Processors
Intel® Processors, Tools, and Utilities
14402 Discussions

Lag on videos with an i5-10400 on Ubuntu 20.04

Maniack_Crudelis
3,232 Views

Hi

I've recently bought an i5-10400 with a mother board ASRock H410M/AC and 8 Go DDR4 2400 MHz CL14 to build a HTPC on Kubuntu 20.04 and a TV 4K LG as the only screen.
I do not have any other graphic card that could interfere.
And Kubuntu is up to date.

I already turned off on the TV options such as TruMotion, Auto Low Latency Mode and AV Sync Adjustement to prevent the TV messing with the video signal.
And I turned off all enhancement provided by the TV, which are, for most of them, not available anyway for a HDMI 1.4 signal.

Yet, every time I try to play a video with the resolution set at 3840x2160 I encounter a lot of lags, like frames are missing every 1 or 2 seconds. It feels like the GPU can't process everything on time and so drops some frames to catch up.

For the purpose of debug, I made some tests with 2 movies in different configurations.
I used a 1080 movie encoded with x264 and a 4k HDR encoded with x265 played with VLC from the local SSD.

Results are the same with both files:
- With the resolution set at 1080@60, both movies play perfectly and smoothly with no lag visible.
- With the resolution set at 2160@30, both movies are clearly out of sync and lag every 1 or 2 seconds.
- With the resolution set at 2160@24, the synchronization is good but I still lost frames the same way than before at 30Hz. While it's more obvious on the 4k video, it happens also on the 1080 one.

I monitored the hardware while playing the 4k HDR x265 movie with the resolution set at 2160@24 and didn't notice everything alarming considering what I was asking.

With intel_gpu_top, I got 'Render/3D' at 90%, never over it. And 'Video' at 25%.
While the CPU was at 0.8 of load average and the RAM at 2 out of 7Go.

Considering I intentionally played a 4K HDR movie to stress the hardware for the benchmark, but VLC is quite compliant in the exercise. I usually play 1080 or 4k movies with kodi or 1080 with netflix over Firefox and it's just not bearable to watch movies with the resolution set to 2160.
On YouTube, the same problem occurs, that's not possible to watch a video with that resolution.

 

I've searched all over the web without finding anything to solve that issue.
And I'm finally quite disappointed since the point of having that processor was to play 4K video...

 

Thanks in advance for any help you could provide.

0 Kudos
1 Solution
Maniack_Crudelis
3,117 Views

Well... OK

But really that website 01.org looks really like something for hardcore dev on the matter. Can't see what I can do with it... Even the "community" part is clearly dev oriented.
The only thing I found, as said before, was an old discontinued tool to update the driver that is not supposed to be used anymore.

I mean, the documentation is gibberish for me https://01.org/sites/default/files/documentation/intel-gfx-bspec-osrc-cml-configurations.pdf
And the I can't get an once of the bug tracker https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues

Also I'm not sure what to do with a Wi-Fi Linux community for a graphical issue with a processor !?

 

To be honest I'm really disappointed, I've bought an intel proc because intel is supposed to be into it about Linux drivers.

I'll just give up and hope for a providential update that will maybe fix something...
Or more probably buy a nvidia graphic card to make it work...

 

Thanks anyway for your time.

View solution in original post

0 Kudos
9 Replies
Alberto_Sykes
Employee
3,186 Views

Maniack_Crudelis, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.


For this specific scenario, just to let you know, we will try to reproduce this scenario in our Intel® Lab, for us to be able to do that, please provide the SSU report so we can verify further details about the components in your platform, please check all the options in the report including the one that says "3rd party software logs":

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-?product=91600


In the meantime, I can see on ASRock's web site that there is a recent BIOS update release, version 1.30, please get in contact directly with them to gather the instructions of how to update the BIOS to the latest version to confirm if the issue persists after the update, once you get the chance, please let us know the results:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H410Mac/index.asp#BIOS

http://www.asrock.com/support/


Any questions, please let me know.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


0 Kudos
Maniack_Crudelis
3,183 Views

Hi Albert

Thanks for answering.

Just saw the linux version of the SSU, I'll run it right away.

And thanks for pointing out the last release for my motherboard, last time I checked it was still the first release.

Get back to you in a little while.

0 Kudos
Maniack_Crudelis
3,172 Views

After the update of the BIOS to 1.30, it's clearly better, especially on Netflix at 2160@24, which was awful before.

But while playing the local movies, with VLC and Kodi, the issue's still there while maybe a little bit less than before.

I tried again with both the 1080 and the 4k files and the issue is still there, at 24, 25 or 30Hz.

Yet, need to be said I guess, since a few days, 1080@24, 1080@25, 1080@50 are working fine while it wasn't before (the screen was over saturated somehow, hard to explain) and the movies are playing very nice at 1080@24 .

Seems to be since those recent upgrades:
- linux-image-5.4.0-64.72-generic
- xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.9-2ubuntu1.2~20.04.1
- xserver-xorg-legacy 2:1.20.9-2ubuntu1.2~20.04.1
- xserver-common 2:1.20.9-2ubuntu1.2~20.04.1
- linux-firmware 1.187.8

0 Kudos
Alberto_Sykes
Employee
3,162 Views

Maniack_Crudelis, You are very welcome, thank you very much for providing that information and the SSU report.


Let me apologize that I gave you the wrong link for the SSU, I meant to send you the one for Linux*, I am glad that you were able to find it.


"After the update of the BIOS to 1.30, it's clearly better", perfect, it is great to hear that there was an improvement in the performance of your computer after the BIOS update to version 1.30. That is very important because it confirms that the problem is not related to the Intel® Graphics controller or the Intel® driver, it seems to be related to a different component. 


We always recommend to install the graphics driver provided by the manufacturer of the computer, since that driver was customized by them to work with your specific platform. The Intel® Graphics drivers are generic, meaning they might or might not work with your system.


After reviewing the case, just to let you know, we were looking for the drivers provided and validated by AsRock to try to replicate the issue in our Intel® Lab, but the thing is that after checking their web site the only Operating System validated by them is actually Windows* 10, as you can confirm here:

https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/H410Mac/index.asp#Download


The drivers that we have available on our web site are also tested and validated for Windows* and for that reason, we will not be able to replicate the issue in our Intel® Lab:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/126790/Intel-UHD-Graphics-630


There are different kernel versions for Linux and based on that there are also many different drivers versions, to look for Graphics drivers for Linux, you can always visit the following web site:

https://01.org/


Or you can also get in contact directly with ASRock support, which actually will be the best option in this specific case, for them to confirm if the board is fully compatible with Linux*, to get the proper drivers tested and validated by them, to check if there are firmware or more BIOS updates on their board and for further suggestions, technical assistance and a possible solution on this matter:

http://www.asrock.com/support/


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


0 Kudos
Maniack_Crudelis
3,158 Views

Hi Albert

01.org seems to have discontinued their tool to update to a newer version of the driver.

https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/update-tool

And I'm not sure there's anything else to expect from that site. Note that I'm really not sure ! The only thing I found was a PDF about comet lake processors which is clearly not intended for final users like me.

 

I'm not really expecting asrock to provide any drivers for Linux, I've never seen a specific driver for a motherboard for Linux.

 

So the only solution would be from the version of the driver built for my current kernel ?
Unfortunately, I can't easily upgrade to a newer version of the kernel, aside of what is already given by my Ubuntu version.
Currently, looks like my driver is /lib/modules/5.4.0-64-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko, so the kernel 5.4.0-64

I did try previously with Ubuntu 20.10 (so a newer kernel) without any better results though.

Is there anything that could be done from xorg options ?
I did play with some options, especially TripleBuffer, TearFree and AccelMethod but it was actually worse on my tests...
However, I've no idea what those options are supposed to do with that driver. Couldn't find any proper documentation for this driver.

0 Kudos
Alberto_Sykes
Employee
3,143 Views

Hi Maniack_Crudelis, Thank you very much for letting us know those details.


In order to try to further assist you with this topic, we will do further research on this matter, as soon as I get any updates I will post all the details on this thread.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


0 Kudos
Alberto_Sykes
Employee
3,121 Views

Hello Maniack_Crudelis, I just received an update on this matter.


In this specific case, for Linux* support that is the only option that we currently have: 

https://01.org/


Or additionally, as an alternative, you can always visit the Intel® Wi-Fi Linux community page for further assistance on this subject:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/wireless.html


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


0 Kudos
Maniack_Crudelis
3,118 Views

Well... OK

But really that website 01.org looks really like something for hardcore dev on the matter. Can't see what I can do with it... Even the "community" part is clearly dev oriented.
The only thing I found, as said before, was an old discontinued tool to update the driver that is not supposed to be used anymore.

I mean, the documentation is gibberish for me https://01.org/sites/default/files/documentation/intel-gfx-bspec-osrc-cml-configurations.pdf
And the I can't get an once of the bug tracker https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues

Also I'm not sure what to do with a Wi-Fi Linux community for a graphical issue with a processor !?

 

To be honest I'm really disappointed, I've bought an intel proc because intel is supposed to be into it about Linux drivers.

I'll just give up and hope for a providential update that will maybe fix something...
Or more probably buy a nvidia graphic card to make it work...

 

Thanks anyway for your time.

0 Kudos
Reply