Intel iGPU Linux Gamers May Be Better Off With The "Powersave" Governor

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel iGPU Linux Gamers May Be Better Off With The "Powersave" Governor

While it's normally recommended switching to the P-State/CPUFreq "performance" governor for the optimal Linux gaming experience and the preferred default of Feral's GameMode Linux gaming daemon, in the case of Intel integrated graphics you may find better results in using the "powersave" governor...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-iGPU-Powersave-GameMode

[anth]

I wonder how much difference that'd make on a desktop with a bit more tolerance of power/thermal issues than the 15.3mm thick laptop tested.

[linuxgeex]

Ondemand + using i7z to disable turbo boost is good for preventing heat saturation of the SOC from Broadwell to Coffee Lake. That helps prevent the CPU from throttling the CPU and GPU down to less than half the boost clock in bursts when there's scene changes or extra challenging scenes, which improves the 99% percentile frame latency, which makes the games a lot more playable.

Having 55fps with dips into the 40's is a hell of a lot better than having 60fps with dips into the 20's, and it's why all the most respected GPU review sites report 99th percentile FPS alongside average FPS... to satisfy the raw-number-whores along with the people who actually care about enjoyable gaming performance.

[grigi]

I found that underclocking the CPU on my notebook made Witcher3 run noticeably smoother. I surmised it was a power budget issue.
Using powersave and slight underclocking I got it so that the iGP pretty much stayed at peak frequency, which is the best one can hope for with an UHD620...

[Guest]

How about designing chips that aren't power throttled in the first place?

[royce]

How about designing chips that aren't power throttled in the first place?

How about reversing entropy?

[Guest]

How about reversing entropy?

You know, keeping budgets sane, rather than expecting heat outputs in the range of 15-47 watts would make CPUs much better, with more consistent performance.

Just release something like a 60W (my CPU peaks at 57W according to undocumented MSRs, so it's not that far out there) part, where that 60W is honest peak output, and the CPU sticks to it most of the time. It might not have turbo boost for all I care, considering how many variables it adds to the mix.

[Vistaus]

Noticed this too. Gaming with iGPU on battery with powersave results in much better performance than when charging (laptop user here).

[perpetually high]

Intel linux gamers are better off using "acpi-cpufreq performance" instead of intel_pstate or intel-cpufreq powersave/performance. Don't take my word for it, add intel_pstate=disable to your GRUB and test it for yourself.

[Linuxxx]

Intel linux gamers are better off using "acpi-cpufreq performance" instead of intel_pstate or intel-cpufreq powersave/performance. Don't take my word for it, add intel_pstate=disable to your GRUB and test it for yourself.

I concur!

@Michael
It would be great if You could do a separate run with "intel_pstate=disable" & also show the frame-latency times!