Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

reymomo80 · 2009-11-15 15:19:57

Hi everyone! First post here so excuse if I post this under a wrong category. Also excuse my english.

Straight to the point, I've been using my laptop with Gnome and Compiz Fusion for a while and until not long ago everything was working perfectly smooth and all. I don't know if it is related to an upgrade or what but I didn't change any configuration. The problem itself is that all the 3D rendering is done by the CPU even though Nvidia Performance Level goes to Level 2 (Nvidia 8400M, NV GPU Clock 400 MHz, NV RAM Clock 400 MHz). Glxgears shows a performance of at least 1300 FPS but the processor level goes to 80% (Core 2 duo). I went to System Monitor and I saw that glxgears was eating one of my processors and part of the other.

Here are some facts:

Direct rendering is on (glxinfo | grep direct)
nvidia-settings -q GPUCurrentPerfMode -t returns 1 while glxgears is running (2D Mode rendering)
nvidia-settings -q GPUCurrentPerfLevel -t returns 2 while glxgears is running (Nvidia Performance Level)
nvidia driver version: 190.42

xorg.conf says:

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load    "synaptics"
EndSection
...
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8400M GS"
Option    "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerLevel=0x2"
Option    "Coolbits" "1"
Option    "TripleBuffer" "True"
Option    "NoLogo" "True"
Option    "RenderAccel" "True"
Option    "DamageEvents" "True"
EndSection
...
Section "Extensions"
Option    "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Well, I guess that's the important stuff. Again, this problem started without me touching anything so I would assume it was a pacman upgrade issue. I will appreciate any help on this matter. Thanks in advance.

flamelab · 2009-11-15 15:29:36

Try to make a minimal xorg.conf. Read the Nvidia wiki

Last edited by flamelab (2009-11-15 15:30:08)

Thor · 2009-11-15 15:59:46

glxgears will always use as much cpu as possible (only one core). It was never designed to be a benchmark, just to try to draw as many FPS as possible. Is there any other app where you see a performance degrade and/or high cpu usage ?

reymomo80 · 2009-11-15 16:00:29

Ok, I tried the bare minimal xorg configuration and the overall performance is better but the 3D rendering is still done by the CPU. Glxgears goes at 60 FPS but it doesn't use more than 6% of the processor. Still, when I rotate the 3D Desktop the processor goes to 50%.

reymomo80 · 2009-11-15 16:43:36

I've now added the option

Option "DamageEvents" "True"

to xorg.conf and now glxgears gives 1700 FPS. Compiz cube still goes to 50% CPU and nvidia-settings -q GPUCurrentPerfMode -t still returns 1 while glxgears is running.

Dheart · 2009-11-15 16:55:24

rendering is done by the Video card
glxgears will always use 100% cpu usage
it is not a benchmark
try some game as nexuiz or alien arena
If you have any issues, report them afterwards.

reymomo80 · 2009-11-15 17:07:55

I know glxgears is not a benchmark but it is NOT using 100% cpu now. I use glxgears to make the system use 3D acceleration.
If I use the Compiz-fusion benchmark FPS drops down to 7/8 FPS and also the processor goes to 50% when I start rotating the cube.
I think the problem is that compiz is not being rendered by the GPU, don't know why. Compiz is set to use Loose binding and Indirect rendering. I've tried switching them off and it stays the same.

reymomo80 · 2009-11-15 19:25:55

Following your advice I've installed Neverball. It works perfectly smooth and with almost no CPU usage. On the other hand Compiz still uses 50% CPU doing almost nothing. Just showing the benchmark bar makes it go to 50%.
Any suggestions?

Dheart · 2009-11-15 19:49:32

... Compiz has always used up a lot of CPU usage, but that's not an indicator that the graphic card not doing the rendering.
The 60 fps glxgears you see is probably vertical synchronized one and that's why it doesn't eat CPU, but understand this, in complicated graphical application there is a lot of work for the CPU, not just the GPU, and the latter often results bottlenecked by the former. Read a random CPU review/benchmark on the Internet and you'll see how different CPUs result in different frame rate in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky or WoW for example, but in Games like Crysis different CPUs don't affect the framerate, because the game is too heavy on the GPU for the CPU to have influence. It's completely normal for Compiz and X to eat up 50% CPU during effects, it's just the way they are designed to work, and don't search for a problem with your graphic's card.

reymomo80 · 2009-11-15 20:02:44

I know what you mean, and you are right, rendering does use CPU. You are also right about glxgears been vertically synchronized, didn't notice that before.
Yet the strange thing is that I didn't have this problem before. A few weeks before I could rotate the cube and it would only go up to 20%, maybe even less. Now it goes straight to 50% and it looks very glitchy. I use to have the same problem when my nvidia driver was on PowerMizer level 0 (not happening right now). Even without rotating the cube just visualizing the benchmark bar of compiz fusion makes the processor go to 50%.
I don't know if it's some compiz configuration problem but it is not normal that just rotating the cubes drops the FPS to 7 meanwhile making the CPU work at 50% (Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz). Specially when it didn't happened before.

Dheart · 2009-11-15 21:55:51

An update from nvidia or X server messing up compiz performance is not unheard of, look at your /etc/pacman.log and see what packages were updated. Probably the new xserver brought this issue.

reymomo80 · 2009-11-17 17:06:30

That was my first thought. I haven't got the time to check the update logs but lets assume that was it. Yesterday I've checked my desktop PC (the problem is with my laptop) which I haven't updated in a long time and the rendering was great with almost no CPU usage.
Of course the desktop is a little more powerful than my notebook but any way it helped me check how much CPU compiz uses.

Thanks for the help

reymomo80 · 2010-01-01 21:24:54

Ok, after a while I gave up and recently decided to resume this issue. Finally I got it working right again. Don't know exactly why but disabling "Indirect rendering" solved the problem.
Now I have Compiz working with all the effects without consuming much CPU (only 7%). Hope this helps people having the same issue.

Thank you all for your help and ideas.

BTW: Happy new year!!!

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-15 15:19:57

Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#2 2009-11-15 15:29:36

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#3 2009-11-15 15:59:46

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#4 2009-11-15 16:00:29

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#5 2009-11-15 16:43:36

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#6 2009-11-15 16:55:24

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#7 2009-11-15 17:07:55

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#8 2009-11-15 19:25:55

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#9 2009-11-15 19:49:32

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#10 2009-11-15 20:02:44

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#11 2009-11-15 21:55:51

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#12 2009-11-17 17:06:30

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

#13 2010-01-01 21:24:54

Re: Yet Another Nvidia Performance Issue (YANPI)

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