[Software] Game lags after an hour of gameplay

[EastAnderson]

Hello! I used to have Linux Mint as my main OS, but I switched to Debian XFCE so I could optimize even further the last years of my gaming laptop.

This is my inxi -Gxx output:

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Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 630 vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5 ports: active: HDMI-A-2,eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:591b
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: nvidia v: 535.183.01 arch: Pascal pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1c8d
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver:
    X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv
    dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-2 mapped: HDMI-2 model: GS1562 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 141
    diag: 396mm (15.6")
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: primary model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x15d6 res: 1920x1080
    dpi: 142 diag: 394mm (15.5")
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 630 (KBL
    GT2) direct-render: Yes

With feralgamemode, I followed the instructions here to have gamemoderun use my NVidia GPU. To make sure it's working I tested it with nvidia-smi and glxgears.

And because my laptop is prone to overheating, I am also using libstrangle to limit the FPS of my games so I can play without issues. On top of that, I use this script which runs as a service in the background, that unthrottles my CPU when reaching high temperatures. I have tried to change my BIOS settings but I was unable to.

Most games run fine, except Team Fortress 2. That game is my bloodline, and if I can't play that I'm in deep trouble.

In the launch options I have

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gamemoderun strangle 120 %command% -novid -nojoy -nosteamcontroller -nohltv -particles 1 -precachefontchars -h 1080 -w 1920

The important parameters are gamemoderun and strangle.

So I launch the game and after an hour and a half of gameplay, my game stutters like crazy. If I switch servers the lag is still there, and if I close and open the game the lag is still there. One weird symptom is that the game stutters ONLY when I move my mouse around. When I don't move my mouse, the game reaches a stable 100 fps. But when I do, it jumps down to 20-30 fps. It's incredibly annoying.

I have not been using Debian for a long time. I am loving it so far because of how smooth it runs. I still need to figure some quirks out. Thank you very much.

[strapicarus]

Hi, that seems to me related to temperature and unthrottles.

what are the gpu and cpu starting fequency and temperatures and fequency?

see

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sensors

at the start you game and at start of stuttering to see the temperatures.
And maybe im wrong but see

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cat /proc/cpuinfo

to see the cpu frequency, at start game and start stuttering
Also see the nvidia xserver panel to see the temperatures.

[arzgi]

I had similar troubles when played other game. I tried to fiddle with nice values, but at the end desktop pc works so much better, so decided to use that only for resource hungry games.