[probbzy]

Hello!

I recently set up a csgo server on an old machine and it's working surprisingly well. I cleared out core 1 and dedicated it to only the server. I took a note of the var and sv when there are 1/12 players online:
NI: -20
PRI: RT
Players: 1/12
Core: 1

Pictures:






Then I started to stresstest cpu 0 (server is on core 1) and got these stats:
]NI: -20
PRI: RT
Players: 1/12
Core: 1

Pictures:




As you can see my sv and var went down. I though it might be the cpu-frequency that was fluctuating so i forced it to 2.7GHz, but the results was the same.

The server is hosted on an old laptop:

hp elitebook 2560p
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2620M CPU @ 2.70GHz
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM

Its plugged into the wall without a battery attached.

OS: Linux laptop 4.9.0-4-rt-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Debian 4.9.65-3+deb9u1 (2017-12-23) x86_64 GNU/Linux

I disabled Intel HT in the bios but i could not find any power settings.
The server will never have more than 12/12 players online and I'm pretty sure that it will handle that.


(Sorry for bad English ! I'm from Norway)

[shavit]

Not that I have a solution, but what is your stress testing method?

[probbzy]

I use a program called "stress": https://linux.die.net/man/1/stress, and used the command:

sudo stress -c 1

I also used the command:

fulload() { dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null & }; fulload; read; killall dd

Got the same results with both methods.

[asdfxD]

i tested the same with stress -c 1 and the sv/var goes instantly down to better values. better sv and var 0.001-0.007 at all servers.

srsly

[sphinx]

wtf?
does this means that a server with many fully loaded game servers performs better than a server with only one game server?
i have doubts.
then what is the explanation?

@probbzy, @asdfxD: what tuned profile do you have ? (tuned-adm active)

LE: i'm gonna test this tomorrow.

[probbzy]

I've actually never heard about "tuned-adm" so I guess its default.. I'm quite new to the Linux scene (only customized kernel ect..), but I got better var/sv on this machine when I switched from Windows.

[probbzy]

@sphinx, you just solved everything...
By installing tuned and/or tuned-ubuntu i set the tuned-adm to latency-performance and I got even better performance. My cpu is at max 5% use when 1/12 players are online.. One problem is that the cpu temp goes to 85°C, wich I dont really like.
Profile (Best performance, but very high temp):

tuned-adm profile latency-performance

Lower performance, lower temp:
Set the cpu govenor to conservative or userspace and force it to a lower frequency.

Cheers!

[sphinx]

@probbzy: this explains everything.
however, do you still used stress after set it up the latency-performance profile?

[probbzy]

I tried with and without. Had the same var/sv

[sphinx]

perfect!
settings a proper profile with tuned is compulsory for getting the best performance.
running the stress test you actually forced the cpu to run at maximum performance, hence the improvement.