Bad 2D performance with HD 4200 (RS880)

[Fran]

It's been a long time since I last played a game, so I decided to remove the HD 3850 from my computer and use the integrated HD 4200 instead (less heat and consumption, zero noise). However, the performance with the open source driver is... disappointing. Everything is laggy, as if just scrolling a webpage was too much for the chip (obviously it isn't, since the fglrx driver works great with the 4200).

This is with 2.6.34, kms enabled, xorg-server 1.8.0, latest git libdrm, mesa and driver. Everything worked great and snappy with the 3850.

Is there anyone else with this problem or it is just me?

[Nille]

Can you pastebin your xorg log an dmseg log file? Because w/o informations no one can help.

[Fran]

dmesg: http://pastebin.com/emWTaniA
Xorg.0.log: http://pastebin.com/ZtpMScAw (ignore the 1.7.5.1 server version, it's 1.8.1. I've patched the version number to make it work with fglrx 10.4).

The most noticeable drop in performance happens in chromium. Scrolling is really laggy (with and without composite). Resizing with composite enabled is also very slow, way slower than with the 3850.

[devius]

I'm using that same graphics chip and no problems here. Everything is very smooth, although I did had a problem that forced me to disable the screensaver. When it was enabled and after it started running I would get very poor graphical performance. All the symptoms you are having actually, so you may want to check if the Xorg process is using 100% of a core on your cpu. My software specs are as follows:

OpenSUSE 11.2
2.6.33.4 kernel
radeon driver 6.12.4
libdrm 2.4.20
mesa 7.8.1

[Sadako]

I'm kinda having the same isssue, but only with firefox, I haven't noticed it in any other graphical apps, and firefox has always been kinda laggy with the open radeon drivers for me, from an r200 9250 to an r500 x1950 to the same 4200 IGP you're using.

[Fran]

I reinstalled my 3850 to see if it was just my imagination. It wasn't.

With the HD 3850 I get smooth scrolling in chromium, with or without composite. The Xorg process tops at 60% cpu usage when scrolling a web page up and down continuously. Also, resizing with composite enabled is very fast.

With the HD 4200 the Xorg process reaches 100% cpu usage when scrolling in chromium, which makes it very choppy. Also, resizing a window with composite enabled is really laggy.

This is with the open source driver. With the fglrx driver both chips work more or less the same in 2D (i.e., fast and without noticeable lag).

[timmydog]

I'm using that same graphics chip and no problems here. Everything is very smooth, although I did had a problem that forced me to disable the screensaver. When it was enabled and after it started running I would get very poor graphical performance. All the symptoms you are having actually, so you may want to check if the Xorg process is using 100% of a core on your cpu.

I get this issue (xorg taking 100% of a core) on my RS880 too, which is fixed by a logout + login. I don't have a screensaver configured, but I have got my display configured to standby/suspend in the power management settings.

I also get errors on screen when windows are scrolling, i.e. sometimes the bottom part of the window will scroll but the top doesn't, so stripes of the window go missing until the content gets redrawn. Occasionally this corrupts the menu bar of the window too. I don't know if this is related though.

I'm using Debian testing + git builds of drm, xf86-video-ati, dri2proto, glproto and mesa (no kms and gallium disabled).

Let me know if you want to see my logs or run any tests...

Thanks,

Tim