3d Nvidia Settings

[Clara Zellinger]

Outsidemy area of expertise, but the various write-up on how to control the fan under Linux one can find on the internet typically state that you need to enable cool bits first before you are able to set fan speed with nvidia-settings. I see different idioms being used. A fairly common one seems to be

While I believe Cool-bits=4 enables fan speed editing, Cool-bits 28 works as well.

However the gui is needed for that.

I guess I was hoping someone could post a terminal command, to modify fanspeed.

We need a headless (terminal based) variety of nvidia-xsessions at the deep learning and folding community.

For which value you want for coolbits, I referred to this ArchLinux wiki article so add these up as you wish (each being a different bit in a binary number), but for fan control you only need 4 (bit 2).

GPUFanControlState (boolean)

GPUTargetFanSpeed (integer)

GPUCurrentFanSpeed (read-only)

GPUResetFanSpeed (??? - no information on query, might always reset the speed to zero when set? No clue.)

GPUCurrentFanSpeedRPM (read-only)

GPUFanControlType (read-only)

GPUFanTarget (read-only)

Now the problem that I am facing is that this work on the system with GUI using a terminal there but if I connect to the machine via SSH I cannot run those commands, I am not sure what I am missing, this is the error I am getting:

nvidia-settings is a graphical application. attempting to run it, even from just the command line, over SSH from a local to a remote machine, is likely to try to connect with the x-server in the remote machine.

I have not been able to get mobo on-board graphics to work - the mobo will not POST. I know this should be simple - the ASUS desktop mobo BIOS I am stuck with is stupidly complex (gamer heaven for tweaking perhaps, but useless for an enterprise). I will experiment further, although I have to be there in person to recover from a non-post state. I have instead connected an HDMI display to GPU:1

sudo nvidia-settings -q all

sudo nvidia-settings -q gpus

sudo nvidia-settings -q screens

sudo nvidia-settings -q framlocks

sudo nvidia-settings -q fans

sudo nvidia-settings -q thermalsesors

sudo nvidia-settings -q svps

sudo nvidia-settings -q dpys

sudo nvidia-settings -q anyting-you-like

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP102 [GeForce GTX 1080 Ti] [10de:1b06] (rev a1)

Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd GP102 [GeForce GTX 1080 Ti] [1458:374c]

Kernel driver in use: nvidia

Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] [10de:1b80] (rev a1)

Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] [1043:85aa]

Kernel driver in use: nvidia

Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

If you just want access to the cards via command line and have a dummy X server on that machines local display (basically blank with no desktop manager) and then control the settings remotely. This might not be all the details, but it should be enough to get you on the right track. You must have a display attached to at least one card.

After that if you want it to automatically create the dummy on reboot then

create a script that starts with the following or pick what you need. This isnt my actual script. Just snippets here as an example

On the Nvidia GPU I use the EDID file from a DELL-S2330MX which is a 1920x1080 monitor. You can also add that to the rest of the GPUs if needed.

( NOTE: you can use nvidia-settings to dump your own EDID files if the monitor is currently connected to an nvidia card or other methods posted online )

The following settings have helped squeeze some extra performance out of Second Life. I had first tested this on a 2016 Razer Blade laptop using an external GTX 1080. The performance went from barely getting 22 frames to 60 (I set a frame cap) setting the graphics slider midway between high and ultra in Firestorm. Your mileage may vary but overall you should see a moderate boost to framerate with these settings.

I have been playing with a 1080 eGPU (Thunderbolt 3) and surprised by the lack of performance in SL as well, weirdly testing with a 1060 seemed to yield better performance so I have been wondering if there was anything specific with the driver settings for the 1080 I should be aware of.

With TPVs providing a frame limiter (not just V-sync like LL's), you should keep all forms of vertical sync (V-sync, G-sync, FreeSync) OFF, and use the viewer frame limiter instead (it will cause less stutter in frame rates, in particular, and with the Cool VL Viewer it will reduce your rezzing time).

I understand the benefits to keeping the sync off, however I do so primarily for managing thermals. My blade never ran hot which for a slim gaming laptop is preferred over letting the GPU run full tilt. I am curious about why it would reduce Rez times in the Cool VL viewer in particular.

This is why you should never, ever use Vsync (or Gsync, or FreeSync: those are slightly better since more fine-grained, but will still cause stutter at low fps rates), when the viewer offers a frame limiting of its own: your thermals will be just as good with the latter as with Vsync, but without stuttering issues.

A proper frame rate limiter instead sleeps the CPU after everything it could do during that frame has been done, and only when there is some time left before the next frame needs to be rendered (thus respecting the frame rate limitation you impose to it).

Still no dice. I tried all your settings and It works but... it's just not 1080 performance hehe, it should be a lot faster. I've DDU'd the drivers multiple times now trying different versions but I'm struggling to hit a consistent 30fps in most sims. Something isn't right but I cannot work out what it is.

It's not the card, I've been running benchmarks etc and it's performing exactly as a 1080 should over TB3 in everything else I test. I have been testing a bunch of cards lately and prior to this had a 1060 6GB in the dock that was better than this 1080 in Firestorm, I will try a fresh installation tonight to see if it makes any difference (doubt it) but I'm out of options.

For what it is also worth: I find the frame rate limiter that is built into Firestorm is bugged but... I've never seen anyone else comment on this so I wonder if there's something broken in my own installation.

I find the frame rate limiter in Firestorm limits my frame rate to half of what is indicated. If I set it to 60fps then my frame rate is limited to 30fps, seems to be exactly half for all values set. If I want a 60fps cap I would have to set it to 120fps.

This is just the Firestorm frame rate limiter (in Rendering tab of Graphics Preferences, I think). The frame rate limiter in the Nvidia control panel functions exactly as it should. To this end whenever I have wanted a frame limit I have just used the Nvidia control panel one.

I will, I noticed it a while ago now but I'd never seen anyone else mention it so I figured it might have been something to do with my specific hardware configuration but I've noticed it is consistent. I'll JIRA it, maybe it's just a bug and nobody cares since nobody bothered to try the frame rate limiter? seems unlikely but you never know!

Best advice for smoothness, get your frame rate locked at your monitor's refresh rate. I don't think G-sync and Freesync work if the application is not full screen. Unless something changed that I don't know about. If you want it smooth turn down your settings enough that the frame rate is well above your monitor (usually 60fps) and then limit your FPS.

Not quite - how it seems to work is the frame rate limiter only has a small number of meaningful values, e.g. i find that setting it anywhere between 35fps and 60fps caps at about 30fps, and setting it anywhere between 65fps and 105fps caps at about 60fps.

So rather than allowing you to enter an arbitrary number for frame rate cap, it would be better if Firestorm allowed the user to select a frame rate cap value from the list of actual possible options.

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