1gamemoded(8) gamemoded man page gamemoded(8)
2
6 gamemoded - daemon that optimises system performance on demand
7
9 gamemoded [OPTIONS...]
10
12 GameMode is a daemon/lib combo for Linux that allows games to request a
13 set of optimisations be temporarily applied to the host OS.
14 The design has a clear cut abstraction between the host daemon and li‐
16 brary (gamemoded and libgamemode), and the client loaders (libgamemod‐
17 eauto and gamemode_client.h) that allows for safe usage without worry‐
18 ing about whether the daemon is installed or running. This design also
19 means that while the host library currently relies on systemd for ex‐
20 changing messages with the daemon, it's entirely possible to implement
21 other internals that still work with the same clients.
22 GameMode was designed primarily as a stop-gap solution to problems with
24 the Intel and AMD CPU powersave or ondemand governors, but is intended
25 to be expanded beyond just CPU governor states, as there are a wealth
26 of automation tasks one might want to apply.
27
29 -r[PID], --request=[PID]
30 Toggle gamemode for process. When no PID given, requests
31 gamemode and pauses
32 -s[PID], --status=[PID]
34 Query the status of gamemode for process When no PID given,
35 queries the status globally
36 -d, --daemonize
38 Run the daemon as a separate process (daemonize it)
39 -l, --log-to-syslog
41 Log to syslog
42 -h, --help
44 Print help text
45 -t, --test
47 Run diagnostic tests on the current installation
48 -v, --version
50 Print the version
51
54 libgamemodeauto.so.0 can be pre-loaded into any program to request
55 gamemoded begin or end the mode. See gamemoderun(1) for details.
56 The gamemode_client.h header can be used by developers to build the re‐
58 quests into a program:
59 #include "gamemode_client.h"
61 if( gamemode_request_start() < 0 ) {
63 fprintf( stderr, "gamemode request failed: %s\n", gamemode_error_string() )
64 }
65 /* run the process */
67 /* Not required, gamemoded can clean up after game exits */
69 gamemode_request_end();
70 Atlernatively developers can define GAMEMODE_AUTO to mimic the behav‐
72 iour of libgamemodeauto.so.0:
73 #define GAMEMODE_AUTO
75 #include "gamemode_client.h"
76 Or, distribute libgamemodeauto.so.0 and either link with -lgamemodeauto
78 or inject it as above with LD_PRELOAD.
79
82 gamemoded will load and merge gamemode.ini config files from these di‐
83 rectories in the following order:
84 /usr/share/gamemode/
86 /etc/
87 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config/
88 $PWD
89 Behaviour of the config file can be explained by presenting a commented
91 example:
92 [general]
94 ; The reaper thread will check every 5 seconds for exited clients, for config file changes, and for the CPU/iGPU power balance
95 reaper_freq=5
96 ; The desired governor is used when entering GameMode instead of "performance"
98 desiredgov=performance
99 ; The default governor is used when leaving GameMode instead of restoring the original value
100 ;defaultgov=powersave
101 ; The iGPU desired governor is used when the integrated GPU is under heavy load
103 igpu_desiredgov=powersave
104 ; Threshold to use to decide when the integrated GPU is under heavy load.
105 ; This is a ratio of iGPU Watts / CPU Watts which is used to determine when the
106 ; integraged GPU is under heavy enough load to justify switching to
107 ; igpu_desiredgov. Set this to -1 to disable all iGPU checking and always
108 ; use desiredgov for games.
109 igpu_power_threshold=0.3
110 ; GameMode can change the scheduler policy to SCHED_ISO on kernels which support it (currently
112 ; not supported by upstream kernels). Can be set to "auto", "on" or "off". "auto" will enable
113 ; with 4 or more CPU cores. "on" will always enable. Defaults to "off".
114 softrealtime=off
115 ; GameMode can renice game processes. You can put any value between 0 and 20 here, the value
117 ; will be negated and applied as a nice value (0 means no change). Defaults to 0.
118 renice=0
119 ; By default, GameMode adjusts the iopriority of clients to BE/0, you can put any value
121 ; between 0 and 7 here (with 0 being highest priority), or one of the special values
122 ; "off" (to disable) or "reset" (to restore Linux default behavior based on CPU priority),
123 ; currently, only the best-effort class is supported thus you cannot set it here
124 ioprio=0
125 ; Sets whether gamemode will inhibit the screensaver when active
127 ; Defaults to 1
128 inhibit_screensaver=1
129 [filter]
131 ; If "whitelist" entry has a value(s)
132 ; gamemode will reject anything not in the whitelist
133 ;whitelist=RiseOfTheTombRaider
134 ; Gamemode will always reject anything in the blacklist
136 ;blacklist=HalfLife3
137 ; glxgears
138 [gpu]
140 ; Here Be Dragons!
141 ; Warning: Use these settings at your own risk
142 ; Any damage to hardware incurred due to this feature is your responsibility and yours alone
143 ; It is also highly recommended you try these settings out first manually to find the sweet spots
144 ; Setting this to the keyphrase "accept-responsibility" will allow gamemode to apply GPU optimisations such as overclocks
146 ;apply_gpu_optimisations=0
147 ; The DRM device number on the system (usually 0), ie. the number in /sys/class/drm/card0/
149 ;gpu_device=0
150 ; Nvidia specific settings
152 ; Requires the coolbits extension activated in nvidia-xconfig
153 ; This corresponds to the desired GPUPowerMizerMode
154 ; "Adaptive"=0 "Prefer Maximum Performance"=1 and "Auto"=2
155 ; See NV_CTRL_GPU_POWER_MIZER_MODE and friends in https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-settings/blob/master/src/libXNVCtrl/NVCtrl.h
156 ;nv_powermizer_mode=1
157 ; These will modify the core and mem clocks of the highest perf state in the Nvidia PowerMizer
159 ; They are measured as Mhz offsets from the baseline, 0 will reset values to default, -1 or unset will not modify values
160 ;nv_core_clock_mhz_offset=0
161 ;nv_mem_clock_mhz_offset=0
162 ; AMD specific settings
164 ; Requires a relatively up to date AMDGPU kernel module
165 ; See: https://dri.freedesktop.org/docs/drm/gpu/amdgpu.html#gpu-power-thermal-controls-and-monitoring
166 ; It is also highly recommended you use lm-sensors (or other available tools) to verify card temperatures
167 ; This corresponds to power_dpm_force_performance_level, "manual" is not supported for now
168 ;amd_performance_level=high
169 [supervisor]
171 ; This section controls the new gamemode functions gamemode_request_start_for and gamemode_request_end_for
172 ; The whilelist and blacklist control which supervisor programs are allowed to make the above requests
173 ;supervisor_whitelist=
174 ;supervisor_blacklist=
175 ; In case you want to allow a supervisor to take full control of gamemode, this option can be set
177 ; This will only allow gamemode clients to be registered by using the above functions by a supervisor client
178 ;require_supervisor=0
179 [custom]
181 ; Custom scripts (executed using the shell) when gamemode starts and ends
182 ;start=notify-send "GameMode started"
183 ; /home/me/bin/stop_ethmining.sh
184 ;end=notify-send "GameMode ended"
186 ; /home/me/bin/start_ethmining.sh
187 ; Timeout for scripts (seconds). Scripts will be killed if they do not complete within this time.
189 ;script_timeout=10
190
193 gamemoderun(1), systemd(1)
194
197 GameMode source can be found at https://github.com/FeralInterac‐
198 tive/gamemode.git
199
202 Feral Interactive (linux-contact@feralinteractive.com)
2031.7 4 May 2020 gamemoded(8)