[SOLVED] Graphics performance on AOA 150 netbook and composition

Question

Hello everyone.
First of all, I'm unsure is this post a bug report, a call for a help or a "how to". :-)
I'm using Arch on this netbook for 2 years now and I have to admit, that there is constant graphical performance slowdown with each version of xorg and xf86-video-intel increment (graphical controller is Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)). When I just had installed Arch, I'd had about 600 fps with glxgears (yes, I know, that glxgears is not a benchmark, but it's affected by all the same lags as overall graphical subsystem). As of few upgrades, fps became ~300. Then, when vsync was made necessary by Intel, I'd had ~60 fps. Now performance of graphical subsystem is extremely low -- ~25-30 fps. This slowdown affects both 3D and 2D, the gears in glxgears are rotating with pauses. The most interesting thing is the mouse activity influence. When I move the mouse during the test, fps increases. If I'll move mouse constantly during the test, I'll get ~60 fps.
For this two years I'd used different window managers and desktop environments in different combinations, but result was the same: desktop composition had always decreased fps rate. But with cairo-compmgr I'd got very strange result. If it's active, fps is constantly ~60 and gears are moving smoothly, no matters how I move the mouse. As for me, the main question is why is this happens and how this result can be achieved without any composition (cairo-compmgr is quiet buggy for now).
As of practical usage, now I use gnome3 in legacy mode (because of lags under mutter) with cairo-compmgr running, all it's visual effects are turned off. Fps is ~60.
Last edited by zhuk_av (2011-05-08 14:09:54)

Answer 1

Here are some test results.
1. WM:metacity, no composition managers
[solo@solo-laptop ~]$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
133 frames in 5.1 seconds = 26.174 FPS
117 frames in 5.0 seconds = 23.318 FPS
117 frames in 5.0 seconds = 23.317 FPS
132 frames in 5.0 seconds = 26.306 FPS
129 frames in 5.0 seconds = 25.709 FPS
132 frames in 5.0 seconds = 26.400 FPS
118 frames in 5.0 seconds = 23.434 FPS
2. WM:metacity, no composition managers, mouse avtivity in the second part of the test
[solo@solo-laptop ~]$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
147 frames in 5.0 seconds = 29.162 FPS
134 frames in 5.0 seconds = 26.554 FPS
135 frames in 5.0 seconds = 26.904 FPS
128 frames in 5.0 seconds = 25.510 FPS
229 frames in 5.0 seconds = 45.768 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.222 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.215 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.242 FPS
3. WM:metacity, CM:xcompmgr
[solo@solo-laptop ~]$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
139 frames in 5.0 seconds = 27.731 FPS
127 frames in 5.0 seconds = 25.304 FPS
156 frames in 5.0 seconds = 31.165 FPS
151 frames in 5.0 seconds = 30.125 FPS
136 frames in 5.0 seconds = 27.118 FPS
115 frames in 5.0 seconds = 22.919 FPS
126 frames in 5.0 seconds = 25.111 FPS
119 frames in 5.0 seconds = 23.716 FPS
4. WM:metacity, CM:cairo-compmgr
[solo@solo-laptop ~]$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
309 frames in 5.0 seconds = 61.699 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.380 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.206 FPS
311 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.188 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.283 FPS
311 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.120 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.199 FPS
312 frames in 5.0 seconds = 62.360 FPS
5. WM+CM:gnome-shell
[solo@solo-laptop ~]$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
143 frames in 5.0 seconds = 28.506 FPS
135 frames in 5.0 seconds = 26.839 FPS
136 frames in 5.0 seconds = 27.063 FPS
137 frames in 5.0 seconds = 27.303 FPS
144 frames in 5.0 seconds = 28.698 FPS
143 frames in 5.0 seconds = 28.499 FPS
129 frames in 5.0 seconds = 25.709 FPS
134 frames in 5.0 seconds = 26.705 FPS
140 frames in 5.0 seconds = 27.901 FPS
Last edited by zhuk_av (2011-05-07 09:41:09)