FeralInteractive/gamemode is a C project with 6.0k stars. Optimise Linux system performance on demand
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GameMode is a daemon/lib combo for Linux that allows games to request a set of optimisations be temporarily applied to the host OS and/or a game process.
GameMode was designed primarily as a stop-gap solution to problems with the Intel and AMD CPU powersave or ondemand governors, but is now host to a range of optimisation features and configurations.
Currently GameMode includes support for optimisations including:
CPU governor
I/O priority
Process niceness
Kernel scheduler (SCHED_ISO)
Screensaver inhibiting
GPU performance mode (NVIDIA and AMD), GPU overclocking (NVIDIA)
CPU core pinning or parking
Custom scripts
GameMode packages are available for Ubuntu, Debian, Solus, Arch, Gentoo, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Mageia and possibly more.
Issues with GameMode should be reported here in the issues section, and not reported to Feral directly.
Requesting GameMode
For games/launchers which integrate GameMode support, simply running the game will automatically activate GameMode.
For others, you must manually request GameMode when running the game. This can be done by launching the game through gamemoderun:
gamemoderun ./game
Or edit the Steam launch options:
gamemoderun %command%
Note: for older versions of GameMode (before 1.3) use this string in place of gamemoderun:
Please note the backslash here in \$LIB is required.
Configuration
The daemon is configured with a gamemode.ini file. example/gamemode.ini is an example of what this file would look like, with explanations for all the variables.
Configuration files are loaded and merged from the following directories, from highest to lowest priority:
$PWD ("unsafe" - [gpu] settings take no effect in this file)
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config/ ("unsafe" - [gpu] settings take no effect in this file)
/etc/
/usr/share/gamemode/
Note for Hybrid GPU users
It's not possible to integrate commands like optirun automatically inside GameMode, since the GameMode request is made once the game has already started. However it is possible to use a hybrid GPU wrapper like optirun by starting the game with gamemoderun.
You can do this by setting the environment variable GAMEMODERUNEXEC to your wrapper's launch command, so for example GAMEMODERUNEXEC=optirun, GAMEMODERUNEXEC="env DRI_PRIME=1", or GAMEMODERUNEXEC="env __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only". This environment variable can be set globally (e.g. in /etc/environment), so that the same prefix command does not have to be duplicated everywhere you want to use gamemoderun.
GameMode will not be injected to the wrapper.
Development
The design of GameMode has a clear-cut abstraction between the host daemon and library (gamemoded and libgamemode), and the client loaders (libgamemodeauto and gamemode_client.h) that allows for safe use without worrying about whether the daemon is installed or running. This design also means that while the host library currently relies on systemd for exchanging messages with the daemon, it's entirely possible to implement other internals that still work with the same clients.
See repository subdirectories for information on each component.
Install Dependencies
GameMode depends on meson for building and systemd for internal communication. This repo contains a bootstrap.sh script to allow for quick install to the user bus, but check meson_options.txt for custom settings. These instructions all assume that you
already have a C development environment (gcc or clang, libc-devel, etc) installed.
Ubuntu/Debian
Note: Debian 13 and Ubuntu 25.04 (and later) need to install systemd-dev and libsystemd-dev in addition to the dependencies below.
Note: Older versions of RHEL (and variants) cannot build gamemode due to not exposing libdbus-1 to pkg-config.
(also - don't try and play games on RHEL, come on)
You must have EPEL enabled to install all dependencies.
How active is development on FeralInteractive/gamemode?
The most recent commit recorded on FeralInteractive/gamemode was 2 months ago, based on the GitHub push timestamp. The repository has 216 forks — one of the better signals of community interest.
How many stars does FeralInteractive/gamemode have?
FeralInteractive/gamemode has 6.0k GitHub stars — refresh the page for the live number, or check github.com/FeralInteractive/gamemode. TopGit mirrors GitHub's count but does not claim minute-by-minute accuracy.
Is FeralInteractive/gamemode open source?
Yes — FeralInteractive/gamemode ships under the BSD-3-Clause license, which makes its source code freely readable (and, depending on license terms, forkable and reusable). Source: github.com/FeralInteractive/gamemode.
What is FeralInteractive/gamemode?
FeralInteractive/gamemode (FeralInteractive/gamemode) is a C project on GitHub. From the project's own README: Optimise Linux system performance on demand
Where do I read more about FeralInteractive/gamemode?
This TopGit page is a snapshot — the READ ME tab shows the project's own README content (links stripped, images preserved). The GitHub repository at github.com/FeralInteractive/gamemode is the definitive source.
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