Why does picom drop my fps on my 144hz monitor from 144 to 100-105?

respect · 2023-09-12 21:08:54

Hi, I'm using KDE on Arch with in a nvidia optimus setup(intel gpu laptop+nvidia card multi monitors same refresh rate and resolution), and whenever I run picom my system gets noticeably laggier. For example dragging windows around feels choppier and running a vsync test on my brother the fps drops from 144 to 100-105.

Is there a solution?

This is my picom conf:

shadow-exclude = [
    "name *= 'picom'",
    "class_g = 'firefox' && argb",
    "class_g ?= 'Notify-osd'",
    "class_g ?= 'Cairo-dock'",
    "_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c",
    "_NET_WM_STATE@:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'"
];

backend = "glx";

glx-no-stencil = true;
glx-no-rebind-pixmap = true;

glx-copy-from-front = true;
vsync = false;
unredir-if-possible = false; # true for game performance, breaks overlays
#################################
#
# Opacity
#
#################################

inactive-opacity = 1;
active-opacity = 1;
frame-opacity = 1;
inactive-opacity-override = false;

I tried disabling blur and just running picom with default settings and the choppiness is still there.

Last edited by respect (2023-09-12 21:19:41)

seth · 2023-09-13 04:32:24

The KDE window manager kwin has a built-in compositor, are you running picom *at all*?

ps aux  | grep picom
qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin supportInformation

For example dragging windows around feels choppier

100fps isn't "choppy" to a degree where you could possibly notice that and your picom config has vsync off, so that cannot limit the framerate (which: see above)

running a vsync test on my brother

Leave your brother alone, please specify what "vsync test" that is (browsers have their very own issues) and check the behavior w/ glxgears

intel gpu laptop+nvidia card multi monitors same refresh rate and resolution

Those notebooks often can only reach the higher FPS when running on the nvidia chip
Please post the output of "xrandr" and your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General

Fwwi,

glx-copy-from-front = true;

is probably not a good idea when acutally using picom.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-09-12 21:08:54

Why does picom drop my fps on my 144hz monitor from 144 to 100-105?

#2 2023-09-13 04:32:24

Re: Why does picom drop my fps on my 144hz monitor from 144 to 100-105?

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