FGLRX Catalyst and Resizing with Desktop Effects

[Melcar]

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.

What I'm getting at is that both driver sets are slow in my situation. Add the fact that several nvidia users report similar slowness in KDE4, it could be that composition itself is the problem and not the drivers (or a combination of both).

[zx2c4]

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.

This is the problem I'd like to solve...

[RealNC]

It's not solvable. Either KDE/Compiz has to hack kludges around the issue (if that's possible at all) or ATI has to support this in their drivers.

[bridgman]

Does anyone happen to know what the "this" is that we apparently have to support ? Are we just talking about EXA vs XAA here ?

I normally use the open drivers with EXA and I don't see any of these delays.

[RealNC]

Does anyone happen to know what the "this" is that we apparently have to support ? Are we just talking about EXA vs XAA here ?

We don't know. Doesn't someone in the Catalyst department actually try to run KDE 4 or Compiz with a modern GPU (4xxx)?

I normally use the open drivers with EXA and I don't see any of these delays.

I used the open drivers when I had an X1950XT with no problems. It's Catalyst that is hellish slow with compositing + modern GPUs (or maybe with ALL GPUs.) Both with OpenGL as well as with Xrender.

[bridgman]

We don't know. Doesn't someone in the Catalyst department actually try to run KDE 4 or Compiz with a modern GPU (4xxx)?

Sure. When you said "support this" I thought I had missed something specific in the thread, sorry.

I used the open drivers when I had an X1950XT with no problems. It's Catalyst that is hellish slow with compositing + modern GPUs (or maybe with ALL GPUs.) Both with OpenGL as well as with Xrender.

OK, good; we're seeing the same thing then.

[Melcar]

Did a few quick tests on my laptop with both radeon and fglrx. This is on a laptop with a Sempron 3300+ w/ a 200M IGP running a stock Kubuntu 8.10 installation (KDE4.1.4). I simply took note of the fps ticker while I resized a window w/ folders (kwin composition w/ opengl):

Radeon w/ XAA
13-19

Radeon w/ EXA
18-27

Fglrx 9.1
14-21

[RealNC]

Mine (3.3GHz Core 2 Duo, 6GB RAM, HD4870) shows 4FPS while resizing

[zx2c4]

bridgman:

Check out the first post of this topic.
The problem is that resizing windows with compositing turned on is horribly slow.

[kraftman]

The same problem with resizing is with Nvidia binary blobs. I wonder if on Intel cards too?