What is a good way to benchmark test a GPU in Linux?

vortexal@sopuli.xyz to Linux@lemmy.ml – 43 points –

Edit: I was able to run some benchmark tests, so I don't need help with this anymore, but after running the tests, I'm pretty sure my computer is having hardware issues. I don't really have any other options, though, so I just have to deal with it.

The computer I was using stopped working and I had to switch to a different computer but despite having a significantly better GPU, games are performing only slightly better. I want to benchmark test the GPU to see if it's a potential hardware problem or if something else is causing a bottleneck.

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First check if the games are using the GPU. I had an issue where everything would launch with integrated graphics only.

Actually, the computer only has integrated graphics because it's a laptop.

My laptop has two graphics cards lol but I totally get what you meant

Do they make laptops that have two GPUs or are you using an external GPU?

Bought a laptop with two pre built. Dedicated and a 1080ti it's not amazing but it does what I need it to do lol

I use the unigine benchmarks sometimes. unigine-heaven and unigine-superposition (which btw is just cool to watch in my opinion). They provide linux packages here https://benchmark.unigine.com/ , check your distributions repos too though, some include these too though it's rare. They are not open source, but games usually aren't either.

The phoronix one that someone else posted also looks cool, I'll have to try that one out next time I need something like this.

I tried to download unigine but I can't seem to figure out how to download it. I'm using Linux Mint and the only download option seems to be a .run file which doesn't seem to be executable in Mint. I also don't know how to look through the repositories and when I tried to install "unigine-heaven" in apt, it told me it couldn't find it in the repositories. So unless it's called something else when you install it through apt, I don't know how to download it.

Also, I did look into Phoronix but it only mentions that it benchmarks CPUs and not GPUs.

Did you gave execution permission to the file?

chmod +x yourfile.run

I'll have to tell you later, I'm trying to re-download it but it seems like my ISP is throttling my internet connection because Firefox is telling me that it's going to take an hour and a half to download, even though the first time only took a few minutes to download.

Ok that worked, as it turns out, the problem was that I've never used a .run file before and, at least from what I can tell, .run files are similar to .sh files.

Anyways, I've never really done benchmark tests before but I did play around with it a little. The settings I used was low graphics, full screened to the custom resolution of 1360x768 (the resolution of the monitor I use) and everything else was disabled. The frame rate ranged from 12 to 26 (or at least somewhere around that), does that seem good for an AMD Radeon R2 Graphics?

does that seem good for an AMD Radeon R2 Graphics?

about this I actually cannot help you, I understand almost nothing about this kind of benchmark, sorry

I seem to recall a browser test that sort of works.

glxgears and glmark2 are probably too basic.

Phoronix test thing maybe? https://github.com/phoronix-test-suite/phoronix-test-suite/

Do you know what the browser test is called or how to run it?

I didn't run glxgears and I did run glmark2 yesterday but I stopped it half way through. If I remember correctly, the frame rates from the test ranged from 80 to over 1000 fps depending on the test but I have no idea if that's good for the GPU or bad because I don't remember the results I got on my old computer. If someone knows GPUs well enough, my old GPU was an intel HD Graphics 3000 and the GPU in this computer is an AMD Radeon R2 Graphics.

Also, I looked into Phoronix but it looks like it just benchmarks CPUs.

I did find it but it is just a VSYNC test thing. Not sure how to diagnose these things. The only time I had major issues was when I installed the wrong drivers, so user error. Maybe the distro you're using has an IRC or Matrix chat room that would be willing to help out?

I'm using Linux Mint and I'm just using the drivers that were preinstalled by the distro. If it's possible that Mint installed the wrong drivers somwhow, I wouldn't know where to look to get help with that.

It might be using the integrated GPU...

Try and install lshw and run sudo lshw -numeric -C display and give us the output.

Edit...

Or glxinfo | grep "OpenGL vendor|OpenGL renderer"

I just tried glxinfo but it didn't do anything and unless it's called something else, apt can't locate the package.

I think it is in the mesa-utils package but that doesn't matter...your other answer provided some more info

It is using the integrated GPU, it's a laptop that only has an integrated GPU. Also, lshw is having the same problem it had with my old computer, where it doesn't seem to list the right clock speed and just says it's running at 33Mhz. I know this is wrong because on my old computer, other software would state the clock speed was much higher. But another thing I'm noticing that's wrong is the GPU is listed as an R3 when the GPU is actually an R2, so unless they share drivers, It's possible that Mint (I'm using Linux Mint) installed the wrong drivers.

  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Mullins [Radeon R3 Graphics] [1002:9850]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] [1002]
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
       logical name: /dev/fb0
       version: 40
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom fb
       configuration: depth=32 driver=radeon latency=0 resolution=1366,768
       resources: irq:38 memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f07fffff ioport:4000(size=256) memory:f0d00000-f0d3ffff memory:c0000-dffff

I was kinda hoping I'd see something obvious but I am not a great troubleshooter, more of try things to see what works...

You can still use the Phoronix thing for testing the GPU:

But perhaps something else is interfering.

What does sudo apt list --installed | grep -i radeon show?

Unigine-heaven was available by itself and it worked but I've never benchmark tested anything before. The settings I used was low graphics, full screened to the custom resolution of 1360x768 (the resolution of the monitor I use) and everything else was disabled. The frame rate ranged from 12 to 26 (or at least somewhere around that), does that seem good for an AMD Radeon R2 Graphics?

Also that command returns this: `WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

libdrm-radeon1/jammy-updates,now 2.4.113-2~ubuntu0.22.04.1 amd64 [installed] xserver-xorg-video-radeon/jammy-updates,now 1:19.1.0-2ubuntu1 amd64 [installed] `

🤷‍♂️ all I can say is the drivers are installed.

Perhaps there is a Xorg option that needs to be modified or set a kernel parameter. Sorry I can't help anymore.

Even though it is Mint, the advice on the ArchWiki might help you out.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU#Loading says that it should use the amdgpu driver so that is something to look into.

Good luck!

Honestly your best bet is probably to use a game with a built-in benchmark over Steam. That way you get numbers that are somewhat comparable to the ones from public sources (game review sites/videos).
I don't know why there isn't a proper tool like 3DMark for Linux systems.

When you say "built-in benchmark over Steam" what does that mean? If that is a common thing, I have a steam account but I've never really used it before as I get pretty much all of my games from itch.

Sorry, what I really meant was over Proton. So, installing a game like Shadow of the Tomb Raider that have a built-in benchmark and run it via Proton.

Oh ok, but on top of the fact that I can't run that game, I don't really need help anymore. I've already determined that I'm pretty sure that my GPU is having hardware problems.

I use this, but more as a stress test instead of actually checking performance. https://www.geeks3d.com/gputest/

Ok, I tried that but is it just supposed to display a triangle? It also didn't have a GUI, is that only in the MacOS version of the app or am I supposed to run the .py file? If I'm to run the .py file, that is something I don't know how to do.

There's a bunch of benchmarks you can run apart from the triangle, like Furmark which render a more complex scene. I've only used the shell scripts, no idea what the python script does.

you can run furmark in wine if you're trying to compare with windows performance

Forcing Cyberpunk to abnormal resolutions with (I honestly forgot the command name -- haven't used it since a while). That'll make your GPU cry a bit.