Nvidia 9600GT: Xorg process and high CPU usage

[xorock]

I'm working on KDE 4.6.1 and Nvidia 9600GT. After ~hour of normal work (web
browsing, code writing) Xorg uses really lot of CPU (AMD X2 5600) - 20% and
rising. Everything goes slow.
For now opened apps are: kadu, amarok, FF, konsole.

#uptime:uptime
 11:56    working 2 days  2:19,  3 users,  avg load: 1,19, 1,07, 1,09

top
root      20   0  218m 104m 3936 R   99  5.2 253:36.00 Xorg

lsmod |grep no
powernow_k8            20011  1 
mperf                   1555  1 powernow_k8
processor              39669  1 powernow_k8

rpm -qa |grep nvidia
x11-video-nvidiaG02-260.19.44-24.1.x86_64
nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop-260.19.44_k2.6.37.1_1.2-23.1.x86_64

I'm working on Opensuse 11.4 64-bit. Also tried latest kernel and manually installed nvidia drivers with no effect.

Any ideas?

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start system
2. Keep working
3. Watch CPU usage
Actual Results:
100% CPU load - Xorg process

Expected Results:
up to 10% CPU during normal work

[danix]

Are you running with desktop effects enabled?

Can you test to see if just leaving the system idle eventually ends up using a lot of CPU in X? Maybe leaving it idle with a few apps open?

[lotlorien]

Dear All,

I have the same and very irritating problem since my upgrade:

XOrg produces nearly always high CPU (50%+) load of both CPU cores, even if I don't do anything. As a result, the whole desktop becomes very unresponsive. It may take up to 2 seconds before a chosen window is activated, scrolling through a list is close to impossible, etc. Also, the fan is on all the time. However, very sporadically, for about a minute, the system suddenly is fine - everything is smooth and fast.

My personal feeling is that there is a problem with events and interrupts. 3D acceleration per se seems fine.

My configurations:

openSUSE 11.4
KDE 4.6.1, KDE 4.6.2, with and without (!) Desktop Effects (Kwin or Compiz)
GeForce 8600M GT
Latest 260 (from .rpm files) and 270 (from .run file, beta) drivers

I tried to install earlier drivers, but that failed with a compile error.

There is only one way to eliminate the problem: Running nouveau with no 3D. But I need 3D for my work, so no option for me. But that tells me that the driver is involved in this issue.

I really don't know anymore what to do. Please help me.

PS: I upgraded these days from openSUSE 11.0 and KDE 3.5.10 with dirver 170.xxx and XGL. This old system worked fine, with the exception that XGL always used 40% of my 4GB. But I could live with that.

[xorock]

Originally Posted by danix

Are you running with desktop effects enabled?

Yes, but also tried with desktop effects disabled and see no difference. I removed all desktop widgets (now playing, folder view) and activities but it did not change anything.

Can you test to see if just leaving the system idle eventually ends up using a lot of CPU in X? Maybe leaving it idle with a few apps open?

Tonight I just booted computer and left it as is. CPU usage of Xorg ~18%. Grows up dramatically during day.

Also, I can confirm @lotlorien words. I had no problem with oldest drivers on OS 11.2 or 11.3.

[lotlorien]

Dear All,

I'm almost sure I could solve the problem, but need some more testing to be 100% sure. Here is what I did:

(1)

I upgraded XOrg from the repository

ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/repo...openSUSE_11.4/

(So now I have xorg-x11-7.6-166.1.i586 installed along with all the libraries etc.)

(2)

Reinstall the Nvidia driver, because installing a new XOrg touches some files in a way the driver doesn't like.

(3)

Reboot


Since then it seems my issues are gone! Please let me know if this also helps you.

Thanks and kind regards,

lotlorien

[xorock]

Unfortunately, I do not see the difference. Keeping Xorg up to date with this repository. But I'm working on 64-bit architecture.

[danix]

We've been having trouble reproducing this. Are there any more concrete reproduction steps you can suggest?

[cthulhu]

I'm seeing this too on the following system:

Laptop:
Asus U6V
Core2Duo P8400 2.26GHz
3GB DDR2
9300M GS

Gentoo Linux:
Kernel 2.6.38
X.Org xserver 1.10.1
NVIDIA driver 270.41.03 (and previous 270.* and 260.* versions too)
KDE 4.6.2

I have other computers as well, where this doesn't happen (all Core2Duo, but with various NVIDIA cards (GT220 @work, GTX460 for gaming). They're somewhat more conservatively updated, so they're not so bleeding edge as my laptop (Kernel 2.6.36, Xorg 1.9, KDE 4.4, NVIDIA driver 260).

I have a machine with a GT9500 card as well, but it's only used as a HTPC (MythTV) and not as a regular desktop, so I haven't been aware of possible high CPU usage on that one. I'll try to remember and check. Perhaps this problem is limited (or particularly apparent on 9xxx cards).

EDIT: Forgot to mention all machines are running Gentoo Linux. My machine at work is running 64bit and the rest 32bit.

[xorock]

I've done some research and changes and looks like changing kernel from -desktop to -default helps a bit (or maybe it's coincidence as of new nvidia drivers ). But so far kernel-default and x11-video-nvidiaG02-270.41.06-5.1.x86_64 duet solves my problem. Could You test it?

[cthulhu]

Originally Posted by xorock

I've done some research and changes and looks like changing kernel from -desktop to -default helps a bit...

kernel-default and kernel-desktop - are those Ubuntu packages? I don't have those packages on my (Gentoo) system, but perhaps this hints that a kernel setting affects the problem. Can you try doing a diff between the two kernels config-files?

If it's not Ubuntu packages, then I have no idea what you are talking about.

[xorock]

Originally Posted by cthulhu

kernel-default and kernel-desktop - are those Ubuntu packages? I don't have those packages on my (Gentoo) system, but perhaps this hints that a kernel setting affects the problem. Can you try doing a diff between the two kernels config-files?

If it's not Ubuntu packages, then I have no idea what you are talking about.

No, I'm using Opensuse. You can read more on http://en.opensuse.org/Kernel
And some other topic http://groups.google.com/group/alt.o...35f827c700b4c3

[debianuser]

I was experiencing the exact same problems. CPU staying somewhere between 50 and 70% (of one core) while nothing 'special' was going on. The steps below helped a lot

1. Change the kernel config to make the kernel a default desktop kernel. My custom kernel was set to highly responsive/real time.
2. Some desktop kde widgets about system conditions were eating a lot cpu causing a high xorg cpu usage. Removed some of those.
3. Most important one: close Amarok(!) This otherwise fine mp3 application was causing the high xorg cpu usage. The Amarok process itself wasn't that high, but somehow it caused xorg to be very cpu hungry.

Now I only get an occasional high xorg cpu, but way less than before these actions were taken. Hope this information can help others as well as the Nvidia developers.