[kde] [Bug 498610] New: Powerdevil causes games to drop frames

[Evert Vorster]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=498610

            Bug ID: 498610
           Summary: Powerdevil causes games to drop frames
    Classification: I don't know
           Product: kde
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Arch Linux
                OS: Other
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: grave
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
          Assignee: unassigned-bugs at kde.org
          Reporter: evorster at protonmail.com
  Target Milestone: ---

SUMMARY
This bug was driving me MAD! Every two or three seconds, most of my games would
stutter. When you are playing a racing game, that is enough to make you end up
in a ditch somewhere. In FPS's it gets you killed.

It would affect native linux games on Wayland, but not on X11. It affects
proton games on X11, but not on Wayland.
The hardware I am running these games on is pretty powerful, able to handle any
game at native resolution and very high fps. (200fps for DOOM on Ultra, for
instance)

Countless kernel rebuilds, downgrading of mesa, nvidia's drivers, trying git
versions of the same, running X11 sessions, then Wayland sessions... literal
MONTHS were spent looking for the reason that this system would stutter every
two or three seconds. 

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Start your system normally with a Wayland session.
2. Run a native game on Steam.

OBSERVED RESULT
Every couple of seconds, the game would freeze just for a second.
Youtube video here:
https://youtu.be/92jAvw4A4rA


EXPECTED RESULT
Power management not to have any effect on frame rates of games.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.9.0
Qt Version: 6.8.1
Kernel Version: 6.12.8-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 32 × AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 62.0 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon 610M
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product Name: ROG Strix G733PYV_G733PYV
System Version: 1.0

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This is an advanced optimus laptop, with two GPUs:
Device: 0
  Name:        Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD®/ATI] Raphael
  Default:     yes
  Environment: DRI_PRIME=pci-0000_09_00_0

Device: 1
  Name:        NVIDIA Corporation AD103M / GN21-X11 [GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop
GPU]
  Default:     no
  Environment: __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1
__VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only

--------------------------------------------
How am I so sure its powerdevil causing this?

I could see powerdevil eating up significant percentages of a CPU at the same
interval at which the games were lagging. 
Then, I stopped power-profiles-daemon.service, and killed the powerdevil
process. 

The games that were stuttering before now all ran smoothly, with no stuttering
in sight. 

I am happy to do troubleshooting and small modifications to determine the root
cause, and a fix

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