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Everything the next agent needs to run the Phase 2 optimisation loop on a machine that can launch the client: - analysis/client-perf/: LEVERS (ranked levers + corrections), BENCH-MATRIX (world, scenes, config IDs, blocks B0-B14 with decision rules), PLAYER-TUNING, SPAWN-TUNING, research briefs, the jar scanner and its output, observed default configs, and proposed-configs/ (build.py generates tiers and bench variants and fails on unknown keys; apply_variant.py applies a variant and merges options.txt). - analysis/client-perf/bench/onion-bench/: bench-world datapack (scene teleports, Create grid, mob pen, sound storm, 120 s teleport tour). - analysis/audit/: the static recipe/dependency audit, including gen_fixes.py, which generates the shipped Paxi datapack and was never tracked. - phase0/: per-machine measurement harness (Steam Deck, 7700K/1060, 6700K/1080 Ti). - .pi/journal.md: running work log; read it first. All of it is packwizignored, so nothing here ships to players.
283 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
283 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
# Phase 0 — P2: i7-6700K / GTX 1080 Ti (Linux, Docker present)
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Setup and measurement procedure for the CPU-and-RAM-bound machine in the Onion MC client
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tuning fleet.
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---
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## Profile
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| --- | --- |
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| CPU | Intel i7-6700K, 4 cores / 8 threads, 4.0 GHz base / 4.2 GHz turbo (Skylake) |
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| GPU | NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti, **11 GB VRAM** (Pascal) |
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| RAM | 16 GB total, **~8 GB occupied by Docker** |
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| OS | Linux |
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| **Binding constraint** | **CPU (main thread) + RAM/GC pressure** |
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| **What this tier tests** | CPU-render and RAM/GC ladder steps on a capable GPU |
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| **Expected DH answer** | **On, with the CPU/thread preset lowered — quality preset stays up** |
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### The important inversion
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This machine's GPU is the second-strongest in the fleet by a wide margin, and 11 GB of VRAM
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is more than most current mid-range cards. **DH's GPU cost is not the problem here.** The
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constraints are a 4C/8T Skylake main thread and a heap that has to fit in roughly 8 GB.
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Consequence: for this tier, **turn DH's CPU/thread preset down, not its quality preset.**
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That is the opposite lever from the other two machines, and it is the clearest example of
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why the ladder cannot be a single global ordering.
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### Standing constraint for this machine
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> **Do not alter Docker or any other running process for the sake of these measurements.**
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> Assume the existing load is constant and consistent, and treat it as a fixed property of
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> this test rig.
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That changes the guardrail from *"abort if RAM is low"* to *"record the baseline and verify
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it stayed constant."* See Step 3 and Step 9.
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---
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## Shared measurement protocol
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Applies to every machine in the fleet. Duplicated here so this document stands alone.
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1. **Uncapped, vsync off** during measurement. Apply the FPS cap only *after* tuning.
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2. **Metric is p99 frametime and 1% low, not average FPS.**
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3. **Discard 10–15 s of warmup** per scene — JIT, chunk load, initial GC.
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4. **Settle after any render-distance or DH change.**
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5. **Three runs per configuration, report median and spread.**
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6. **One variable per run.**
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7. Guardrails: FPS limiter active, governor moved, or RAM headroom shifted materially →
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the run is invalid.
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---
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## Step 1 — Preconditions
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- [ ] Confirm the **proprietary NVIDIA driver** is in use. `nouveau` would invalidate both
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the performance and the measurements.
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```bash
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nvidia-smi # must succeed
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glxinfo -B | grep -E 'OpenGL renderer|OpenGL version'
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```
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- [ ] Confirm the compositor is not forcing vsync. If on X11/KDE, disable compositing for
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the measurement session; on Wayland, disable any tearing/queueing control.
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- [ ] Confirm the display resolution and refresh rate, and record them. Resolution is a
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bigger GPU lever than most mod settings.
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## Step 2 — GPU power state and throttling
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Do this before every session. A GPU that is power-capped or thermally throttled produces
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numbers that look like mod effects.
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```bash
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# Prefer maximum performance instead of adaptive clocks
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nvidia-settings -a '[gpu:0]/GPUPowerMizerMode=1'
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# Check for throttle reasons — SW Power Cap / HW Slowdown must be absent
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nvidia-smi -q -d PERFORMANCE
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```
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Start background logging of VRAM, clocks, power and temperature. **Use this exact command
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on the Windows machine too** — identical tooling on both NVIDIA boxes:
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```bash
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mkdir -p ~/mcbench/logs
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nvidia-smi --query-gpu=timestamp,memory.used,clocks.sm,clocks.mem,power.draw,temperature.gpu,utilization.gpu \
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--format=csv -l 1 > ~/mcbench/logs/gpu-$(date +%F-%H%M%S).csv &
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```
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`memory.used` is your VRAM series. On this machine it should stay comfortable; it is the
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control against the 6 GB machine.
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## Step 3 — Establish the noise floor (do this first)
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Because Docker's load is assumed constant rather than eliminated, **you must measure the
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noise before you can interpret any delta.** Otherwise you cannot tell a real 3% mod effect
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from Docker doing something.
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- [ ] Run the **same configuration, same scene, three times**, with no changes at all.
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- [ ] Record p50/p95/p99 spread across those three runs.
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- [ ] **That spread is your detection threshold.** Any later measurement smaller than this
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spread is not evidence.
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If the spread is large, Docker's activity is the first suspect. Record it as a known
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limitation of this rig rather than trying to fix it.
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## Step 4 — Record the RAM baseline
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Do not change the running load — measure and freeze it.
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```bash
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free -h
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cat /proc/meminfo | grep -E 'MemAvailable|SwapTotal|SwapFree'
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```
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- [ ] Record `MemAvailable` at session start.
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- [ ] Repeat the reading before and after each block of runs. **If it drifts materially,
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Docker's footprint changed and the runs are not comparable.** That is the check that
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makes the "constant load" assumption falsifiable instead of merely asserted.
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- [ ] Confirm no swap is being touched during runs:
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```bash
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grep -E 'pswpin|pswpout' /proc/vmstat # before and after; both should not move
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```
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Swapping during a run invalidates the p99 frametime numbers outright.
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## Step 5 — CPU governor
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The governor is a system setting, not a running process, and pinning it removes DVFS noise
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on a 4C/8T Skylake. This is the one system-level change recommended on this machine.
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```bash
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sudo cpupower frequency-set -g performance
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# or:
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echo performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
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```
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- [ ] Record the governor value before and after, and keep it identical across sessions.
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- [ ] Revert to your normal governor when the measurement work is done.
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> Also worth noting for the tier guide, independent of this benchmarking: a mild overclock
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> on this CPU is a larger and cheaper win than most mod tuning. Measure at stock first so
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> the baseline is comparable.
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## Step 6 — MangoHud
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```bash
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sudo pacman -S --needed mangohud # or your distro's package
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```
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Config lives at `~/.config/MangoHud/MangoHud.conf`. Start from the packaged example
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(`pacman -Ql mangohud | grep MangoHud.conf` to locate it) rather than a transcription, then
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set:
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```ini
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output_folder=/home/<user>/mcbench/logs
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autostart_log=1
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log_duration=30
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fps_limit=0
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frametime=1
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frame_timing=1
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# percentiles — confirm the exact key/syntax in the packaged example
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```
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## Step 7 — Launcher and JVM
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Use **Prism Launcher** (or ATLauncher) and launch from a terminal so the environment is
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under your control.
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**Java:** 21 — **the same JVM build as the other two machines**, to avoid a confound.
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**Wrapper command** — Prism → *Edit Instance → Settings → Custom Commands → Wrapper
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command*:
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```
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mangohud
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```
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Fallback if it fails to hook: `mangohud --dlsym`.
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**JVM arguments** (identical across the fleet except `-Xmx`):
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```
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-Xmx6G
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-XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200
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-XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+DisableExplicitGC
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-XX:G1NewSizePercent=30 -XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=40 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=8M
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-XX:G1ReservePercent=20 -XX:G1HeapWastePercent=5 -XX:G1MixedGCCountTarget=4
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-XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=15 -XX:G1MixedGCLiveThresholdPercent=90
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-XX:G1RSetUpdatingPauseTimePercent=5 -XX:SurvivorRatio=32
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-XX:+PerfDisableSharedMem -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1
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```
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**Heap sizing rule for this machine:** `-Xmx` = min(6 GB, `MemAvailable` − 2 GB). With
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~8 GB available that lands at 6 G; if the baseline reading is lower, lower the heap.
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**Omit `-XX:+AlwaysPreTouch` on this machine.** It commits the entire heap up front, which
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is exactly the wrong thing when Docker already holds half the RAM.
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> **Read this before interpreting GC results.** Because heap is capped by Docker's
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> footprint, GC pressure on this rig will be **higher than on an otherwise identical
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> machine without Docker running.** This rig is therefore expected to *over-weight* the
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> RAM/GC ladder steps and to show worse p99 lows than the same hardware would in the wild.
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> Record it as a property of the rig; do not attribute it to a mod.
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## Step 8 — Pin the in-game settings
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Controlled variables — set once, record, do not change between runs unless the run is
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testing that setting.
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- Graphics: Fancy
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- Render distance: 8
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- Particles: All
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- Clouds: Fancy
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- Entity shadows: On
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- Biome blend: fixed, recorded
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- Mipmap levels: 4
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- GUI scale: fixed number
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- **Max framerate: Unlimited**
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- **VSync: Off**
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- FOV, resolution, fullscreen mode: fixed and recorded
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## Step 9 — Verification run
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- [ ] Launch, confirm the MangoHud overlay appears over Minecraft.
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- [ ] Confirm a CSV lands in `~/mcbench/logs` with a frametime column.
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- [ ] Confirm `nvidia-smi` logging is producing a CSV.
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- [ ] Run the Step 3 noise-floor test and record the spread.
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- [ ] Confirm `MemAvailable` and swap counters are stable across the three runs.
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## Step 10 — Per-session checklist
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- [ ] `nvidia-smi` works; power mizer set to max performance; no throttle reasons
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- [ ] `nvidia-smi` background logging started
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- [ ] Governor recorded (and pinned to `performance` if using that policy)
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- [ ] `MemAvailable` recorded; swap counters checked
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- [ ] Compositor vsync disabled
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- [ ] MangoHud overlay visible, CSV output folder writable
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- [ ] Noise floor re-established if the session is a new day
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## Step 11 — Recording sheet
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| Field | Example |
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| --- | --- |
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| Date / session | 2026-09-28-a |
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| Machine | P2-6700K-1080Ti |
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| Config ID | baseline / dh-cpu-preset-low / emf-off / … |
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| Scene | A-base / B-terrain / C-gui |
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| Run # | 1 / 2 / 3 |
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| CSV file | |
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| p50 / p95 / p99 frametime (ms) | |
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| 1% low FPS | |
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| Avg FPS | |
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| VRAM peak (MB) | |
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| Throttle flag | none / SW Power Cap / HW Slowdown |
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| `MemAvailable` before / after | |
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| Swap delta | must be 0 |
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| Notes | |
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---
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## Machine-specific caveats
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- **Docker is not removed, so RAM is a live variable that must be monitored, not assumed
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away.** The Step 4 before/after check is what keeps the results honest.
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- **This rig will over-weight RAM/GC ladder steps** relative to identical hardware without
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Docker. Documented, not corrected.
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- **Establish the noise floor before interpreting anything.** With a constant-but-unknown
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background load, small deltas are unreadable until you know the spread.
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- **CPU is the bottleneck, so CPU-side ladder steps are expected to show their largest
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deltas here** — EMF/ETF and Fresh Animations, DH's thread preset, Sound Physics reverb,
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LambDynamicLights. GPU-side steps may show almost nothing, and that is a real result, not
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a failed measurement.
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- **Pascal is a legacy driver branch.** Verify the driver is still current before drawing
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comparisons against newer hardware.
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- **11 GB VRAM means this is the fleet's control for "VRAM is not the constraint."**
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Comparing this machine against the 6 GB GTX 1060 isolates GPU/VRAM effects, because both
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machines share the same 4C/8T CPU class. If a knob you classified as CPU-render diverges
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between the two, your classification is wrong — that is the taxonomy self-check.
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