FGLRX Catalyst and Resizing with Desktop Effects

[RealNC]

If this is really that important to you maybe you should reconsider why a) you bought an AMD card before doing some research; b) why are you running linux at all. Don't get me wrong

Oh, but I *do* take you wrong. Just because I don't fit your world model doesn't mean I need to shut up. I have the right to complain because of the crappy way the product I bought works. Why I didn't buy something else? Because I damn didn't want to.

[rbmorse]

I consider gaming under Linux quite a corner-case ... in much the same way as I consider workstation 3D usages a corner-case.

Except workstations are a $1B USD market. I wish desktop Linux was that kind of corner case. It would get a lot more attention.

[kernelOfTruth]

I've found a tip that seems to make life with fglrx in KDE 4 a little bit less miserable:

In System Settings -> Desktop Effects -> "Advanced" tab, select "Always" in the "Keep window thumbnails" list.

After this, restoring minimized windows is fast. Doesn't fix the slow as hell resizing and maximizing, but restoring minimized windows is always fast even the windows are maximized while minimizing/restoring them.

thanks a lot !

that's the only problem so far (besides composite being way slower than Textured2D) preventing me from using compositing with kwin and kde 4.2

and now it's fixed !

[RealNC]

Yes, now we can have composite but of course we can't watch videos or run 3D apps, but hey, who needs that stuff, right? It's a 400$ graphics cards, no one bought it for video or 3D

[zx2c4]

Let's stay on subject here.

How can we get acceptable resizing performance with KDE4+compositing/desktopeffects? Someone may have mentioned a setting for compiz that gave acceptable resizing performance with fglrx; is there an equivalent work around for kde4?

And also, how far away is fglrx from being usable with resizing/compositing?

[RealNC]

We already mentioned a workaround for KDE4 by disabling "Show contents during resize".

[zx2c4]

I've tried that and it works to a degree but is still too slow (maximising...).

[Melcar]

On my integrated 200M (laptop) radeon and fglrx fair about the same on KDE4 with effects on. You can notice slowdown when resizing and maximizing windows. Radeon is a bit faster, but nothing that will make you say "wow, this driver is faster". Other card types may be a different story however.

[nbi1]

Then someone inside AMD needs to hit someone else in the head with a stick. There's this thing called the "Linux Desktop" everyone tells "it's not ready yet" mainly because of the philosophy you just described.

A kick with a steel toed boot might be better for getting the message across!

[vertigo]

On my integrated 200M (laptop) radeon and fglrx fair about the same on KDE4 with effects on. You can notice slowdown when resizing and maximizing windows. Radeon is a bit faster, but nothing that will make you say "wow, this driver is faster". Other card types may be a different story however.

As mentioned in this thread, a workaround is to set Keep Window Thumbnails to Always from System Settings -> Desktop -> Desktop Effects.

Regarding the window resize issue, the Show FPS desktop effect shows that the frame rate in KDE 4.2 drops to 1 if a window is resized when using fgrlx.