User:Lemma/GPU-Performance: Difference between revisions

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{{warning|Before making any changes to your system, please read everything carefully and try to understand what you are doing. If you're modifying any files on your system, keep copies of the unmodified version and be sure you can revert to those old version - even if your Xserver is not starting any longer.}}


{{warning|Some of the changes mentioned below are said to '''increase the temperature of your GPU'''. In any case, monitor your graphic card to make sure it isn't getting too hot!}}


= Primer =
{{note|This page has been moved to Userbase. The new URL is: http://userbase.kde.org/GPU-Performance.}}


Several popular graphics cards out there - especiall NVIDIA ones - exhibit performance problems with KDE4. These performance hits mostly concern [[Projects/Plasma|Plasma]] - the KDE4 desktop - and [[Projects/KWin|KWin]] - the KDE window-manager. Generally speaking this isn't due to KDE4 being unoptimized but a problem with the cards' graphics drivers. This page encompasses certain problems that might arise and how to get rid of them.
Unfortunately I couldn't keep the history but thanks to everyone contributing information and translations to this page!
 
= General/Glossary =
 
; nvidia-settings : Attributes set using the ''nvidia-settings'' utility aren't permanently saved. Thus you have to set them every time you restart your Xserver. This can be done conveniently by adding the lines to set the features to your <tt>~/.xinitrc</tt>.
 
= Problems =
 
This section summarizes several symptoms you might encounter and tries to explain possible causes.
 
== Resizing certain windows is choppy ==
;Explanation : This might be due to your card advertising ''ARGB Visuals'' (basically translucency) without having proper support for them. Applications/windows concerned are the plasma desktop, the krunner dialog (Alt+F2), plasma's ''Add new widget'' dialog or a konsole window.
 
;Test : If you want to make sure this issue is a problem for you, run <pre>$ XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 konsole</pre> on the command-line and try to resize the new konsole window (setting the environment variable <tt>XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS</tt> turns off ''ARGB visuals''). If it resizes without problems, then this is certainly one of the problems you're facing.
 
=== General ===
 
* You can set the BackingStore options in your xorg.conf:
<pre>Section "Device"
    ...
    Option "BackingStore" "true"
    ...
EndSection "Device"</pre>This works for some (eg. konsole) but unfortunately not all windows.
 
 
* As a last resort you can try setting <tt>XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1</tt> in your <tt>~/.xinitrc</tt> but this isn't pretty.
 
=== NVIDIA ===
 
* You can set the ''IntialPixmapPlacement'' with the ''nvidia-settings'' utility: <pre>$ nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2</pre> This works for some (but unfortunately not all) NVIDIA cards.
 
=== ATI ===
 
== Plasma performance is bad ==
 
;Explanation :
 
;Test :
 
=== General ===
 
 
=== NVIDIA ===
 
=== ATI ===
 
= References =

Latest revision as of 15:33, 15 July 2012


Note
This page has been moved to Userbase. The new URL is: http://userbase.kde.org/GPU-Performance.


Unfortunately I couldn't keep the history but thanks to everyone contributing information and translations to this page!