Roll20 Maxing Out AMD Radeon RX 7700S GPU on Linux

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
1

Hey,

I’m experiencing an unusual performance issue with Roll20 on my Fedora Linux system. The AMD Radeon RX 7700S is being 100% utilized when running Roll20 in Chrome, which seems excessive. On Windows, I didn’t encounter this problem and could even run the application primarily through the CPU.

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System Details:

  • OS: Fedora Linux 41 (Silverblue)
  • Kernel: Linux 6.13.5-200.fc41.x86_64
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS @ 5.14 GHz
  • GPUs:
    • AMD Radeon RX 7700S (Discrete)
    • AMD Radeon 780M (Integrated)
  • Display:
    • LS49C95xU: 5120x1440 @ 60 Hz in 49"
    • BOE0BC9: 2560x1600 @ 165 Hz (as 2048x1280) in 16"
  • BIOS: 03.05

Questions/Seeking Advice:

  1. Has anyone else experienced similar GPU load with Roll20 on Linux?
  2. Are there any Chrome or GPU settings I can adjust to reduce GPU utilization?
  3. Potential workarounds to offload more processing to the CPU?

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

2

As I understand it – and take this with a grain of salt, I’ve only heard it from a long-time Linux-using friend, I have no knowledge of it myself – Chrome isn’t set up to use hardware acceleration under Linux, only under Windows. Firefox is set up to use hardware acceleration for Linux, but isn’t for Windows.

The last time I used the Roll20 site, maybe a couple years ago, it had stopped working with Firefox, so you might be stuck with that. :frowning: There may be some way to reduce the usage via software.

1 Like
3

True, Firefox seems to need a lot less performance. Unfortunately it doesn’t currently support WebApps :frowning:

But even with games, no matter how few system requirements they have, the load is always 100%; so I thought it might be a driver issue or something.

4

So I have now tried geekbench under fedora and have to realize that the CPU score has already dropped extremely; on arch it was much higher

5

Disable GPU acceleration, and you will be good.

This is very discussed into Chromium-based browsers, seems like they like to use “both GPU” by some reason.

6

If I switch this off, I can no longer use roll20 at all because it sounds as if I have 0,1 fps.

7

Can you try this?

So you are forcing Chrome to use certain GPU instead of “do whatever you find”

8

I always start chrome with the button “Launch using Discrete Graphics Card” when the graphics card is displayed, but this is a different bug. it also uses the correct graphics card, at least as far as I can see in the resources.

9

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Just tried using Brave, it works fine to me, as you can see, my dGPU is off.

What do you see at Chrome GPU flags? (chrome://gpu)

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10

I can’t test the dGPU right now, I’ll have to see if I can find an older kernel for Fedora 42 Silverblue to get it working again.

With Brafe I get the following message:

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and this is the load while I am in the browser:

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Apart from the fact that the fan is so loud that I certainly can’t play a round because I can’t hear anyone or they can’t hear me.

11

Seems like it’s not using GPU in your case, forcing CPU for everything.

Try enabling those flags (brave://flags), 1st will force GPU acceleration at unsupported systems. 2nd will use Vulkan

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12

By the way, if you wanna get rid of loud fans, I do the following at terminal:

sudo cpupower frequency-set -u 3.80GHz -g performance

This will force CPU to never use “Turbo” mode, keeping temps below 85C

1 Like
13

Yes, because of this problem: Graphics card not available

If I activate Override software rendering list Roll20 only displays a white page instead of the virtual table.

If I activate Vulcan:

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Back to the kernel Linux 6.13.5-200.fc41.x86_64 and the above mentioned Brave settings + Launch using Discrete Graphics Card is my load:

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14

Hmmm, that’s very strange.

If worth something, I had many problems between 6.11.+ and 6.13.+. I been forced to stay at 6.10.+ for a while, then jump to 6.14.0 (don’t go to 6.14.2 as they re-introduced back some problems)

15

I have also experienced roll20 in chromium using a lot of resources (under Bazzite). 97% of the iGPU , and very little of the dGPU. The cpu also runs between 76-80 degrees C at 28%, which is interesting. The fans go pretty hard too. Trying Brave didn’t change anything.

I will say that its hella responsive when its running. The 3d dice roll real smooth. But it would be nice if there was a middle ground or if the dGPU took a bit of the slack off the iGPU.

16

Have you ever tried to start the browser with the dGPU?

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17

So i’ve tried using the DRI_PRIME environment variable and it did not reduce the fans at all. However, I switched my power profile to ‘power-saver’, and the reduced wattage seems to keep the thermals to about 60-70c which is reasonable and fairly quiet (it also cuts out the dGPU and relies wholly on the iGPU). The screens color fidelity takes a little hit, bit its quite playable.

I have been considering undervolting the dGPU to see if I can finesse better thermals out of it being in the ‘balanced’ power-setting (and maybe to not drain the battery) but I have almost no experience doing that kind of thing.

18

Really, for me, it’s not working if I don’t have at least a balanced setting.