Arch Linux

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Very poor video performance on battery with nvidia

Nowadays, I am seeing windows wipe the screen as I minimize and maximize them when I'm on battery power.  I am using the nvidia driver, so I suspect an update made this change.  But the performance is so poor and everything is so slow when I'm on battery ... is anyone else experiencing this?  Have any of you fixed it?  I'm not running cpufreqd or anything.

karag

Member

Registered: 2006-09-05

Posts: 84

Re: Very poor video performance on battery with nvidia

I noticed this too, although mostly in firefox and a few times X has locked my computer and taking %60 cpu
not sure exactly why, maybe something bad in the last update

mrunion

Member

From: Jonesborough, TN

Registered: 2007-01-26

Posts: 1,938

Website

Re: Very poor video performance on battery with nvidia

Do you use CPUFreq?  In /etc/cpufreqd.conf there are some rules that set up some things like that.  Specifically:

# use performance mode if I'm watching a movie
# I don't care for batteries! 
# But don't heat too much.
[Rule]
name=Movie Watcher
programs=xine,mplayer,gmplayer
battery_interval=0-100
acpi_temperature=0-60
#cpu_interval=70-100 <-- This line must be commented out to play "full speed" on battery power
profile=Performance High
[/Rule]

By default the cpu_interval line is in there and will cause the slowdown.  All this is from memory so YMMV.

---

Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Very poor video performance on battery with nvidia

I'm not using cpufreqd.

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Very poor video performance on battery with nvidia

Anyone else having this problem?  I've been hoping for a new nvidia package to fix this problem but it has been ongoing so far.

Perhaps there's a way to trick the nvidia driver into thinking I'm on AC power all the time?  I have a desktop replacement and I'm talking about saving maybe a few minutes at the most with this feature.