gamemoded(8) gamemoded man page gamemoded(8)
NAME
gamemoded - daemon that optimises system performance on demand
SYNOPSIS
gamemoded [OPTIONS...]
DESCRIPTION
GameMode is a daemon/lib combo for Linux that allows games to request a
set of optimisations be temporarily applied to the host OS.
The design has a clear cut abstraction between the host daemon and li-
brary (gamemoded and libgamemode), and the client loaders (libgamemod-
eauto and gamemode_client.h) that allows for safe usage without worry-
ing about whether the daemon is installed or running. This design also
means that while the host library currently relies on systemd for ex-
changing messages with the daemon, it's entirely possible to implement
other internals that still work with the same clients.
GameMode was designed primarily as a stop-gap solution to problems with
the Intel and AMD CPU powersave or ondemand governors, but is intended
to be expanded beyond just CPU governor states, as there are a wealth
of automation tasks one might want to apply.
OPTIONS
-r[PID], --request=[PID]
Toggle gamemode for process. When no PID given, requests
gamemode and pauses
-s[PID], --status=[PID]
Query the status of gamemode for process When no PID given,
queries the status globally
-d, --daemonize
Run the daemon as a separate process (daemonize it)
-l, --log-to-syslog
Log to syslog
-h, --help
Print help text
-t, --test
Run diagnostic tests on the current installation
-v, --version
Print the version
USAGE
libgamemodeauto.so.0 can be pre-loaded into any program to request
gamemoded begin or end the mode. See gamemoderun(1) for details.
The gamemode_client.h header can be used by developers to build the re-
quests into a program:
#include "gamemode_client.h"
if( gamemode_request_start() < 0 ) {
fprintf( stderr, "gamemode request failed: %s\n", gamemode_error_string() )
}
/* run the process */
/* Not required, gamemoded can clean up after game exits */
gamemode_request_end();
Atlernatively developers can define GAMEMODE_AUTO to mimic the behav-
iour of libgamemodeauto.so.0:
#define GAMEMODE_AUTO
#include "gamemode_client.h"
Or, distribute libgamemodeauto.so.0 and either link with -lgamemodeauto
or inject it as above with LD_PRELOAD.
CONFIG
gamemoded will load and merge gamemode.ini config files from these di-
rectories in the following order:
/usr/share/gamemode/
/etc/
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config/
$PWD
Behaviour of the config file can be explained by presenting a commented
example:
[general]
; The reaper thread will check every 5 seconds for exited clients, for config file changes, and for the CPU/iGPU power balance
reaper_freq=5
; The desired governor is used when entering GameMode instead of "performance"
desiredgov=performance
; The default governor is used when leaving GameMode instead of restoring the original value
;defaultgov=powersave
; The iGPU desired governor is used when the integrated GPU is under heavy load
igpu_desiredgov=powersave
; Threshold to use to decide when the integrated GPU is under heavy load.
; This is a ratio of iGPU Watts / CPU Watts which is used to determine when the
; integraged GPU is under heavy enough load to justify switching to
; igpu_desiredgov. Set this to -1 to disable all iGPU checking and always
; use desiredgov for games.
igpu_power_threshold=0.3
; GameMode can change the scheduler policy to SCHED_ISO on kernels which support it (currently
; not supported by upstream kernels). Can be set to "auto", "on" or "off". "auto" will enable
; with 4 or more CPU cores. "on" will always enable. Defaults to "off".
softrealtime=off
; GameMode can renice game processes. You can put any value between 0 and 20 here, the value
; will be negated and applied as a nice value (0 means no change). Defaults to 0.
renice=0
; By default, GameMode adjusts the iopriority of clients to BE/0, you can put any value
; between 0 and 7 here (with 0 being highest priority), or one of the special values
; "off" (to disable) or "reset" (to restore Linux default behavior based on CPU priority),
; currently, only the best-effort class is supported thus you cannot set it here
ioprio=0
; Sets whether gamemode will inhibit the screensaver when active
; Defaults to 1
inhibit_screensaver=1
[filter]
; If "whitelist" entry has a value(s)
; gamemode will reject anything not in the whitelist
;whitelist=RiseOfTheTombRaider
; Gamemode will always reject anything in the blacklist
;blacklist=HalfLife3
; glxgears
[gpu]
; Here Be Dragons!
; Warning: Use these settings at your own risk
; Any damage to hardware incurred due to this feature is your responsibility and yours alone
; It is also highly recommended you try these settings out first manually to find the sweet spots
; Setting this to the keyphrase "accept-responsibility" will allow gamemode to apply GPU optimisations such as overclocks
;apply_gpu_optimisations=0
; The DRM device number on the system (usually 0), ie. the number in /sys/class/drm/card0/
;gpu_device=0
; Nvidia specific settings
; Requires the coolbits extension activated in nvidia-xconfig
; This corresponds to the desired GPUPowerMizerMode
; "Adaptive"=0 "Prefer Maximum Performance"=1 and "Auto"=2
; See NV_CTRL_GPU_POWER_MIZER_MODE and friends in https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-settings/blob/master/src/libXNVCtrl/NVCtrl.h
;nv_powermizer_mode=1
; These will modify the core and mem clocks of the highest perf state in the Nvidia PowerMizer
; They are measured as Mhz offsets from the baseline, 0 will reset values to default, -1 or unset will not modify values
;nv_core_clock_mhz_offset=0
;nv_mem_clock_mhz_offset=0
; AMD specific settings
; Requires a relatively up to date AMDGPU kernel module
; See: https://dri.freedesktop.org/docs/drm/gpu/amdgpu.html#gpu-power-thermal-controls-and-monitoring
; It is also highly recommended you use lm-sensors (or other available tools) to verify card temperatures
; This corresponds to power_dpm_force_performance_level, "manual" is not supported for now
;amd_performance_level=high
[supervisor]
; This section controls the new gamemode functions gamemode_request_start_for and gamemode_request_end_for
; The whilelist and blacklist control which supervisor programs are allowed to make the above requests
;supervisor_whitelist=
;supervisor_blacklist=
; In case you want to allow a supervisor to take full control of gamemode, this option can be set
; This will only allow gamemode clients to be registered by using the above functions by a supervisor client
;require_supervisor=0
[custom]
; Custom scripts (executed using the shell) when gamemode starts and ends
;start=notify-send "GameMode started"
; /home/me/bin/stop_ethmining.sh
;end=notify-send "GameMode ended"
; /home/me/bin/start_ethmining.sh
; Timeout for scripts (seconds). Scripts will be killed if they do not complete within this time.
;script_timeout=10
SEE ALSO
gamemoderun(1), systemd(1)
ABOUT
GameMode source can be found at https://github.com/FeralInterac-
tive/gamemode.git
AUTHOR
Feral Interactive (linux-contact@feralinteractive.com)
1.6.1 4 May 2020 gamemoded(8)
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Fri Jan 24 09:44:44 CET 2025.