Nvidia GPU only is slower than hybrid with Intel graphics

[NighTurs]

When I’m running NoMachine server with Nvidia prime hybrid graphics driver everything is fine. As I understand with this setup desktop is using Intel graphics, although I’m seeing /usr/NX/bin/nxnode.bin process in nvidia-smi. When I install vanilla Nvidia proprietary drivers (Intel graphics is off) I’m having slowness issues (typing lags, slower responsiveness). So basically I have better performance from Intel graphics, which I would rather turn off completely.

Server:

• Intel i5-3470
• Nvidia RTX 2070 (proprietary drivers 440.82, but tried different versions)
• Not headless
• Manjaro linux (with 4.19 kernel, tried also 5.4)
• Gnome 3.36 (X session)

The client is also Gnome 3 (X) Manjaro but without GPU. I’m using 6.10.12 NoMachine from https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/nomachine . Connecting to physical display over LAN. Haven’t seen any errors in logs. Had exactly the same issue with 6.9.2.

 

[fra81]

Hi,

in some cases, even if the machine is headless, the GPU could be “turned off” if the monitor is switched off. Can this be the case? If so, could you try to switch on the monitor attached to the server and check again?

Also, to narrow things down, you can try to disable hardware encoding in NoMachine (‘EnableHardwareEncoding 0’ in /usr/NX/etc/node.cfg) and see if you still experience worse performance on Nvidia than on Intel.

[NighTurs]

Hey, thanks for reply! Really appreciated.

The monitor is always on, so it shouldn’t be the case.

The problem persists with and without EnableHardwareEncoding. Same jumpiness during text input, etc. And no issues with Intel.

Since my initial post I tried two things with the server:

1. Installed fresh Manjaro installation with XFCE. Same problem, so not Gnome related issue.
2. The same problem also on Fedora 32, so not a Manjaro specific.

I attached statistics I took during nvidia and intel sessions, maybe they will be helpful. Any further directions?

Attachments:

1. intel-nighturs-pc-Manjaro-Linux-statistics-06012020-21.05.56.txt
2. nvidia-nighturs-pc-Manjaro-Linux-statistics-06012020-20.56.30.txt

[fra81]

Hi,

unfortunately there is nothing more that can be done in the NoMachine software. After excluding hardware encoding, GPU is not used by NoMachine directly. I have seen other similar cases where the local X server is slow to pull pixels data back from video memory. This is an issue on the video card/drivers side. You may try to use a different version of the drivers, but I can’t say if that will solve the problem.

[NighTurs]

Indeed it turned out to be this Nvidia issue https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/vnc-server-on-nvidia-linux-does-not-refresh-screen-after-every-keystroke/68287

The workaround is to have something with high updates frequency on the screen.

[Author]

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