nVidia 8000/9000 Series Performance Issues

[Sarev]

just stumbled into this forum while searching info on the nvidia-kde4 problem. I didn't knew it was such a popular issue.

Anyway, I tested the last beta driver with the command found in the first page of this post and sadly i didn't noticed any substantial improvement. I use kde4 beta2 on kubuntu 8.04 and i have a GeForce 8600gt.

Hope the guys at nvidia fix this soon...

[xsolarwindx]

Originally Posted by Sarev

just stumbled into this forum while searching info on the nvidia-kde4 problem. I didn't knew it was such a popular issue.

Anyway, I tested the last beta driver with the command found in the first page of this post and sadly i didn't noticed any substantial improvement. I use kde4 beta2 on kubuntu 8.04 and i have a GeForce 8600gt.

Hope the guys at nvidia fix this soon...

Yeah, it's a very big problem. Anyway, you have to use the latest 177 drivers and make sure not to restart X or reboot to notice any effect.

[Sarev]

I installed and tested the last beta driver just before writing my first post here.

by the way, with "make sure not to restart X" you mean not to restart X after i used the suggested command? Or am I missing something?

thanks

[xsolarwindx]

Originally Posted by Sarev

I installed and tested the last beta driver just before writing my first post here.

by the way, with "make sure not to restart X" you mean not to restart X after i used the suggested command? Or am I missing something?

thanks

Yeah, don't restart X after issuing the command. Just run the command and see if it makes a difference. Try moving windows around, resizing them and use compiz-fusion.

[Grogan]

Originally Posted by erickghint

Sadly, Nvclock doesn't support the 9 series cards, as of yet.

I can't do it on the command line (tells me it's unsupported), but I open nvclock_gtk and I can still adjust the fan speed of my new 9800GX2. However, since there are two GPUs I have two "unknown" video card sections (see attachment). I have to go to Hardware Monitoring on the second one, to adjust the fan. I adjust the fan with that utility, and the clock speed with nvidia-settings using coolbits (need to underclock severely to play UT2004 because there's no way to limit the FPS in that game)

BFG Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 OCX

I'm quite happy with it in Linux (It's overkill for anything I've got in Linux) and Windows. Using current 173.14.09 Linux drivers with:

Option "PixmapCacheSize" "200000"
nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 -a GlyphCache=1

2D performance is excellent (certainly as good as my previous 8800 GTS G80 card). Firefox and other windows are snappy to draw and resize, and scrolling is good except for a few very awful web sites, but they are miserable scrolling in Windows as well. I don't use Aero in Windows, and I would have to say that my 2D desktop and scrolling performance is still better in Linux.

Sorry, I don't use KDE4 (don't like it) so I can't comment there. I use XFCE 4 and sometimes KDE 3.5.9. No fancy 3D desktop effects like Compiz here either.

I use xorg 7.1 on a home rolled Linux system.

[Fackamato]

Hm yeah, I have to install XFCE and see if 2D performance is the same there. If not (if it's better), then it's nvidia+gnome(gtk?) that's troubling me.

[xsolarwindx]

Originally Posted by Grogan

I can't do it on the command line (tells me it's unsupported), but I open nvclock_gtk and I can still adjust the fan speed of my new 9800GX2. However, since there are two GPUs I have two "unknown" video card sections (see attachment). I have to go to Hardware Monitoring on the second one, to adjust the fan. I adjust the fan with that utility, and the clock speed with nvidia-settings using coolbits (need to underclock severely to play UT2004 because there's no way to limit the FPS in that game)

BFG Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 OCX

I'm quite happy with it in Linux (It's overkill for anything I've got in Linux) and Windows. Using current 173.14.09 Linux drivers with:

Option "PixmapCacheSize" "200000"
nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 -a GlyphCache=1

2D performance is excellent (certainly as good as my previous 8800 GTS G80 card). Firefox and other windows are snappy to draw and resize, and scrolling is good except for a few very awful web sites, but they are miserable scrolling in Windows as well. I don't use Aero in Windows, and I would have to say that my 2D desktop and scrolling performance is still better in Linux.

Sorry, I don't use KDE4 (don't like it) so I can't comment there. I use XFCE 4 and sometimes KDE 3.5.9. No fancy 3D desktop effects like Compiz here either.

I use xorg 7.1 on a home rolled Linux system.

Option "PixmapCacheSize" "200000"

^ That option, where do you put it?

[Fackamato]

In the nvidia driver section of xorg.conf I guess

[Dragoran]

Originally Posted by Grogan

I (need to underclock severely to play UT2004 because there's no way to limit the FPS in that game)

vsync ?

Originally Posted by Fackamato

Hm yeah, I have to install XFCE and see if 2D performance is the same there. If not (if it's better), then it's nvidia+gnome(gtk?) that's troubling me.

XFCE uses gtk too.

[xsolarwindx]

Originally Posted by Fackamato

In the nvidia driver section of xorg.conf I guess

Yeah, that option helped a lot. But there's still a long way to go.

[kevrox]

installed the 173.14.09 driver via envy last night and still no joy with my pc, with visual effect on with compiz... I still freeze, even got my XP to freeze while doing a stress test with the nvidia ntune software.... now I am wondering if it's my card that's a dud...
what ATI card would be the equivalent here for my 512 8600GT as I do some autocad inventor work so 3d rendering is important. thanks. BTW I also just leave my system idle and it freezes as well.... temperature range is 39 to 45 deg C well within limits... wonder if the card is incompatable with my MSI p35 neo Mobo and core 2 duo E6850

[Sarev]

Originally Posted by xsolarwindx

Yeah, don't restart X after issuing the command. Just run the command and see if it makes a difference. Try moving windows around, resizing them and use compiz-fusion.

So I did. Anyway, I tried it again today (issuing the command without restarting X) and this is a kind of more detailed report:

-no difference in web pages scrolling, the ones that lagged before lagged after too.

-i see no difference also in resizing and reducing/restoring windows. This is the biggest problem for me so that i'm forced to disable Kwin destkop effects (i don't use compiz) cause with the effects enabled and many windows open my destkop become really unusable.

-moving windows is ok for me, but it already was with driver 169.12 from the ubuntu repositories.