Performance issues. Time to try Linux?

[Drbretto]

I have a fairly beefy PC and this game is not running as fast as it should be. It's not using all of the resources, so there's nothing in particular that it's being bottlenecked by. No individual core goes above 40% usage. I have 16 gigs of ram and have tried allocating anywhere from 2-12 gigs with no difference. I upgraded my processor to a new one with the same number of cores but is a direct speed increase with zero difference in performance. SSD, set highest priorities, tried setting affinities, I've gone through every single possible setting, including all optifine settings. I tried modded and unmodded, 1.7.10 and 1.10.2. With textures and without. Short view distances, extremely long view distances. Everything.

This game is simply underperforming. And it stutters, and I can't even keep it over 25FPS with shaders, and from my googlings, people with lesser hardware were getting 60FPS.

1) Has anyone here ever successfully run minecraft with SEUS at a steady 30+ FPS? If so, what are your specs?
2) Do you think that Linux would make a difference? I've never used Linux, but I'm sure I can figure it out.
3) Any recommendation on which version would be best? Assuming the Linux install is exclusively to run Minecraft.

I do not intend to give up on this any time soon. I will do anything it takes, within reason, to play the game smoothly with SEUS and preferably 128x textures (which, I'm not seeing much difference in frame rate between 128x and 16x textures, so something is totally broken somewhere).

TL;DR is bolded

 

[Drbretto]

Here's evidence of someone running 128x chroma hills with SEUS at acceptable frame rates with lesser hardware:

According to the notes, that's a 3.1Ghz i5 compared to my 4.0ghz i7. GTX 660 vs my r9 390

He's getting 40-50 FPS, 30 while recording. I'm getting 15-25 while not recording.

And here's a PC with similar specs (literally the same processor, AMD equivalent graphics card)

 

[Alexiy]

I can only answer second question - I'm playing on Linux and my framerate is locked at 60 FPS (game settings can't affect it), moreover, my PC uses Core i3's integrated graphics chip. I haven't tried playing with shaders, but as a general rule, you will get less from your graphics card on Linux than on Windows.
What is important is to determine what is the bottleneck - CPU or GPU.

 

[Drbretto]

The problem is, it's neither. It's just not using either to the fullest. It's a 4Ghz i7 and a AMD R9 390. It should look like that second video I posted, but I'd be happy with a steady 30 FPS.

 

[Alexiy]

OK.
Do you have a program which can show percentage of graphics card load?

 

[Drbretto]

Yeah, I downloaded something calls GPU-Z to check on it. It spikes for a second here and there as I move around, but mostly sits at 0% when idle.

It bears repeating, though, that even on a fresh vanilla game with no mods at all still sin't getting the kind of FPS I should be getting. And that should be all on the CPU.

 

[Henry Link]

Have you tried changing the java settings? The stuttering could be caused by the Java garbage collector kicking in.

 

[Henry Link]

Take a look at this article: https://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeast/comments/5jhuk9/modded_mc_and_memory_usage_a_history_with_a/ It might help.

 

[Drbretto]

When you say Java settings, are you referring to general settings in Java itself, or do you mean the command line stuff when running minecraft? The answer is neither, really, but I'm making sure of the distinction. I have run all of this from the curse client. Either loading my heavily modded profile or creating brand new ones just for testing. The only setting in there I've changed is the memory allocation.

I will read every line of that link throughout my work day and see if any of that helps. It looks like it might help with stuttering, but I'm not sure it'll help the initial frame rate issue. Worth a shot either way, though!

Edit: I'm going to try Linux tonight either way, though. Just because it will eliminate so many variables without having to actually wipe my whole PC.

 

[Henry Link]

Yes... the command line stuff. And there is a couple of issue to be aware of with the curse client. Unless you change some settings is uses a built in version of java 8_25. Current java is 8_121 I think So big gap there. So I would start by settings for curse and select minecraft and set the radio button for "Jar Launcher" and make sure the java version is set for "Always Latest Version". Also down at the bottom of that screen is line where you can type in additional java (command line stuff) in.

 

[Drbretto]

OK, I'll check all that stuff out before doing anything too drastic first. I miiight have set it to always use latest version already, but there were some command line things to add in that ling you provided, so I can try those first.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Here's the thing... first off, if you use the curse launcher, you can't run linux because Curse Launcher is windows only. It is, in fact, the *ONLY* launcher not compatible with Linux, because of how the Curse launcher was created and all the various games it is designed to interact with. Personally, I find it a bit silly, but that's just me.

Second off, Linux is more efficient at many things, but these efficiencies are not going to really be seen in this instance. Sure, it runs on a tenth of the resources compared to Win10, far less 7 or 8, but at the level you are operating at, that isn't impacting anything. It doesn't matter if your OS requires 2GB or 256MB to operate when you've got 32GB RAM to play with, you've still got tons of reserves left untapped.

 

[Inaeo]

One other thing to note, Curse adds crap to the Java arguments no matter what. You can cut it out, but it adds it back. You can input the string you saw on that Reddit (it has helped me a fair bit, personally), but the anything you input that conflicts with what Curse wants in there will be overwritten. Worse, Curse has a nasty habit of forgetting your arguments every time you boot it up, causing you to have to manually input them each time you load your profile.

The way around that it to use Curse to build and edit packs, but launch them from something more lightweight and reliable (MultiMC has been a dream so far for me). The Curse launcher has advantages, but actually playing Minecraft isn't one of them.

 

[Drbretto]

Here's the thing with this. And, just for the record I'm officially done with it first the day, and I haven't gotten to anything I'm the Henry Link link yet. I will, I was just busy with some other leads first.

But, I'm not talking about moving it to Linux because Linux is slightly more efficient that Windows. I'm saying that unless the videos on the internet from other people running SEUS are completely faked, there is something majorly wrong here, and the next step would have been to reinstall Windows in hopes it would fix whatever is broken. Installing Linux would be in lieu of reinstalling Windows.


I absolutely will go through and add those things to the launcher, but I'm not looking for a tweak here. I'm looking for the thing that's blocking the cog somewhere that's messed up every version of Java Minecraft I've ever run on this PC. Either something is completely brokenly off, or every YouTube video of people running SEUS at decent, smooth frame rates is faked. Which I have not ruled out.

I had a glimmer of hope today when someone suggested that Minecraft was trying to run through an on board GPU this whole time, but it doesn't look like I have an integrated GPU at all. There's nothing else in the device manager but my R9 390, and the game does move the needle on the GPU when it's running, just averages out at around 60% GPU load.

I built this PC out of parts. It is entirely possible I never properly set something up one time when I first installed Windows, or something. But then again, everything else works great.

This is incredibly frustrating, though. Running Minecraft smoothly with shaders and mods has been my white whale since the first time I saw them. That and the server thing that was also a total nightmare.

 

[Henry Link]

The one this will say about linux is that you can't beat it for running a server. I've been renting a Ubuntu dedicated box for years now. The PC I play on is windows based will most likely will stay that way. But I would never run a minecraft server on windows.

 

[McJty]

I got a significant (around 10%) speed increase playing Minecraft when switching from windows to linux (same computer).

Note that Minecraft is not GPU heavy so gpu driver issues are typically not an issue.

When playing with shaders the situation may be different though

 

[Drbretto]

I do believe the shaders make use of the GPU, but I agree it's not likely a GPU issue either. Even without shaders I should be getting superhuman Fps and what I'm getting is doable on a $450 laptop from 2012.

I have the day off. There's a few things to be done, then this will be my singular focus thereafter, and the gets resolved today. Starting with Linux, and launching Minecraft manually with the right arguments or whatever they're called.

 

[Drbretto]

Think I might have it.

Someone suggested I might be getting throttled due to overheating. I just stuffed an external fan right into the case and ran it cold. It did boost my performance a bit. But it's hitting 100° still. This may literally be my issue. That and bringing the draw distance down a bit, but that was obvious.

 

[Drbretto]

YES! CPU heat sink fan was blocked by its own cables. I'm getting 60 fps with shaders at 24 chunks draw distance!

It's so gorgeous! Lol

 

[Henry Link]

@Drbretto Congrats on finding the issue.