Lag issues with nvidia card

Kethinov · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 4:36 am Post subject: Lag issues with nvidia card

Hi all, I finally got my nvid card to work in Gentoo without using the dreadful "nv" driver, but to be honest, I don't see much of a difference. For example, the png alpha transparency effect on my website still lags the crap out of mozilla, firebird, galeon, etc. I don't understand why it would still be laggy.

It's a GeForce4 MX 440 128mb card, and in Windows using mozilla, I don't have these lag issues with my site.

Anyone know how I can possibly improve performance a bit?

Also, and this may be offtopic, I can't seem to get my mouse wheel to work.

For the record, I use GNOME.

I suspect both problems can be fixed by tinkering with the xf86config but I am no expert, and need guidance.

Sastraxi · Apprentice Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 258

Try running glxinfo, to see if the nVidia drivers are *actually* working. If they are, it'll say Direct Rendering: Yes. If that's the case, I suggest using the line Option "NvAgp" "1" in the XFree config file, in the devices section where you have the nvidia driver. If not, you'll have to check what errors are happening in your /var/log/XFree86.0.log.

For the scroll wheel, try ZAxisMapping "4 5" in the mouse section (normal mice); if you have an Intellimouse/Logitech MX500/700/900, then use the Intellimouse guide in the Documentation, Tips & Tricks section. For the intellimouse, that same line would be "6 7".

deadaim · Guru Joined: 27 Oct 2003 Posts: 467 Location: Florida

Go here:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/desktop.xml

And read the "Configuring your NVIDIA Card".

Kethinov · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 2:06 am Post subject:

Ok, first thank you both.
I managed to get my mouse scrollwheel working due to Sastraxi's advice, and deadaim's link helped a bit.

I forgot to uncomment Load "glx" in my xf86config, which I just did and I see a small improvement in performance. However, I'm still having lag issues.

Sastraxi:

nex_tym · Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 211

Are you seeing a nvidia splash screen when you start X up?

Try emerging the nvidia-kernel nvidia-glx again. Then make sure you have nvidia for the driver, and the glx uncommented. You should see a nvidia splash screen as you start X up, if not, they arent working since the splash is enabled by default.

Kethinov · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 3:41 am Post subject:

I see the nvidia splash screen whenever X starts, using driver "nvidia", glx is uncommented. Still lags with png alpha transparency on websites.

Kethinov · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2004 6:21 am Post subject:

Ok this problem hasn't gone way... can no one help me?

Everything I've checked so far tells me the vid-card is working great yet it still lags bad on png alpha transparency on my website in all browsers (unless I shrink it really really small hehe)

mike4148 · l33t Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 641

In the "Device" section for your nvidia card in your /etc/X11/XF86Config*, set the following option:

Kethinov · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2004 7:11 pm Post subject:

The renderaccel option didn't fix it.

I still can't glxinfo from regular user, but su - worked.

Kethinov · Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:00 pm Post subject:

Here is the complete glxinfo output.

eyd · Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:41 pm Post subject: Possible fix

I check both my gentoo PC's and I am the owner of /dev/nvidiactl.

eyd@narn eyd $ ls -l /dev/nvidiactl
crw------- 1 eyd root 195, 255 Dec 31 1969 /dev/nvidiactl

I don't recall doing anything other than emerging the nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx...and running

Kethinov · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 5:43 am Post subject:

I ran opengl-update nvidia just to make sure, and that still hasn't helped my lag issues.

eyd · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 1:57 pm Post subject: ??

What's the site address? Perhaps it's a more general linux issue and not a nvidia issue. How do things like Quake3 and UT2003 run?

Kethinov · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 5:10 pm Post subject:

Hehe if I had the games I'd tell ya.
http://eric.halo43.com

eyd · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:11 pm Post subject:

How fast is your PC? I don't notice any lag, but my CPU usage goes to about 80% when I use the mousewheel to scroll through the page. This is on an AthlonXP 2200+ 512MB. If I scroll up and down constantly then it pegs at 100% and begins to lag. You could run top in a terminal and see if it's your CPU usage.

eyd · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:13 pm Post subject:

You could also install the demo. It's a great game!

Kethinov · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 12:02 am Post subject:

My CPU usage on scrolling is 100%.
Screenshot: http://eric.halo43.com/images/screenshots/2004-01-19-scrolllag.png

Relevent system specs:
Motherboard: AOpen AK73 Pro
Processor: AMD Athlon 1000mhz Socket A
System Memory: 1024mb PC133 SDRAM
Graphics card: GeForce4 MX 440, 128MB, TV-Out, AGP

Kethinov · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 12:07 am Post subject:

It's also relevent to note that these issues did not occur when I ran Windows on that machine. I'm not ready to blame this on hardware just yet.

eyd · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 2:05 pm Post subject:

No, it's probably not hardware, but I think it's a linux thing. Whatever library it uses for that eats up the CPU.?.

Kethinov · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 6:38 pm Post subject:

But... shouldn't it be using the gpu?

eyd · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:41 pm Post subject:

I don't know. How does it work using the nv driver?

SPY_jmr1 · n00b Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 62

Kethinov · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:25 am Post subject:

eyd · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:20 pm Post subject:

I'm still back to thinking it's a linux thing. I can't say why, but every linux workstation I try it on pegs the CPU when scrolling your webpage. My home PC does the same thing, and it's an Athlon XP2800+, 1Gig PC3200, GeForce 3Ti.

Kethinov · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:07 am Post subject:

high cpu is normal. but the lag isn't. In windows my cpu jumps up too but it scrolls smoothly. the lag i'm describing is genuine unresponsiveness during the scrolling. visibly bad.