2d performance (gnome/gtk) is not good

[questioneer]

hi

im pretty sure this thing was discussed in the forums already but for the life of me cant find the relevant info, so bare with me pls.

this occurs with every driver-version i tested, im using ubuntu 8.1 with gnome 2.24.1 atm. hardware: amd x2 4850e , ati 3850, 2gb ram.

all of this happens with compiz deactived (performance is great with compiz)

when i move windows around it feels really sluggish and the window contents get smeared (correct word? english is not my mothertongue..)

very interesting is audacious, when i move the window around it laggs like hell and while moving around pushes both of my cores to 100%. (checked with htop) (edit: this doesnt happen when i activate window borders in options)

some gtkperf stuff:
(testing done with 8.11, but doesnt really differ with 8.12 or 9.1beta)
(both run with 100 rounds)

GtkPerf 0.40 - Starting testing: Thu Dec 25 16:35:29 2008

GtkEntry - time:  0,02
GtkComboBox - time:  0,96
GtkComboBoxEntry - time:  0,42
GtkSpinButton - time:  0,10
GtkProgressBar - time:  0,07
GtkToggleButton - time:  0,24
GtkCheckButton - time:  0,06
GtkRadioButton - time:  0,12
GtkTextView - Add text - time:  0,34
GtkTextView - Scroll - time:  0,11
GtkDrawingArea - Lines - time:  0,65
GtkDrawingArea - Circles - time: 17,79
GtkDrawingArea - Text - time: 18,63
GtkDrawingArea - Pixbufs - time:  1,09
 --- 
Total time: 40,61

with vesa driver i get around 5 seconds with compiz activated around 7 secs.

another interesting thing i just noticed, when i run gtkperf in the background , i.e. with the firefox on top of it, the following happens:

GtkPerf 0.40 - Starting testing: Thu Dec 25 16:35:00 2008

GtkEntry - time:  0,04
GtkComboBox - time:  1,15
GtkComboBoxEntry - time:  0,54
GtkSpinButton - time:  0,10
GtkProgressBar - time:  0,06
GtkToggleButton - time:  0,17
GtkCheckButton - time:  0,05
GtkRadioButton - time:  0,12
GtkTextView - Add text - time:  0,26
GtkTextView - Scroll - time:  0,24
GtkDrawingArea - Lines - time:  0,38
GtkDrawingArea - Circles - time:  3,44
GtkDrawingArea - Text - time:  0,87
GtkDrawingArea - Pixbufs - time:  0,04
 --- 
Total time:  7,48

oh yeah and my xorg.conf is pretty standard for ubuntu, nothing fancy, no tweaks, etc -> just driver "fglrx"

tried some tweaks i found around the internet but none helped.


ok thx in advance, bye bye!

[RealNC]

Reboot the machine when deactivating compiz. Restarting X11 won't help. At least this fixes the sluggishness here. (And not only that, it also brings 3D back. For some reason, when disabling compiz or any other compositing manager, 3D stops working completely, including gl/gl2 output in mplayer and I need to reboot.)

[questioneer]

Reboot the machine when deactivating compiz. Restarting X11 won't help. At least this fixes the sluggishness here. (And not only that, it also brings 3D back. For some reason, when disabling compiz or any other compositing manager, 3D stops working completely, including gl/gl2 output in mplayer and I need to reboot.)

thx for your try, but i got compiz deactivad(by default) for days now, this doesnt fix anything, in fact i get same test results/"feeled speed" deactivating/activating compiz while being UP. cant reproduce any of those errors you got!

[Extreme Coder]

these options in xorg.conf fix 2D performance for me:

	Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "on" 
	Option "TexturedVideo" "on"
	Option "VideoOverlay" "off"
	Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
	Option "Textured2D" "on"
	Option "TexturedXrender" "on"
	Option "UseFastTLS" "off"
	Option "BackingStore" "on"

and in Section Extensions:

Section "Extensions"
Option "RENDER" "Enable"
Option "DAMAGE" "Enable"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

the UseFastTLS option decreases 3D performance AFAIK, but it allows better compatibility with Wine.

for me with these options on an underperforming ATI Xpress 1100 on a laptop, I got this with gtkperf:

GtkPerf 0.40 - Starting testing: Thu Dec 25 19:54:38 2008

GtkEntry - time: 0.07
GtkComboBox - time: 1.62
GtkComboBoxEntry - time: 1.05
GtkSpinButton - time: 0.34
GtkProgressBar - time: 0.13
GtkToggleButton - time: 0.35
GtkCheckButton - time: 0.25
GtkRadioButton - time: 0.37
GtkTextView - Add text - time: 0.45
GtkTextView - Scroll - time: 0.39
GtkDrawingArea - Lines - time: 1.58
GtkDrawingArea - Circles - time: 8.25
GtkDrawingArea - Text - time: 5.85
GtkDrawingArea - Pixbufs - time: 0.51
---
Total time: 21.25

[questioneer]

with your proposed Xorg.conf additions i get this:

GtkPerf 0.40 - Starting testing: Thu Dec 25 19:53:12 2008

GtkEntry - time:  0,06
GtkComboBox - time:  1,20
GtkComboBoxEntry - time:  0,92
GtkSpinButton - time:  0,24
GtkProgressBar - time:  0,11
GtkToggleButton - time:  0,15
GtkCheckButton - time:  0,05
GtkRadioButton - time:  0,11
GtkTextView - Add text - time:  0,22
GtkTextView - Scroll - time:  0,19
GtkDrawingArea - Lines - time:  0,39
GtkDrawingArea - Circles - time: 19,67
GtkDrawingArea - Text - time: 16,39
GtkDrawingArea - Pixbufs - time:  0,93
 --- 
Total time: 40,64

so nothing changed at all, altho i have to say that im unable to use the TexturedXRender option since my XServer wont be able to start with it....

[Extreme Coder]

Hm.. not sure what they're useful for though.. and maybe TexturedXRender is the one that's making my performance a tad better than yours. What does Xorg.0.log say?