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I have been using Cinnamon for some time and i still think its the best DE for Linux ever made. Because i like decent eye-candy effects, one issue bothers me a lot.
Windows animation (minimizing, workspace switching, expo) as very jerky even on high spec machine. I have AMD RX470 with 8 gigs video memory and some animations, particularly when i have lots of windows opened, are like 10 fps.
I did some experiments on my old laptop (Core2Duo with GM45 chipset) and i was shocked how fluid and fast are Mint MATE or Mint XFCE with Compiz compositor.
For sure on faster computers (my next laptop with Sandy Bridge i5) Cinnamon is quicker than on Core2Duo's GM45, but when i connect second monitor or have lots of windows opened, Cinnamon becomes very slow even on i5.
At first i thought that Intels GPU are too slow and AMD drivers buggy (radeon and even amdgpu/amdgpu-pro), but then i tried Mate and XFCE with compiz, clean Ubuntu with Unity, Gnome on X and Wayland, KDE and everything was way faster on old Core2Duo laptop than on my 4GHz Core i5 with 8 gig Polaris GPU.
I was searching for some information about Cinnamon's compositor Muffer, but i didn't find any relevant info about some tweak possibility even on Github repo of Muffer.
I tried playing with DRI2/3, many Xorg driver specific options without any effect.
I tried many configuration of AMD GPUs: 5770, 5850 (especially slow due some driver bug), 6850, 7950 and now RX470, Intel's GPU in P965 chipset, GM45, Sandy Bridge. Yes, faster graphics card are faster, but even fastest GPU will lose in comparison with old Core2Duo laptop with Compiz/Unity or Gnome shell.
Compiz has many plugins and can be customized to behave almost like Cinnamon, but XFCE/MATE panels are no match for Cinnamon's polished user experience. Another think is, compiz is rather dead project with lots of bugs
BTW: Chrome browser since ver. 59 (transition to GTK3 i think) is terribly slow and even does tearing on Cinnamon. Override software rendering list in chrome://flags solves tearing, not terrible scrooling performance. None of this appears in DE with different compositor.
I really would like know your opinion and experience with Cinnamon.
BTW: I'm using 3 monitors, so maybe you didn't notice slow-down with one monitor setup. Fact is Muffin scale very badly in comparioson with diferent compositor.
Windows animation (minimizing, workspace switching, expo) as very jerky even on high spec machine. I have AMD RX470 with 8 gigs video memory and some animations, particularly when i have lots of windows opened, are like 10 fps.
I did some experiments on my old laptop (Core2Duo with GM45 chipset) and i was shocked how fluid and fast are Mint MATE or Mint XFCE with Compiz compositor.
For sure on faster computers (my next laptop with Sandy Bridge i5) Cinnamon is quicker than on Core2Duo's GM45, but when i connect second monitor or have lots of windows opened, Cinnamon becomes very slow even on i5.
At first i thought that Intels GPU are too slow and AMD drivers buggy (radeon and even amdgpu/amdgpu-pro), but then i tried Mate and XFCE with compiz, clean Ubuntu with Unity, Gnome on X and Wayland, KDE and everything was way faster on old Core2Duo laptop than on my 4GHz Core i5 with 8 gig Polaris GPU.
I was searching for some information about Cinnamon's compositor Muffer, but i didn't find any relevant info about some tweak possibility even on Github repo of Muffer.
I tried playing with DRI2/3, many Xorg driver specific options without any effect.
I tried many configuration of AMD GPUs: 5770, 5850 (especially slow due some driver bug), 6850, 7950 and now RX470, Intel's GPU in P965 chipset, GM45, Sandy Bridge. Yes, faster graphics card are faster, but even fastest GPU will lose in comparison with old Core2Duo laptop with Compiz/Unity or Gnome shell.
Compiz has many plugins and can be customized to behave almost like Cinnamon, but XFCE/MATE panels are no match for Cinnamon's polished user experience. Another think is, compiz is rather dead project with lots of bugs
BTW: Chrome browser since ver. 59 (transition to GTK3 i think) is terribly slow and even does tearing on Cinnamon. Override software rendering list in chrome://flags solves tearing, not terrible scrooling performance. None of this appears in DE with different compositor.
I really would like know your opinion and experience with Cinnamon.
BTW: I'm using 3 monitors, so maybe you didn't notice slow-down with one monitor setup. Fact is Muffin scale very badly in comparioson with diferent compositor.