8800 GTX Performance (9746)

[bpepers]

I just installed an XfX 8800 GTX card in my Athlon 64 X2 4800+ system and it seems really slow. I'm running Ubuntu 6.06 and the 9746 nvidia driver and I'm using a DELL 2405FPW LCD monitor at 1920x1200 and when I switch between applications taking up most of the screen, I can watch the drawing happen. I'm using KDE and switched from a 7900 card which, at least in Linux, seems to have been much faster.

Why is 2D performace so bad on the 8800 GTX? Its the fastest graphics card I've ever used and it looks in Linux like the slowest. Switching between KDE desktops allows me to watch the screen repaint. The delay is only a couple seconds but shouldn't this card be able to redraw faster than that?!

Any hints or tips? Is it just me?

[AaronP]

Does running nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 help?

[bpepers]

Originally Posted by AaronP

Does running nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 help?

I tried this and it didn't seem to make any difference (assuming that all I need to do is run this command as a regular user and then immediately see better results when switching between desktops or applications).

[bpepers]

Just as another bit of data on this, I've noticed that grabbing and moving a large window around is very jerky and seems to use a lot of CPU in the Xorg process. If I move the window slowly then it is smooth though even that will put the CPU use of Xorg into the high 70's and then if I try to move it quickly, especially over top of some other window, it moves in fits and jerks with pauses. Also if all I do is switch between desktops causing the screen to redraw, I get the Xorg CPU use into the 80's or 90's.

My CPU is an AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ and I'm running the 2.6.15-27-k7 kernel that kubuntu installed.

[netllama]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678

[bpepers]

Originally Posted by netllama

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678

I'm trying to attach the nvidia-bug-report.sh output file but when I click on "Manage Attachments", nothing happens. May have to copy the file over to a Windows system and see if it works there. Is this a known problem with this forum or something wrong on my end?

[bpepers]

Originally Posted by bpepers

I'm trying to attach the nvidia-bug-report.sh output file but when I click on "Manage Attachments", nothing happens. May have to copy the file over to a Windows system and see if it works there. Is this a known problem with this forum or something wrong on my end?

Found out the "Manage Attachments" was opening a new window but it was behind the current one so I didn't see it. Here is the bug report output. I had to gzip it since it was too large otherwise to add to the attachments.

[netllama]

I don't see anything obviously wrong in your bug report. Is this problem specific to KDE?

[bpepers]

Originally Posted by netllama

I don't see anything obviously wrong in your bug report. Is this problem specific to KDE?

Just tried Gnome and yes, there is no speed problem when using Gnome. So what is it that KDE is doing that is making the 8800 so slow? It must be some bad interaction with the nvidia driver and the 8800 since I had no problem like this when using my previous 7900 card. Any ideas of things I can try? Anyone else using KDE and an 8800 card and noticing this slowness?

[OrqwithVagrant]

I'm seeing a similar issue, and I do use gnome. My impression is that it's not really a "speed of blitting" problem, but rather a small "lag" before each gui element/pixmap gets drawn. The severity of the slowness is dependent on how pixmap-heavy the theme is. If KDE is your normal DE of choice, I'm guessing you might have it more "prettified" than the default gnome desktop you've tested on for comparison. Try loading gnome with a more glitzy theme and see if it stays fast.

I'm wondering if this might be related to the bandwidth problem reported in: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84871

My current hardware is an ASUS EN8800GTX card in a Tyan K8WE motherboard, with 4 gigs of RAM and two Opteron 270 CPUs. I previously used a Leadtek 7900GTX, which had no speed issues. Output from the nvidia-bug-report on my system supplied for comparison.

[bpepers]

Originally Posted by OrqwithVagrant

I'm seeing a similar issue, and I do use gnome. My impression is that it's not really a "speed of blitting" problem, but rather a small "lag" before each gui element/pixmap gets drawn. The severity of the slowness is dependent on how pixmap-heavy the theme is. If KDE is your normal DE of choice, I'm guessing you might have it more "prettified" than the default gnome desktop you've tested on for comparison. Try loading gnome with a more glitzy theme and see if it stays fast.

I'm wondering if this might be related to the bandwidth problem reported in: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84871

My current hardware is an ASUS EN8800GTX card in a Tyan K8WE motherboard, with 4 gigs of RAM and two Opteron 270 CPUs. I previously used a Leadtek 7900GTX, which had no speed issues. Output from the nvidia-bug-report on my system supplied for comparison.

My KDE isn't really very fancy in any way. Just the standard Kubuntu 6.06 settings. But perhaps its using pixmaps for something I'm not realizing. I turned off the background picture but that didn't help.

Could be the bandwidth problem that was reported. Is there any way to see what bug #284530 is and what the current status of it is? I can't find a bug tracking system on the nvidia web pages.

[OrqwithVagrant]

I have no idea if KDE's default theme is more pixmap heavy than gnome's default, but it wouldn't surprise me - default gnome is rather spartan. Try throwing a "brushed metal" theme at gnome, like this:

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/sh...?content=32510

That one uses pixmaps just about everywhere, causes unbearable ui lagginess on my machine.