Intense lag and audio issues on a machine from 2018 running Linux Mint 21.3

[Zablas]

I'm running an old Dell XPS 13 from 2018. Recently switched it from Windows 10 to Linux Mint 21.3. Here is the System Information from System Reports:

System:
Kernel: 5.15.0-101-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4
tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 13 9360 v: N/A serial: Chassis:
type: 9 serial:
Mobo: Dell model: 0PVG6D v: A00 serial: UEFI: Dell v: 2.16.0
date: 06/09/2021
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 36.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 36.6/60.0 Wh (61.1%) volts: 8.3 min: 7.6
model: SMP DELL TP1GT61 type: Li-poly serial: status: Full
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Core i5-8250U bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Coffee Lake
rev: A cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2482 high: 2607 min/max: 400/3400 cores: 1: 2497 2: 2400 3: 2400 4: 2400
5: 2400 6: 2556 7: 2600 8: 2607 bogomips: 28800
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: DP-1,eDP-1
empty: DP-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Microdia Integrated Webcam HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-5:5
chip-ID: 0c45:670c class-ID: 0e02
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x285mm (40.0x11.2") s-diag: 1055mm (41.5")
Monitor-1: DP-1 pos: right model: AOC 2590G4 serial: res: 1920x1080 dpi: 90
size: 544x303mm (21.4x11.9") diag: 623mm (24.5") modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: primary,left model: Sharp res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 166
size: 294x165mm (11.6x6.5") diag: 337mm (13.3") modes: 1920x1080
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d71 class-ID: 0403
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-101-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Rivet Networks Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1535 driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel pcie:
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3a:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:003e class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp58s0 state: up mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-3:3 chip-ID: 0cf3:e301
class-ID: e001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2
sub-v: 25a hci-v: 4.2
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 139.13 GiB (58.3%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: SK Hynix model: PC401 NVMe 256GB size: 238.47 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: rev: 80003E00 temp: 42.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 233.18 GiB used: 139.13 GiB (59.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Microchip (formerly SMSC) USB2742 ports: 2 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 0424:2742 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-1.1:4 info: Logitech M105 Optical Mouse type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid
interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 046d:c077 class-ID: 0301
Device-2: 1-1.2:6 info: Validity Sensors VFS7552 Touch Fingerprint Sensor
type: driver: N/A interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA
chip-ID: 138a:0091 class-ID: ff00 serial:
Device-3: 1-3:3 info: Qualcomm Atheros type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 0cf3:e301 class-ID: e001
Device-4: 1-5:5 info: Microdia Integrated Webcam HD type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0c45:670c class-ID: 0e02
Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 6 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Microchip (formerly SMSC) USB5742 ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 5 Gb/s
chip-ID: 0424:5742 class-ID: 0900
Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 59.0 C pch: 50.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3604
Repos:
Packages: 2837 apt: 2812 flatpak: 25
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list
1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https: //cli.github.com/packages stable main
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mullvad.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb https: //ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/dist/linuxmint/packages virginia main upstream import backport
2: deb http: //ubuntu.mirror.vu.lt/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //ubuntu.mirror.vu.lt/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //ubuntu.mirror.vu.lt/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam-beta.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam-stable.list
1: deb [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https: //repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
2: deb-src [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https: //repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] https: //packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-jammy.sources
1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu jammy main
Info:
Processes: 322 Uptime: 4h 4m wakeups: 3533 Memory: 7.48 GiB used: 4.16 GiB (55.7%) Init: systemd
v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 clang: 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13

I have tried running 2 games under Proton: Civilization 6 and Terraria. Both had these issues - whenever doing anything resource intensive (generating a Civ 6 map/Terraria world) there are unbearable audio crackles and intense lag. Running Terraria native version has no problems at all. Running Civ 6 native gets me stuck in the initial loading screen but this is probably unrelated to the issue. Whenever I run Civ 6 under Proton I am able to get into the loading screen after pressing "Play Now" but the game crashes in the middle of it. Keep in mind, I was able to run this game in Windows 10. Since this issue persists between multiple games I believe it is related to Proton and not the games.

Proton versions that I've tried: everything from Hotfix to Experimental. Game would only start to render from 6.3-8.

Things that I've tried to fix the issue:

1. Run it on Proton GE 9-2 and 8-25.
2. Run it with the following Launch Options: eval $( echo "PROTON_LOG=1 gamemoderun %command%" | sed "s/2KLauncher\/LauncherPatcher.exe'.*/Base\/Binaries\/Win64Steam\/CivilizationVI'/" )
3. Run the game with lowest possible settings.
4. Go into /etc/security/limits.conf and add the following line: YourUserName - nice -20. This actually reduced the audio crackles significantly and I was able to get into a game but it was laggy and crashed after a few turns.

I am also attaching the logs that I had before editing /etc/security/limits.conf https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/02u7r5vru89xm7umo9tz3/steam-289070.log?rlkey=329cqy2oh7q91l3lu6bwr44bi&dl=0

Once again, I am registering this as an issue because it occurs in multiple games when using Proton. Any help is appreciated.