Hi.
I’ll start off by mentioning that I only use Ubuntu (20.04 currently), but I’m unconvinced this is the issue.
This has been a long term issue for me, but until recently, I thought it was related to the card or drivers. I’ve been going round in circles and still can’t be certain what is causing it.
To get right to the problem that I seem to have partially worked out, it seems that my motherboard (Asus Prime B550M-A Wi-Fi) is having problems with all Nvidia cards. I’ve tried the card that I want to work (EVGA GTX1650 4GB) and 2 others just for testing (Asus GT 710 and GTX 560). The problems are visually intermittent periods of what feels like a horrendously low frame rate. When playing games, it can be hit and miss, and doesn’t seem to depend on how demanding the scenes are. All the cards can perform where they should to for their specification, but randomly have the issues I’ve described.
A stress test program produces the problem no matter how basic the test. E.g: dragging the windows about when the test is running is horrible and choppy.
This link below is an example:
(note, this is filmed on my camera at 60fps to match the display, but it still isn’t entirely representative of how bad it is)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hnK48EOBmvEKL23B_O69Hmfttat7nnKw/view?usp=sharing
Notice how it becomes smooth when the program is closed. Doing things such as exporting videos, or anything else that makes the system slightly busy seems to intermittently cause this issue.
I’ve since tried the same testing program with my GTX 1650 in another computer with a different motherboard, but same operating system. It has no issues like this at all. The statistics from the stress test are the same, but the choppiness when doing the test isn’t there – it is perfectly smooth as this shows:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WrqLmpp7xK2kkjWaZeqpwqL5ZfIVJso3/view?usp=sharing
I also tried the same test with the other nvidia cards in this PC, and all were smooth when it was taking place, and in games (when taking the ability of the card into consideration).
However, if I put a really old ATI card in my new PC (ATI-102-b382201 with just 256mb of DDR2 memory), while the performance is poor, it is predictable and acceptable. E.g, at an appropriate resolution in games, it never has this intermittent choppiness. Also, on the most basic stress test, dragging the windows about is smooth. Now this card doesn’t use any additional Nvidia drivers which I first thought may be the reason. But the same linux nvidia drivers work with the gtx1650 and all other nvidia cards in the other computer, so I still think it could be a bizarre issue of this motherboard not getting on with Nvidia cards.
This post is already long, but that is the main point. I will however go into more depth below:
I first started thinking this issue was related to the ubuntu nvidia driver version. But I’ve been through 450, 455, 460, 465, 470 and just recently gone to 495. All have had some known minor or even pretty big issues that have been reported in forums, which I noticed, but the issue I’ve been facing has been there the whole time and has not changed - nor been mentioned anywhere. It only seems to not be noticeable when I use open source (which only works properly if I’m not using an nvidia card) This is what makes me not so sure the driver version is related to the issue.
I got this PC custom built by a similar company to overclockers (probably can’t mention the name) and this issue has been here since April this year (2021). I thought that it was software related until now, so I didn’t want to cause the retailer any hassle.
However, after many questions on forums, I was running out of options, so I sent the graphics card to the retailer. I felt relieved that they told me there were issues with the graphics card that were similar to what I was explaining from tests they had done at their end, which will be a windows environment. They replaced the card, and I had the same issues. They then took back the entire build this time, and again confirmed that they had this issue regarding poor performance in games, and choppy windows on the desktop. This time, as they had already replaced the card, they generously replaced every single other component as they were not sure what exactly was causing it. From their tests after this, they confirmed that it was now working. I however got the system back and it is still exactly the same. It was after this that I tested my GTX1650 in another PC with the same version of Ubuntu, same nvidia drivers, which to me proves the card is not at fault.
It really depends what this computor company can offer me. Their terms understandably normally will not allow parts to be replaced with an alternative, but I think there has got to be some problem with the combination of the parts. As the motherboard seems to work ok with an ATI (now AMD) graphics card, and my good graphics card works well with another computer. I really don't see how this can be the case, but could it really be that my new motherboard doesn't like Linux and Nvidia? Not convinced at all, especially since my computer company has reported issues both times they got a part or the whole system back...
The expensive option that I don’t have enough evidence that it would work would be buying an AMD card that is at least as good as my GTX1650. But I would need some advice on how well AMD is supported in Linux. The other option would be replacing my motherboard. This will be tough for me as I had my PC custom built as I’m not experienced at all with building computers, and with the compact case I have, it will be a real fiddle to do, and I don’t even know for certain what the issue is yet.
There are several other things I have tried:
None of this has made a difference, and I don’t know how many more times I should return it to the retailer.
At this rate, I feel I will be stuck like this for over a year. I’m just so confused as to what this is. I’ve mostly recently been using this basic ATI card as even though it overheats sometimes, at least I can predict when that happens. The unpredictable performance with Nvidia cards is just infuriating even though they are clearly capable of handling the content, just not consistently.
Would much appreciate some help, though it may be tricky for you to work out the issue!
Thanks.
I’ll start off by mentioning that I only use Ubuntu (20.04 currently), but I’m unconvinced this is the issue.
This has been a long term issue for me, but until recently, I thought it was related to the card or drivers. I’ve been going round in circles and still can’t be certain what is causing it.
To get right to the problem that I seem to have partially worked out, it seems that my motherboard (Asus Prime B550M-A Wi-Fi) is having problems with all Nvidia cards. I’ve tried the card that I want to work (EVGA GTX1650 4GB) and 2 others just for testing (Asus GT 710 and GTX 560). The problems are visually intermittent periods of what feels like a horrendously low frame rate. When playing games, it can be hit and miss, and doesn’t seem to depend on how demanding the scenes are. All the cards can perform where they should to for their specification, but randomly have the issues I’ve described.
A stress test program produces the problem no matter how basic the test. E.g: dragging the windows about when the test is running is horrible and choppy.
This link below is an example:
(note, this is filmed on my camera at 60fps to match the display, but it still isn’t entirely representative of how bad it is)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hnK48EOBmvEKL23B_O69Hmfttat7nnKw/view?usp=sharing
Notice how it becomes smooth when the program is closed. Doing things such as exporting videos, or anything else that makes the system slightly busy seems to intermittently cause this issue.
I’ve since tried the same testing program with my GTX 1650 in another computer with a different motherboard, but same operating system. It has no issues like this at all. The statistics from the stress test are the same, but the choppiness when doing the test isn’t there – it is perfectly smooth as this shows:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WrqLmpp7xK2kkjWaZeqpwqL5ZfIVJso3/view?usp=sharing
I also tried the same test with the other nvidia cards in this PC, and all were smooth when it was taking place, and in games (when taking the ability of the card into consideration).
However, if I put a really old ATI card in my new PC (ATI-102-b382201 with just 256mb of DDR2 memory), while the performance is poor, it is predictable and acceptable. E.g, at an appropriate resolution in games, it never has this intermittent choppiness. Also, on the most basic stress test, dragging the windows about is smooth. Now this card doesn’t use any additional Nvidia drivers which I first thought may be the reason. But the same linux nvidia drivers work with the gtx1650 and all other nvidia cards in the other computer, so I still think it could be a bizarre issue of this motherboard not getting on with Nvidia cards.
This post is already long, but that is the main point. I will however go into more depth below:
I first started thinking this issue was related to the ubuntu nvidia driver version. But I’ve been through 450, 455, 460, 465, 470 and just recently gone to 495. All have had some known minor or even pretty big issues that have been reported in forums, which I noticed, but the issue I’ve been facing has been there the whole time and has not changed - nor been mentioned anywhere. It only seems to not be noticeable when I use open source (which only works properly if I’m not using an nvidia card) This is what makes me not so sure the driver version is related to the issue.
I got this PC custom built by a similar company to overclockers (probably can’t mention the name) and this issue has been here since April this year (2021). I thought that it was software related until now, so I didn’t want to cause the retailer any hassle.
However, after many questions on forums, I was running out of options, so I sent the graphics card to the retailer. I felt relieved that they told me there were issues with the graphics card that were similar to what I was explaining from tests they had done at their end, which will be a windows environment. They replaced the card, and I had the same issues. They then took back the entire build this time, and again confirmed that they had this issue regarding poor performance in games, and choppy windows on the desktop. This time, as they had already replaced the card, they generously replaced every single other component as they were not sure what exactly was causing it. From their tests after this, they confirmed that it was now working. I however got the system back and it is still exactly the same. It was after this that I tested my GTX1650 in another PC with the same version of Ubuntu, same nvidia drivers, which to me proves the card is not at fault.
It really depends what this computor company can offer me. Their terms understandably normally will not allow parts to be replaced with an alternative, but I think there has got to be some problem with the combination of the parts. As the motherboard seems to work ok with an ATI (now AMD) graphics card, and my good graphics card works well with another computer. I really don't see how this can be the case, but could it really be that my new motherboard doesn't like Linux and Nvidia? Not convinced at all, especially since my computer company has reported issues both times they got a part or the whole system back...
The expensive option that I don’t have enough evidence that it would work would be buying an AMD card that is at least as good as my GTX1650. But I would need some advice on how well AMD is supported in Linux. The other option would be replacing my motherboard. This will be tough for me as I had my PC custom built as I’m not experienced at all with building computers, and with the compact case I have, it will be a real fiddle to do, and I don’t even know for certain what the issue is yet.
There are several other things I have tried:
- Changing the input devices such as my mouse and keyboard
- Changing monitors (such as 2 monitors at once) and the cables used
- Clean install of the operating system on many different drives
None of this has made a difference, and I don’t know how many more times I should return it to the retailer.
At this rate, I feel I will be stuck like this for over a year. I’m just so confused as to what this is. I’ve mostly recently been using this basic ATI card as even though it overheats sometimes, at least I can predict when that happens. The unpredictable performance with Nvidia cards is just infuriating even though they are clearly capable of handling the content, just not consistently.
Would much appreciate some help, though it may be tricky for you to work out the issue!
Thanks.
