Arc A380 - lowering idle power consumption via ASPM in a Linux system

[sleeper52]

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5900x

MB: Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming WiFi II

OS: Proxmox 8.0.4 (Linux pve 6.2.16-12-pve)

GPU: ASRock A380 Challenger ITX

I am trying to configure my Proxmox server for maximum power efficiency. I am especially trying to lower the power consumption on idle. I have read this post on configuring ASPM to L1 to lower the idle power consumption on Windows machines. I am trying to the same on my Proxmox server but it is indicating that ASPM for the A380 is disabled.

kristian@pve:~$ sudo dmesg | grep ASPM
[    0.988560] acpi PNP0A08:00: _OSC: OS supports [ExtendedConfig ASPM ClockPM Segments MSI EDR HPX-Type3]
[    1.002169] pci 0000:09:00.0: ASPM: overriding L1 acceptable latency from 0x0 to 0x7
kristian@pve:~$ sudo lspci -vv | awk '/ASPM/{print $0}' RS= | grep --color -P '(^[a-z0-9:.]+|ASPM )'
...
09:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation DG2 [Arc A380] (rev 05) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Exit Latency L0s <64ns, L1 <1us
                LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes, Disabled- CommClk-
...

These are my BIOS settings:

PSS Support	Enabled
CPU PCIE ASPM Mode Control	L0s And L1 Entry	Other options: Auto, L0s Entry, L1 Entry
ErP Ready	Enable(S4+S5)
ASPM Support	Auto	Other options: Force L0s
PM L1 SS	Auto	other options: L1.1, L1.2, L1.1_L1.2
Ai Overclock Tuner	DOCP (1.35V DRAM Voltage)
AMD Overclocking\ECO Mode	Eco-Mode (65W)
Curve Optimizer All Core Curve Optimizer Sign All Core Curve Optimizer Magnitude	All Cores Negative 30
Precision Boost Overdrive PBO Limits PPT Limit TDC Limit EDC Limit Precision Boost Overdrive Scalar	Advanced Manual 87 60 90 Auto
CPU Boost Clock Override	Enabled (Negative)
Max CPU Boost Clock Override(-)	250
Power Supply Idle Control	Low Current Idle
EfficiencyModeEn	Enabled
DF Cstates	Enabled
Global C-state Control	Enabled
IOMMU	Enabled
CPPC	Enabled
CPPC Preferred Cores	Enabled

How do I enable ASPM on the A380 on my system?

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

Thank you for posting on the Intel®️ communities. I know how important is for your to enable ASPM  for your Intel® Arc™ A380 Graphics, I am more than happy to help you.  

I will start with an investigation of your request, as soon I have the information I will let you know

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[sleeper52]

I appreciate the help.

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

Thank you for your time and patience.

We have been working on the investigation, firstly I want to let you know that our Linux drivers only support Ubuntu Operating System (OS).

However, the first point to determine here is that the ASPM status can be 'OS Controlled ASPM' or 'BIOS controlled ASPM' depending on BIOS support.

We do not support BIOS configuration as we are not familiar with every motherboard vendor's implementation. Since the OS is reporting ASPM as disabled you should check this with the motherboard manufacturer.

Perhaps the motherboard does not support the OS used.

For now, we will close this thread. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

Before we close this thread, please let me know if you received any response from the motherboard manufacturer, or let me know if you still need assistance.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[sleeper52]

Hello Andres,

Thanks for getting back to me. I chose not to contact the motherboard manufacturer because I am using a modified version of their BIOS which unlocks more BIOS settings including ASPM (although their latest official BIOS already unlocks the ASPM setting by default). That said, I do hope you guys at Intel will continue to work on Linux support (particularly Debian and Debian based distros like Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Linux Mint) as several homeserver/homelab users are buying your lower end Arc graphics cards (ie. A380 and A310) for powering Virtual Machines and gpu hardware acceleration support for transcoding (particularly for Plex and AV1 support). I doubt if people actually buy these two cards for gaming. Here's hoping a new Linux kernel in the future will help reduce idle power consumption.

Regards,

Kristian

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

Thank you for keeping me informed.

Let me check what I can do for you in this case, I will continue with the investigation to check if there is something else we can do, besides referring you to contact the Motherboard manufacturer.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

Thank you for your wait time.

I have been working on the investigation to check if there are more options besides contacting the mother manufacturer.

In this case, I understand that you are using a modified version of their BIOS and that is the reason why you did not contact them before, but right now the only option available is to contact them for further support.

Thank you for your understanding, and let me know if you have further questions.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[sleeper52]

Hi Andres,

Sorry for the late reply. I will try contacting the motherboard manufacturer a go and see what they say. Thanks.

Regards,

Kristian

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

Thank you for your response.

I will wait the motherboard manufacturer answer, please keep me informed.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

Did you receive any answer from the motherboard manufacturer?

Let us know if you still need assistance.    

Best regards,   

Andres P.   

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello sleeper52,

We have not heard back from you, so we will close this thread. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.  

Best regards, 

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Major-Mayer]

Sorry for digging out this old thread, but it fit's too well to my case.

I am also using a ASUS board (https://www.asus.com/de/motherboards-components/motherboards/prime/prime-a320m-k/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=PRIME-A320M-K) and recently got an A380 card.

After a UEFI update, I also discovered the new "CPU PCIE ASPM Mode Control" and set it "L0s And L1 Entry".
From there on, I thought that ASPM will now be active and was further convinced by the following log (which look identical to the ones from OP):

dmesg | grep ASPM
[    0.627315] acpi PNP0A08:00: _OSC: OS supports [ExtendedConfig ASPM ClockPM Segments MSI HPX-Type3]
[    0.638165] pci 0000:0a:00.0: ASPM: overriding L1 acceptable latency from 0x0 to 0x7

With my rudimentary testing i measured a power decrease of about 10w when idling, but this is not very precise, since I am only using a standard wall meter and the whole system draw is measured.

But now that i read in the answer from Andres that "[...] the OS is reporting ASPM as disabled [...]" I am confused if ASPM is actually active or if I am missing some UEFI/ OS configuration.
Can you maybe help me out with that?

I have an unmodified UEFI, so I could contact ASUS if necessary (not sure if they would respond/ update anythingt tho).