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#1 2006-05-15 21:19:38

dtw
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From: UK
Registered: 2004-08-03
Posts: 4,439
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Crap X performance since 7.0

I can't say exactly when it started but I do know it was sometime after I installed X 7.0 and possibly that coincided with 2.6.16...I know that we using -archck noticed a considerable drop in performance about the same time, sound would get choppy under a heavy load, etc...

Basically all I do know is that my video performance now sucks.  If I right click on a video in gmplayer to pop up a menu the video freezes while it renders the menu and CPU usage goes bananas.  X sits solidly at the top of top too - it never used to at all.

My system is quite old now but I am only running fvwm - hardly memory or cpu intensive.  I use the radeon driver for my ATI Radeon Mobility M6 and once upon a time performance was great but now it is laggy as hell and refresh/render rates are frankly shit: after a pop up appears over firefox, for example, you actually have to move the window to get itto re-render properly again.

Is it my kernel, is it X or did I miss something?

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#2 2006-05-15 22:31:12

test1000
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Registered: 2005-04-03
Posts: 834

Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

umm.. maybe your kernel spits out something when the 'hiccups' appear. I usually just run with the kernel outputting to my root-window, as well as the X log, so I get the errors when they appear. With conky btw.


KISS = "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience." - Albert Einstein

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#3 2006-05-15 23:53:19

iphitus
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From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

pastebin your /var/log/Xorg.0.log

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#4 2006-05-16 17:52:05

dtw
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From: UK
Registered: 2004-08-03
Posts: 4,439
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Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

Ok - it's here

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#5 2006-05-16 18:31:02

Cerebral
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From: Waterloo, ON, CA
Registered: 2005-04-08
Posts: 3,108
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Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

(EE) RADEON(0): Static buffer allocation failed.  Disabling DRI.
(EE) RADEON(0): At least 18432 kB of video memory needed at this resolution and depth.

That seems to be your problem - it's saying your card doesn't have the memory to handle your res/depth setting with DRI.

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#6 2006-05-16 18:33:51

kth5
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Registered: 2004-04-29
Posts: 657
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Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

as far as i can figure you run a dual-screen xinerama setup through mergedfb. that would keep most DRI features enabled of course.
but to make it bad your card is low on memory. looks like it has 16 or less megs physical memory, the rest is mapped from system ram. that disables DRI immediately as you need at least 8192KB free to run a single 1024x768-16bpp screen with DRI. you should really go for a single screen setup on this one.

anyway, some options for you to play with could be:

Option "AGPMode" "1-8"
Option "AGPFastWrite" "true/false"
Option "AccelMethod" "XAA/EXA" # i reccomend EXAa
Option "FBTexPercent" "0-100"

to explain all those it would take a whole lot of typing, so i suggest to read the manpage. smile


I recognize that while theory and practice are, in theory, the same, they are, in practice, different. -Mark Mitchell

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#7 2006-05-16 18:36:03

dtw
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From: UK
Registered: 2004-08-03
Posts: 4,439
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Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

Shit!  It was never a problem before :'(  Weird that my greps for EE came up with nothing too

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#8 2006-05-16 18:37:45

kth5
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Registered: 2004-04-29
Posts: 657
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Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

dtw wrote:

Shit!  It was never a problem before :'(  Weird that my greps for EE came up with nothing too

some time ago the r300/ATI devs introduced a new acceleration feature called "ColorTiling" as device-section option. that also used to criple DRI, maybe disabling it helps to get some speed back?

[EDIT]
try not to

Load "dbe"

I recognize that while theory and practice are, in theory, the same, they are, in practice, different. -Mark Mitchell

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#9 2006-05-16 18:56:05

dtw
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From: UK
Registered: 2004-08-03
Posts: 4,439
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Re: Crap X performance since 7.0

Awesome!  Thanks, guys!  DRI is indeed only disabled by my mergedfb setup - there are no errors reported without it but the lag is still present.  I'll try kth5 suggestions smile

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