nvidia problem with screen repaints
John Hunter
I have a GeForce FX 5200/AGP/SSE2 running under XFree86 Version 4.3.0
on Redhat Linux 9 with 1024x768 resolution.
When I run opengl apps, eg, glxgears, I get great frame rates as long
as I don't try to interact with the other windows on the system (eg
and xterm) but if I do, the repaints of the entire desktop get
mind-numbingly slow; I can see the horizontal line of the repaint
slowly creeping down the monitor, and my frame rates drop from
something like 1000 to 6 or 7.
I have read the NVidia README, checked my libGL* etc symlinks, updated
my XF86Config and restarted X windows, checked /var/log/XFree86.0.log
for errors and everything seems fine. I have tried three different
versions of the nvidia driver following other posts on google groups:
4620, 5328 and one in between whose number I can't remember.
3D interaction seems to work great - I can pan zoom rotate at real
time speeds. I only get into problems when I generate multiple expose
events by moving between windows, which is something I need to do a
lot as I switch from dialog boxes to the 3D render windows.
Any suggestions? Have others had and cured this problem?
Some more info below.
Thanks!
John Hunter
From XF86Config
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
# Load "dri"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "DDCPROBED"
DisplaySize 400 300
HorizSync 30.0 - 121.0
VertRefresh 48.0 - 160.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection
Section "Device"
# update this with the PCI id of your card. Consult the output
# of the 'lspci' command. The BusID is usually optional when
# only using one graphics card.
# BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Identifier "NV AGP"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "nvidia"
EndSection
hunter:/> glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
server glx version string: 1.3
server glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_NV_float_buffer
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
hunter:/> uname -a
Linux hunter.paradise.lost 2.4.20-8smp #1 SMP Thu Mar 13 17:45:54 EST 2003 i686
i686 i386 GNU/Linux
David Sumbler
> I have a GeForce FX 5200/AGP/SSE2 running under XFree86 Version
> 4.3.0 on Redhat Linux 9 with 1024x768 resolution.
>
> When I run opengl apps, eg, glxgears, I get great frame rates as
> long as I don't try to interact with the other windows on the system
> (eg and xterm) but if I do, the repaints of the entire desktop get
> mind-numbingly slow; I can see the horizontal line of the repaint
> slowly creeping down the monitor, and my frame rates drop from
> something like 1000 to 6 or 7.
Are you sure this is an NVIDIA driver problem?
I get a similar problem (both before and since I installed the driver
from NVIDIA), but I think that it is a memory problem. I have only
128Mb, but the programs I tend to have running need about 300Mb in
total. Changing between desktops etc. therefore often means a lot of
swapping in and out.
My theory is backed up, I think, by the fact that the problem always
seems to be worst first thing in the morning: during the night cron
has run various programs (e.g. updatedb), so probably nearly all the
foreground stuff has been swapped out of RAM.
(Because of this I decided to add more memory - until I discovered
that my computer has RAMbus memory, which costs "an arm and a leg"!)
Do you find that, if when you change from desktop "A" to desktop "B"
it is rather slow, nonetheless changing back and forth between these
two is then fast? If so, I think you have the same memory problem.
David
--
David Sumbler
Please reply to the newsgroup.
However, if you _really_ want to send me an e-mail,
replace "nospam" in my address with "aeolia".
John Hunter
David> Are you sure this is an NVIDIA driver problem?
Can't be sure, but it looks like it.
David> I get a similar problem (both before and since I installed
David> the driver from NVIDIA), but I think that it is a memory
David> problem. I have only 128Mb, but the programs I tend to
David> have running need about 300Mb in total. Changing between
David> desktops etc. therefore often means a lot of swapping in
David> and out.
3GHz Pentium 4 with a 1 GB of RAM with no other apps running and a
clean restart of X windows. I had significantly better performance
with my older 700MHz machine with 256 MB of RAM (ATI video card).
David> Do you find that, if when you change from desktop "A" to
David> desktop "B" it is rather slow, nonetheless changing back
David> and forth between these two is then fast? If so, I think
David> you have the same memory problem.
Nope, absolutely no other performance problems (I switch desktops all
the time with key bindings in normal use with no delays) unless a GL
render window is open. Then the system falls to its knees.
Thanks for the suggestion,
JDH
John Hunter
David> Are you sure this is an NVIDIA driver problem?
Problem solved.
The trick was to use the driver tarball and compile it from source.
Although part of the driver is shipped as proprietary compiled object
files, there are some files that you can compile and link from the
tarball.
You can extract the tarfile from the *.run file as described in the
README with
> sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5328-pkg1.run --extract-only
then cd into the driver dir and make install. After I did this all my
troubles ended!
John Hunter