path: root/guides/sysadmin/machines/amdahl30/killing-time.org

On November 19 2024, LDLC's off-brand SSD died on me.  RIP.
Re-installed Tumbleweed on the replacement (Kingston SA400S3) on
November 28.

Since then, I have been getting uncannily reproducible stuttering and
frame drops (60↘40±10) in Hades Ⅱ when moving toward effect- or
particle-heavy sub-areas of the hub rooms (e.g. toward the Cauldron at
the Crossroads, or toward the Silver Pool in the Training Grounds).
No idea WTF, those areas ran fine before.

- "High" graphics setting at native 1920×1080 resolution.
  - Tried "Low" graphics, lowered resolution, disabled vsync, switched
    to Windowed mode: symptoms persist.
- Proton Experimental.
  - Tried a couple of old Proton versions: symptoms persist.
- Reinstalled game & nuked everything under
  - =~/.cache/mesa_shader_cache*=
  - =~/.cache/radv_builtin_shaders*=
  - =~/.config/unity3d=
  - =~/.local/share/Steam=
  - =~/.local/share/vulkan/=
  - =~/.steam*=
  in case "stale shaders" were to blame or something.
- Tumbleweed/Plasma/Wayland session.
  - Tried X11: symptoms persist.
- Reducing noise with
  - ~balooctl6 suspend~
  - ~swapoff -a~ (RAM nowhere near exhausted)

Well then.
* CPU frequency scaling?
(Hey 👋 A warning: this was the first rabbit hole I burrowed into.
Spoiler alert: nothing I learned here solved the problem.  Chronicled
the journey anyway since I wandered through interesting spots)

The Plasma "Power Management" tray widget says "Power Profile" is "Not
available".  Not sure whether that was the case with the previous
installation; maybe I had something configured or installed to enable
this?

Internet says "install and enable power-profiles-daemon", but
that is already on:

#+begin_example
$ systemctl status power-profiles-daemon.service
● power-profiles-daemon.service - Power Profiles daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/power-profiles-daemon.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2024-12-01 11:46:32 CET; 45min ago
 Invocation: b2545a02bc9642b7aeb5f370e8b50e7c
   Main PID: 2289 (power-profiles-)
      Tasks: 4 (limit: 18320)
        CPU: 52ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/power-profiles-daemon.service
             └─2289 /usr/libexec/power-profiles-daemon
#+end_example

But:

#+begin_example
$ powerprofilesctl
,* balanced:
    PlatformDriver:     placeholder

  power-saver:
    PlatformDriver:     placeholder
#+end_example

Internet says I am missing the right scaling driver, and sounds very
keen on enabling =amd_pstate=, which I do not seem to have available.
=/proc/config.gz= suggests the kernel configuration supports it, but
=cpupower= does not know about it:

#+begin_example
$ zcat /proc/config.gz | grep -i pstate
CONFIG_X86_INTEL_PSTATE=y
CONFIG_X86_AMD_PSTATE=y
CONFIG_X86_AMD_PSTATE_DEFAULT_MODE=3
# CONFIG_X86_AMD_PSTATE_UT is not set

$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 5:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 5
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 5
  maximum transition latency:  Cannot determine or is not supported.
  hardware limits: 1.40 GHz - 3.70 GHz
  available frequency steps:  3.70 GHz, 1.70 GHz, 1.40 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: ondemand performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.40 GHz and 3.70 GHz.
                  The governor "schedutil" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 3.30 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: no
#+end_example

=dmesg= offers:

#+begin_example
$ sudo dmesg -H
[…] amd_pstate: the _CPC object is not present in SBIOS or ACPI disabled
#+end_example

Though:

#+begin_example
$ lscpu | grep -i cppc
Flags:                                […] cppc […]
#+end_example

So ACPI problem?  Lots of posts mention =amd_= parameters on the
kernel command-line, but AFAIU those posts are stale with newer
kernels (6.11 as of this writing) which automatically (attempt to)
load the =amd_pstate= driver.

Went through the UEFI menu and found nothing related to ACPI or
[[https://forum.level1techs.com/t/amd-p-state-driver/197885/24][X2APIC]].  Skeptical of UEFI settings anyway, since I did not change
them between the old and new installations.

{{{narrator(Some time later)}}}

Probably not ACPI, =dmesg= is choke full of ACPI noise.  OTOH, using
some diagnosis methods from [[https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=218171][this kernel bug report]]:

#+begin_example
$ find /sys/devices -name '*cppc*'
🦗
#+end_example

(~acpidump ; acpixtract ; iasl ; grep -i cpc *.dsl~ also yields 🦗,
but =iasl= complains about "unresolved" "control methods", so 🤷)

{{{narrator(Some time later)}}}

[[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling#amd_pstate][ArchWiki]] does say "Change /Enable CPPC/ […] from /Auto/ to /Enabled/".
My UEFI menu tucks that under /Overclocking → Advanced CPU
Configuration → AMD CBS → CPPC CTRL/.  That change *does* convince
Linux to enable =amd_pstate=; going over the previous tests in reverse
order:

#+begin_example
$ [… acpidump && acpixtract && iasl … ] && grep -i cpc *.dsl
ssdt1.dsl:        Name (_CPC, Package (0x17)  // _CPC: Continuous Performance Control
[… repeats 12 times …]

$ find /sys/devices -name '*cppc*' -o -name '*pstate*' | tr -s '[:digit:]' N | sort -u
/sys/devices/system/cpu/amd_pstate
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyN/amd_pstate_highest_perf
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyN/amd_pstate_hw_prefcore
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyN/amd_pstate_lowest_nonlinear_freq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyN/amd_pstate_max_freq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyN/amd_pstate_prefcore_ranking
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuN/acpi_cppc

$ sudo dmesg -H
[… ominous silence about amd_pstate …]

$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 1:
  driver: amd-pstate-epp
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 1
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
  maximum transition latency:  Cannot determine or is not supported.
  hardware limits: 400 MHz - 4.31 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
  current policy: frequency should be within 2.38 GHz and 4.31 GHz.
                  The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 3.57 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes
    AMD PSTATE Highest Performance: 255. Maximum Frequency: 4.31 GHz.
    AMD PSTATE Nominal Performance: 219. Nominal Frequency: 3.70 GHz.
    AMD PSTATE Lowest Non-linear Performance: 141. Lowest Non-linear Frequency: 2.38 GHz.
    AMD PSTATE Lowest Performance: 24. Lowest Frequency: 400 MHz.

$ powerprofilesctl
  performance:
    CpuDriver:	amd_pstate
    Degraded:   no

,* balanced:
    CpuDriver:	amd_pstate
    PlatformDriver:	placeholder

  power-saver:
    CpuDriver:	amd_pstate
    PlatformDriver:	placeholder
#+end_example

And lo, the 🍃↔🚀 slider appears in the Power Management tray widget.

Nervous about entering the "Overclocking" UEFI zone though, and
concerned about these "Maximum frequencies".

/And does it even help with the game?/

🥁

No.  No it does not; no discernible difference in FPS nor vibes.

Will assume this new baseline cannot hurt - OT1H "overclocking" is
scary, OTOH Linux now has a finer handle on the CPU and hopefully will
not overwork it to death?

-----

Chronologically, the events of the following addenda were weaved
together with those of the next section; figured I would append them
here to give the reader some closure on this shaggy dog subplot.
** Addendum Ⅰ — CPPC Considered Harmful, apparently
[[https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/what-fixed-stuttering-and-random-framerate-spikes-in-games-for-me.327264/][aska33j proclaims]] that /disabling CPPC/ "fixed stuttering and random
framerate spikes in games for [them]" so… roundtrip to UEFI, disabling
that.  The =amd_pstate= warning is back; the "Power Profile" slider is
no longer accessible in the systray widget; no discernible effect
in-game anyway.
** Addendum Ⅱ — BIOS update
For the modest price of [[file:maintenance.org::*Our protagonist sets forth][a BIOS update]], the =amd_pstate= driver now
initializes successfully without me having to mess with
{{{glitch(Overclocking Settings)}}}.  Welcome back =amd_pstate= 🤝
* Sᴇᴠᴇʀᴀʟ Wᴇᴇᴋꜱ Lᴀᴛᴇʀ
- [[https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/5475/page=1/][ridge reports]] "bad frame pacing on ADMGPU",
  - when vsync is turned off: a non-factor in my testing,
  - lots of useful information in that thread though and
    interesting-sounding pointers,
  - [[https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/5475/page=2/#r42519][Shmerl]] says:
    - games can cause stutter by underloading the GPU, causing it to
      drop out of "high performance mode",
      - (=amdgpu_top= and =radeontop= do confirm that lag spikes
        correlate with GPU usage drop)
    - see [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/1500][drm/amd#1500]]:
      - /lots/ of sysfs noodling there; unfortunately, none of the
        suggested settings for =power_dpm_force_performance_level= &
        =pp_power_profile_mode= change the symptoms.
  - Since GamingOnLinux seems full of knowledgeable folks, posted [[https://web.archive.org/web/20241220053228/https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/6437/][a
    new topic]] there… but then [[https://web.archive.org/web/20250102185206/https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/6463/][the UK OSA dropped]].

- In [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/3618#note_2689087][this drm/amd#3618 thread]], @agd5f suggests "6.11 stable kernels"
  include a fix for the issue at hand there and a further rework "was
  submitted to 6.13"; @mattipulkkinen reports happy results with
  6.13-rc2; symptoms persist here with 6.12.8.

- Piggybacked onto [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/11300][mesa/mesa#11300]]:
  - common: Hades Ⅱ, iGPU, recent kernel & Mesa, Proton Experimental,
  - differences: Fedora, GNOME, X11,
  - noteworthy: good performance on Windows,
  - suggestion by @Venemo: downgrade & bisect Mesa.
    - Tempting, though scared of bricking graphical sessions and/or
      ending up with a frankensystem (intalling binaries under a
      prefix: easy; keeping track of runtime config tweaks and cache
      artifacts: fraught).
    - {{{narrator(Ten false leads later)}}}
    - The factory@ announcements say Mesa was upgraded from 24.2.7 to
      24.3.0 [[https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/factory@lists.opensuse.org/message/6YXCWH4C7Z2PNP5UUWCQPH5KNI2JILYV/][in snapshot 20241124]].  The Mesa docs explain how to test
      uninstalled builds (kudos for the clear
      instructions![fn:mesa-builddeps]) so gave it a shot: a freshly
      built 24.2.7 behaves exactly like the current distro version
      (24.3.4), so no smoking gun there.

[fn:mesa-builddeps] Took a couple of kicks to start the build engine:
~zypper source-install --build-deps-only Mesa~ did not cut it.
Probably should have looked at Tumbleweed's spec file to get a
matching build configuration; instead ~zypper install~'ed my way to
victory - needed ~libclc llvm llvm-devel libLLVMSPIRVLib-devel clang
clang-devel python3-ply rust rust-bindgen rust-cbindgen~.


- In [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/upower/power-profiles-daemon/-/issues/164][upower/power-profiles-daemon#164]], @Nyan reports problematic iGPU
  capping; not convinced this is applicable though, given the reported
  symptoms (video playback is fine here).

- Seen reports of Variable Refresh Rate causing problems:
  - searched high and low to understand why VRR appears nowhere in
    Plasma settings, despite the start menu turning up "Display
    Configuration" when searching for "VRR",
  - mystery solved by ~kscreen-doctor -o~: =Vrr: incapable= 🤷

- Found that forum post about leaving CPPC disabled to fix
  stuttering—see [[*Addendum Ⅰ — CPPC Considered Harmful, apparently][addendum Ⅰ in the previous section]].

  No visible effect for me; left it disabled anyway from there on
  since enabling it never had an effect in the first place, and I am
  keen on experimenting one parameter at a time.

- Looking at Steam forums, [[https://steamcommunity.com/app/1145350/discussions/1/596260472619121965/][some folks]] do report FPS drops /shortly
  after the update/:
  #+begin_quote
  it started fine after the major update, now suddenly im stuck with
  40~50 fps with micro sutters
  — December 6 2024
  #+end_quote

- After AMD drivers & Mesa, figured I could look at vkd3d's issue
  tracker.  [[https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/issues/4436][doitsujin/dxvk#4436]] and
  [[https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/11446][ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#11446]] looked somewhat promising:
  reports of lag on "KDE Tumbleweed Wayland", not long before my
  symptoms began (November 2024)); alas, ~LD_PRELOAD=~ does not help.
  - {{{narrator(clicks through duplicates\, out of GitHub & into
    [[https://reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1htcxfj/system_green_screens_regularly_during_more/m5da9ey/][Reddit]])}}}

    #+begin_quote
    Alternatively, remove the offending line in
    =/usr/share/drirc.d/00-radv-defaults.conf=
    #+end_quote

    {{{narrator(discovers [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/blob/main/src/util/00-radv-defaults.conf][=/usr/share/drirc.d/=]])}}}

    Computers were a mistake.

- Peeked at [[https://github.com/HansKristian-Work/vkd3d-proton/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/bug_report.md][vkd3d-proton's issue template]] and idly ran with
  ~PROTON_LOG=1~.  Over the course of 30 seconds or so, the log file
  gets flooded with 3MB's worth of =trace:unwind:dump_unwind_info= 🤨

- VRAM usage is always close to full, even when not playing games.
  "At rest", the Plasma shell consumes ≈410MB over 512MB available.
  - [[https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php%3Ff=111&t=165779.html][Lissanro reported]] in 2020 that changing Plasma's rendering backend
    to /Software/ freed up some VRAM.
  - Indeed, bringing up the Plasma Renderer menu, switching to
    /Software/, logging out & back in frees up some VRAM.  It also
    yields compositing glitches 🤷
  - More to the point, /it has no effect on the symptoms in-game/.

- Figured I would ask ValveSoftware/Proton about the logs; filed
  [[https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/8424][#8424]]; got dup'd into [[https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/7805][#7805]], per the "one report per game" policy.
  That issue is about a /crash on Alt-Tab/, with an /Nvidia dGPU/;
  unsure how lumping our two reports together will help.  Had to try 🤷

- Found [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/2516][drm/amd#2516]]; noticed that I have
  - =/sys/module/gpu_sched/parameters/sched_policy=: 1
  - =/sys/module/amdgpu/parameters/sched_policy=: 0
  Changed the kernel command-line to set the former to 0, as suggested
  in that issue; symptoms persist.  No idea what the latter is about,
  nor how it differs from the former.  I can find [[https://docs.kernel.org/gpu/amdgpu/module-parameters.html#sched-policy-int][the docs for amdgpu]]
  but nor for gpu_sched.

- [[https://old.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/1gzy0xd/amdgpu_regression_on_kernel_612_choppy/m1dn05z/][Some folks]] report =amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10= (≡ =DC_DISABLE_PSR=)
  fixing "choppy performance".  No effect here.  Could try setting
  [[https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v6.13/gpu/amdgpu/module-parameters.html#dcdebugmask-uint][other values]]…

- I caved—not sure why, I think seeing the amount of unhappy kernel
  noises in journalctl got to me—and grabbed the latest BIOS from
  msi.com, flashed it, which restored =amd_pstate=.  See [[*Addendum Ⅱ — BIOS update][addendum Ⅱ in
  the previous section]].

  OT1H now power management interfaces (Plasma's, powerprofilesctl,
  cpupower) seem "fully operational"; OTOH symptoms feel worse: the
  game can no longer sustain 60 FPS even in sub-areas that were
  previously fine.  There is still a visible difference between
  - OK-ish sub-areas - 55 FPS with occasional lag spike,
  - bad sub-areas with out-of-control sawtooth FPS.
* The Warsong Update
Whew these new Crossroads do look great, so long as I stand still.
Artemis is paying a visit?  There's a new garden corner with a Hades
bust and a narrator prompt?  There's animals /all over the place/, and
*[[https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1145350/view/503942841152569404][what's this?]]*

#+begin_quote
- The moon now shows different phases in the Training Grounds vista scene
#+end_quote

/Be still my heart./

No changes in framerate patterns though; still getting "sawtooth 55"
FPS near the most edges, stable "linear 60" at some corners like the
hot springs, and "sawtooth 40±15" everywhere else.

- Spotted =amdgpu: Runtime PM not available= in dmesg; found no
  actionable advice about this.

- Found a new crop of "choppy performance" issues—[[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/3658][drm/amd#3658]],
  [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/3742][drm/amd#3742]]—no miracle cure there.

- Driver developer Timur Kristóf offers [[https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/y7zl45/psa_for_amdgpu_users_kernel_519_and_likely_60_is/isyryb1/][some tips]] to diagnose
  issues with the graphics stack.

- Caved and filed [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/3993][drm/amd#3993]].
  - Got a very fast shot in the dark: try =amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x610=.
    Thanks!  No effect unfortunately.
  - Since that was as exhaustive a report as I published this far
    (ignoring… whatever /this/ is), figured I would also send an email
    to Supergiant's support address.

- Tired of annotating "openSUSE Tumbleweed" with "… with Packman
  repository but it is mostly just codecs except well there is Mesa in
  there", so for intellectual honesty, purged
  Packman[fn:purge-packman], restarted, loaded the game.
  - There, same symptoms; Packman exonerated.

[fn:purge-packman] As simple as:
#+begin_src
sudo zypper removerepo Packman
sudo zypper dist-upgrade --allow-vendor-change --remove-orphaned
#+end_src
Then confirmed absence of strays with ~zypper packages~ (with
~--orphaned~, then with ~| tr -s ' ' | cut -d'|' -f2 | sort | uniq
-c | sort -hr~ to double-check repositories in-use).


- Lobsters featured [[https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2731870/view/4666382742870026335][this story]] about game developers working around
  "catastrophic performance loss on AMD" with some DX11 memory usage
  patterns, solved by "changing the buffering implementation of GPU
  uploads".  Searched for actionable things to do with that anecdote,
  found none.

- Noodled in UEFI some more.
  - Changed the "graphic adapter" knobs from "PEG" (PCIe Graphics) to
    "IGD" (Integrated); not that this changes much since there is no
    PCIe card anyway.
  - Changed "Integrated Graphics" from "Game Mode" to "Force"; bump
    UMA Frame Buffer Size to 4 GB.
  - Activated A-XMP "Profile 1" (boosts DDR4 clock speed).

- Pondered [[https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/radv.html][RADV]] vs [[https://github.com/GPUOpen-Drivers/AMDVLK][AMDVLK]].
  - The latter is not easy to install on openSUSE.
  - Not sure AMDVLK supports my iGPU anyway.

- Sent [[https://community.amd.com/t5/pc-processors/game-stutter-on-opensuse-tumbleweed-with-amd-ryzen-5-pro-4650g/m-p/750105][a message in a bottle]] on the AMD community forums.

- Stumbled on more recent threads:
  - [[https://old.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/1isclpw/i_am_beyond_frustrated_with_the_stutter_issues_on/][another AMD castaway]] with commenters suggesting to enable
    C-States.
  - [[https://community.frame.work/t/wayland-lag-stuttering-since-kernel-6-11-2/59422/28][framework users]] pointing at three different drm/amd reports 😵‍💫
** What if it /was/ the new SSD though
- [[https://old.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/1g7o5kz/kingston_ssd_firmware_update_fixed_stuttering/][LockeDown815]] says bumping their Kingston NVMe SSD firmware fixed
  stuttering in Diablo Ⅳ.
  - [[https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/aodqqw/psa_dont_buy_ssds_from_the_kingston_a400_line/][jayomegal]] says the A400 SSDs (👋🥺) have "fucked firmware".
  - [[https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/gt13h5/what_could_i_do_with_my_kingston_a400_ssd_if/][tubi_carrillo]] asks the tough questions - how is a Linux user to
    update their firmware when the vendor does not partake in LVFS and
    only offers a Windows utility?
  - [[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=243614][xhpohanka]] reports "strange system lags" after cloning their system
    on a SA400.
- Welp, time to [[file:~/memory-leaks/guides/sysadmin/machines/hirondell/maintenance.org::*2025-03][resurrect hirondell's Windows partition]] 🧟
  - Braved [[https://www.petiterepublique.com/2025/03/08/ce-samedi-8-mars-2025-des-rafales-de-vent-a-plus-de-120-km-en-haute-garonne/][the wind]] & fetched a 2.5″ SSD-to-USB case.
  - WELP, Kingston® SSD Manager fails to identify the disk 🙄
    #+begin_src
    Device scan complete. Updating views...
    \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0: Detected as the primary drive, KScode2 Identify failed, BusType:11
    \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1: Not supported - Identify failed, BusType:7
    Updating devices list...
    \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0: SK hynix SC311 SATA 128GB, SCSI\DISK&VEN_SK&PROD_HYNIX_SC311_SATA\4&AAF871B&0&000000
    \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1: KINGSTON  SA400S37480G SCSI Disk Device, SCSI\DISK&VEN_KINGSTON&PROD__SA400S37480G\6&1EA4F16A&0&000000
    #+end_src
    Nevermind then!  Moving on.
** Time to come clean
There was one other thing I changed on this reinstallation: I used XFS
instead of BTRFS for my home partition.  Not sure why; [[https://old.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comments/3dambq/why_btrfs_for_but_xfs_for_home/][some folks say
it's a good idea?]]

And /of course/ there is [[https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202349][a kernel bug]] showing that somehow "sustained
write operations with XFS" conflict with "GPU creating memory
pressure" or something.  /Of course/.
* This is insane
Selected subset of moving parts; "testability" considering ease of
clean reverts:

| Part         | Testability                                                                    |
|--------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Linux kernel | 🫣 [[https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:InstallNewerKernel][some distro documentation]]; afraid of side-effects                          |
| AMD drivers  | 🤷 no clue; maybe inextricable from kernel?                                   |
| Mesa         | 🤔 easy to rebuild; circumspect about runtime state in cache & config folders |
| Steam        | 🫥 under Steam's control                                                      |
| Wine         | 🫥 under Steam's control                                                      |
| Proton       | 👌 easy to toggle in Steam's UI; have not considered GE yet                   |
| vkd3d-proton | 🫥 under Steam's control                                                      |
| Hades Ⅱ     | 🫥 under Steam's control                                                      |

Config-wise, worth noting:

| Part            | Testability                                       |
|-----------------+---------------------------------------------------|
| +AMD pstate+    | +😬 UEFI roundtrip+[fn:amd-pstate]               |
| sysfs           | OK; worst case: reboot & edit kernel command-line |
| Plasma Renderer | OK                                                |

[fn:amd-pstate] Always on after a BIOS update, so I no longer consider
it a factor.  I guess I /could/ keep doing so and manually disable it.


Let's throw in:

| Part | Testability              |
|------+--------------------------|
| BIOS | 🔥 [[file:maintenance.org::*Firmware updates][breaks boot settings]] |