a solution. I'm using a SuperMicro X10DRi motherboard with 2x Engineering Sample Xeon E5-2643 v3 CPUs. I've verified that the PSUs are delivering adequate power to the CPUs.

 

I've tried disabling EIST and various C states in the BIOS, but this didn't help. I also find the performance governor better, but ultimately eventually the CPU scales down to the lowest frequency. Core and package temperature are well within limits (less than 70F). I tried disabling the pstate driver via syslinux.cfg, and then switching to its performance governor, and while it appears all cores are running stable at their clock speeds when checking either /proc/cpuinfo or cpufreq-info, it's clear the cores are throttling.

 

This only seems to happen while gaming - as soon as I alt-tab or exit the game, the core speeds shoot right back up. Similarly, running a CPU stress test in the background while gaming stops the CPUs from scaling down but obviously kills performance. I ran both prime95 and AIDA64 (with GPU stress test) on their own and they ran for over an hour without exhibiting any CPU scaling.

 

Switching back to a SuperMicro X10SRL-F and Xeon E5-1650 v3 (non ES) and the issue goes away. I previously had an ES E5-2693 v3 and experienced the same issues, so I'm wondering if there's something specific either to ES chips, or E5-26xx chips.

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