protonscr

Issues with Steam running and other GPU accelerated applications

steamopen NVIDIA driversDistro Family: UbuntuWeb Component
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#8549 · opened 2022-04-23 by DarkCipher0x · updated 2023-02-02 · 5 comments · github
DDarkCipher0x 2022-04-23 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): March 14 2022
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 22.04
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Whenever Steam and a Chromium based browser (Chrome/Edge/etc) are open at the same time, both Chrome and Steam are very laggy when moving the windows around. Performance is fine within the apps (navigating/scrolling), but if i try to move the window to another monitor or just wiggle it around, it is extremely laggy. As soon as i close Steam, Chrome will work fine. Open Steam and Chrome lags out and the Steam window is quite laggy as well.

I have tried different nvidia drivers as well. I tried both ubuntu provided nvidia drivers (470 and 510) and also wiped all the nvidia drivers and installed the Nvidia provided 510 driver. Same issues.

If i disable Chrome hardware acceleration, it does improve both app performances a bit... But not perfect.

I also did try this on a Thinkpad using just Intel integrated graphics and i dont have an issue. So it seems there is an issue with Steam using the nvidia driver to render the app and maybe causing a conflict with other apps using the GPU as well, such as Chrome.

My workstation specs:

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
64G RAM
Nvidia RTX 2060 - currently using Nvidia provided driver 510.60.02
nvme storage

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Open Steam
  2. Open Chrome
  3. Try and move windows around...
  4. Close Steam
  5. Chrome will work fine again

Also, im not sure if its related to this issue. But when i run steam from terminal i get a few errors, attached is the output
steam_launch.txt

DDarkCipher0x 2022-04-23 github

FYI, i reinstalled Steam and i'm no longer getting the error about "Unable to determine whether the expected Nvidia drivers are available."

But i am still experiencing this performance issue. I also still see a bunch of the "Could not connect to X session manager: None of the authentication protocols specified are supported" messages.

DDarkCipher0x 2022-05-07 github

I ended up switching to PopOS 22.04... And i started experiencing this same issue...

But... i figured out what was causing it. I usually keep the "Friends" steam window open on a second monitor... The Friends window is the culprit. As soon as i close that window the performance is back to normal...

With the main Steam window open, i do not experience an issue. It is completely reproducible, happens now every time i open the Friends window.

Also to note, its any Chromium browser. I am currently using the Brave browser with the same issue. But also happens with Chromium and Chrome.

Eechaskaris 2022-12-28 github

In other words (and in my experience), on Ubuntu 22.04, if a friends window is open, the main steam window will lag immensely. Didn't happen in 20.04. Doesn't matter if hw accel is on or off.

Eechaskaris 2022-12-28 github

I also have an AMD GPU.

Eechaskaris 2022-12-29 github

It appears to be an issue with Wayland and steam. Ubuntu 22.04 has wayland enabled by default. @kisak-valve

Nothing extracted yet.