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Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

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Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#191

Post by Zardoz84 »

alt227 wrote: post #44
d3Xt3r wrote: post #11

Gosh, 7.2 literally just dropped with a bunch of awesome of performance/gaming related improvements (large folios, cache-aware scheduling, improved MGLRU reclaiming, Fair GPU Scheduler etc)... and I already can't wait for 7.3 to come out. Meanwhile in the Windows world, users hate updates... Like I genuinely can't think of a single instance that made users exclaim, "oh boy I just can't wait for the next Patch Tuesday…

I personally am very excited for the upcoming Windows 11 update which will allow users to move the taskbar to any edge of their screen.

Something that they removed in Windows 11 because yes.

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#192

Post by zahlman »

exceptione wrote: post #14

Great article! I share the same hunch as the author does; when allocating memory ultimately the application itself is in the best position to inform the kernel about the desired stickiness to VRAM. The best a kernel can do is guessing . As a side note, it strikes me how much we owe to young trans people for low level performance engineering.

[flagged]

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#193

Post by parl_match »

stillpointlab wrote: post #190
krisknez wrote: post #34

I hope there will be an update where when my RAM gets full my PC doesn't freeze and becomes unusable... I remember that Linux and Windows do this in different ways and Windows doesn't have the problem.

This gripe (that I literally crashed out on recently after maining Fedora for the first time) is top of my list for annoyance/frustration with Linux as a desktop. I now have btop permanently running in a Terminal and I habitually Alt-Tab to it to watch my swap. As soon as my free memory gets less than 1 Gb I kill any Firefox tabs (the memory black hole). I know this won't be popular, but Linux people have some kind o…

The Linux Desktop people have been singing the song of "works for me" for decades, which is as long as they've been unable to crack double digit users.

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#194

Post by zahlman »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #58
nickjj wrote: post #36

This post focuses on performance, but what about crashing due to apps seeing no RAM available to allocate once VRAM is filled up? I remember having this problem when I used an NVIDIA 750 Ti with 2 GB of memory. Just opening a few Firefox or Ghostty terminals (both are GPU accelerated) would result in those apps crashing or not being able to render their contents. Sometimes the compositor would crash or become unstabl…

It's got to be an edge case for Wayland to be used with a 2GB VRAM card? Targeting recent cards and letting people using older hardware install x-windows, or whatever, seems sensible. You say (in your blog post) "Linux" didn't work well so you reverted to "Windows", but as is so often the case you buried the distro/version info. You don't seem to have been using Win11 (later you mention Win7 & Win10Pro) ... So it's c…

> It's got to be an edge case for Wayland to be used with a 2GB VRAM card?

I had thought that one of the biggest "selling" points of Linux is the ability to extend the useful lifetime of older hardware. And if the distros are going to turn away from X11, well.

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#195

Post by zahlman »

flaburgan wrote: post #47
nickjj wrote: post #36

This post focuses on performance, but what about crashing due to apps seeing no RAM available to allocate once VRAM is filled up? I remember having this problem when I used an NVIDIA 750 Ti with 2 GB of memory. Just opening a few Firefox or Ghostty terminals (both are GPU accelerated) would result in those apps crashing or not being able to render their contents. Sometimes the compositor would crash or become unstabl…

Your last sentence sums it all: AMD is the only serious option on Linux. Not perfect, but far better than Nvidia, thanks to their open drivers that anyone (and especially Valve) can improve.

This seems like a big problem for AI as long as Nvidia is so deeply financially involved the way they are.

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#196

Post by embedding-shape »

aruggirello wrote: post #144
embedding-shape wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is such a horrible OS to use when you work in a small company that isn't big enough to have IT to shield you from all the horrible stuff, like in a small studio. Normally I work in Linux, sometimes need to boot Windows just to do some export or something, then goal is to boot into Linux again ASAP. But time and time again fucking Windows forces me to prepping updates when shutting down for next boot, with lit…

This sounds like the perfect use case for a simple, straightforward VM. Dual booting is dangerous, time consuming, and makes it inconvenient to share clipboard, stuff... why don't you use a Windows VM instead? You can freeze a VM (saving state) rather than restarting it. Windows won't bat an eye since it's not being shut down or suspended. No longer unexpected 15 minutes pauses - restart it when you have time to spar…

Sometimes it's for Ableton, sometimes for Unreal Engine stuff, or other stuff that technically you could run in a VM (or even Proton) but it works iffy enough that dual booting ends up simpler, except for these annoying updates.

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#197

Post by zahlman »

dormento wrote: post #112

A curious thing happens in my Ubuntu 24 system, maybe that's just the normal OoM killer algo but no matter what process is hogging, Firefox is killed. Chrome eating too much memory? Firefox dies. Too many apps open? Firefox dies. Its funny.

... Why would you be running Chrome and Firefox simultaneously?

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#198

Post by zahlman »

dessimus wrote: post #168
Beijinger wrote: post #116

You know what I would like to have? An application that sends a kill / kill -9 signal to a specific app, example Chromes, when things go south.

How is that sufficiently different from the Halting Problem?

The solution doesn't have to be perfect.

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#199

Post by OkayPhysicist »

zahlman wrote: post #197
dormento wrote: post #112

A curious thing happens in my Ubuntu 24 system, maybe that's just the normal OoM killer algo but no matter what process is hogging, Firefox is killed. Chrome eating too much memory? Firefox dies. Too many apps open? Firefox dies. Its funny.

... Why would you be running Chrome and Firefox simultaneously?

I occasionally have several browsers open when doing web-dev work, to make sure everything looks right on all browsers. There was also a period of time where I got into the habit of opening netflix in Chrome, despite being a Firefox ride-or-die, because Firefox didn't support the DRM that Netflix required to stream higher resolution video, but either that changed or I got sick of the juggling.

Re: Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

#200

Post by stillpointlab »

parl_match wrote: post #193
stillpointlab wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This gripe (that I literally crashed out on recently after maining Fedora for the first time) is top of my list for annoyance/frustration with Linux as a desktop. I now have btop permanently running in a Terminal and I habitually Alt-Tab to it to watch my swap. As soon as my free memory gets less than 1 Gb I kill any Firefox tabs (the memory black hole). I know this won't be popular, but Linux people have some kind o…

The Linux Desktop people have been singing the song of "works for me" for decades, which is as long as they've been unable to crack double digit users.

I mean, I'm to blame at the moment as well. I'm putting up with it because I don't want to use Windows, mostly because I'm doing a lot of agent dev and I saw them struggle in a Windows environment. And there is a little spite driving me since Windows 11 is full of ads and I felt like it was pushed on me when I wanted to stay on Windows 10.

The vast majority of my computer use has been on MacOS for the last 15+ years, since a Macbook Pro is the standard issue dev environment at every company I have worked at. I had a Windows desktop entirely for gaming that I've repurposed to be a Linux dev box. I genuinely thought all of the hype about Linux desktop that I have seen lately was an indication that it was finally ready for general use.

Now that I am vigilant watching RAM I haven't had the freezes. And I refuse to let the OS roll the dice on what program it wants to kill in its last ditch attempt to save itself from a problem it shouldn't have in the first place. And since Firefox seems to demand 800MB-1GB per tab process, it is a reliable scheme to just close heavy tabs when I see memory dip into the danger zone.

I just wish RAM wasn't so expensive right now, since I'd buy as much as I could just to avoid this pain.

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