Composite with xf86-video-ati suddenly slow [finally SOLVED]

irondog · Last edited by irondog on Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:39 am; edited 1 time in total

I've been using the modular Xorg-x11 for quite a long time now. I was using CVS snapshots all the time and started using the the modular ebuilds a soon as they hit portage.

Suddenly, between some updates and many configuration changes composite isn't working the way it used to be. I'm using xf86-video-ati with EXA. When something happens in a window (for example scrolling) X is starting to run awfully slow and eats 100% CPU. A few seconds later the effect disappears, but it comes back whenever I scroll again. So, the nice effects work with perfect speeds, but after two seconds the whole thing breaks down and eats my CPU for 100%. After a few seconds the effect disappears again and everything runs smoothly again.

So, composite is working here and a few percents of the time it works nicely (like the way it used to work a few weeks ago using the RC's). Is anybody experiencing the same?

Sidenote: It really worked for weeks, but suddenly it was broken.
_________________
Alle dingen moeten onzin zijn.

Josh_B · Retired Dev Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 10

Ya, this is a known issue upstream. It appears some commit made close to release broke EXA, as a couple other people have complained on the mailing list.

I wouldn't expect a solution any time soon. EXA support is meant to be complete by 7.1 on the current timeline; 7.0 support was just to get it out there and get the framework tested/done. It is kind of annoying though, as EXA support was one of the more exciting things about 7.0.
_________________
Joshua Baergen

irondog · Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 7:18 pm Post subject:

Josh_B, that makes sense. I like your explaination but I don't really like the result.

Thanks for your reply however.

But what is actually broken? Some drivers or the whole framework? It's working fine on my computer with an Nvidia Card. Okay, forget about that, it isn't using EXA

_________________
Alle dingen moeten onzin zijn.

Josh_B · Retired Dev Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 10

EXA as a whole. The complaints I've seen so far have been non-Radeon cards.
_________________
Joshua Baergen

irondog · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 8:58 pm Post subject:

It's 6 months later now. Xorg 7.1 is out. Performance is still sucking.

What happened? Why were the early 7.0 Release candidates so fast and why is the composite performance completely broken up till now?

(Tested on r200 ati, monday I'll test i810).
_________________
Alle dingen moeten onzin zijn.

irondog · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:17 pm Post subject:

Tested: The problem is only there on ATI.

Composite on I810 is faster on 7.1 than on 7.0. And it's way faster than ATI (r200).
_________________
Alle dingen moeten onzin zijn.

irondog · Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:38 am Post subject:

Performance problem is solved in Xorg-server-1.1.99.2. This one is not in portage, but I managed to install it by hacking the xorg-1.1.0 ebuild.

The performance of composite and transparancy is much much better now in general, EXA is fine now!
_________________
Alle dingen moeten onzin zijn.