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* [gentoo-user] nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT
@ 2011-01-25 22:54 Alan McKinnon
  2011-01-25 23:28 ` Alex Schuster
  2011-01-30  6:09 ` [gentoo-user] " Alan McKinnon
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Alan McKinnon @ 2011-01-25 22:54 UTC (permalink / raw
  To: gentoo-user

Hi all,

I'm not completely happy with my driver setup for an 8600M GT.

Using nvidia.ko, KDE with desktop effects enabled (especially translucent 
popup thumbnails on the task bar, and blur effect on) makes my notebook fan 
run all the time and kwin uses 20% cpu according to top. Oddly enough, the fan 
runs faster with the screensaver on (displaying a single static jpeg) and 
settles down when I unlock the screen.

Nouveau is supposed to be useable (if not entirely stable yet) but it makes 
the fan run flat out, notebook gets hot very quickly, top reckons kwin is 
using 30% cpu even with all fancy effects off and gui events have a noticeable 
lag to them - a short but very noticeable delay after mouse clicks for 
example. It all looks very much like some process is blocking as when things 
get around to happening, they happen quickly - like glxgears spins it's wheels 
at a terrific rate and very little gets in it's way once it starts.

I reckon it should not be this way and I have yet again done something stupid. 
I've scoured the net and forums for howtos but found nothing and this has been 
going on for at least 5 kernel versions.

Are there any known issues that cause things like this that I've overlooked? I 
strongly suspect it's not an obscure detail peculiar to me, more like I 
absolutely need kernel feature X for best results. 

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: [gentoo-user] nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT
  2011-01-25 22:54 [gentoo-user] nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT Alan McKinnon
@ 2011-01-25 23:28 ` Alex Schuster
  2011-01-25 23:41   ` Alan McKinnon
  2011-01-30  6:09 ` [gentoo-user] " Alan McKinnon
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Alex Schuster @ 2011-01-25 23:28 UTC (permalink / raw
  To: gentoo-user

Alan McKinnon writes:

> Using nvidia.ko, KDE with desktop effects enabled (especially translucent 
> popup thumbnails on the task bar, and blur effect on) makes my notebook fan 
> run all the time and kwin uses 20% cpu according to top.

Does the blur effect do anything? With my ATI card, I did not notice a
change when enabling it, other than the CPU going really high.

	Wonko



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: [gentoo-user] nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT
  2011-01-25 23:28 ` Alex Schuster
@ 2011-01-25 23:41   ` Alan McKinnon
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Alan McKinnon @ 2011-01-25 23:41 UTC (permalink / raw
  To: gentoo-user

Apparently, though unproven, at 01:28 on Wednesday 26 January 2011, Alex 
Schuster did opine thusly:

> Alan McKinnon writes:
> > Using nvidia.ko, KDE with desktop effects enabled (especially translucent
> > popup thumbnails on the task bar, and blur effect on) makes my notebook
> > fan run all the time and kwin uses 20% cpu according to top.
> 
> Does the blur effect do anything? With my ATI card, I did not notice a
> change when enabling it, other than the CPU going really high.

Yes, it has a visible effect. It's subtle so you have to look closely but it's 
there. The config popup for the effect has a slider for degree of effect but I 
didn't see that change much, as if the range from min to max was not wide 
enough 


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* [gentoo-user] Re: nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT
  2011-01-25 22:54 [gentoo-user] nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT Alan McKinnon
  2011-01-25 23:28 ` Alex Schuster
@ 2011-01-30  6:09 ` Alan McKinnon
  2011-01-30 14:26   ` Allan Gottlieb
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Alan McKinnon @ 2011-01-30  6:09 UTC (permalink / raw
  To: gentoo-user

Happy news:

Upgrading to KDE-4.6.0 fixed all the annoying issues below.



Apparently, though unproven, at 00:54 on Wednesday 26 January 2011, Alan 
McKinnon did opine thusly:

> Hi all,
> 
> I'm not completely happy with my driver setup for an 8600M GT.
> 
> Using nvidia.ko, KDE with desktop effects enabled (especially translucent
> popup thumbnails on the task bar, and blur effect on) makes my notebook fan
> run all the time and kwin uses 20% cpu according to top. Oddly enough, the
> fan runs faster with the screensaver on (displaying a single static jpeg)
> and settles down when I unlock the screen.
> 
> Nouveau is supposed to be useable (if not entirely stable yet) but it makes
> the fan run flat out, notebook gets hot very quickly, top reckons kwin is
> using 30% cpu even with all fancy effects off and gui events have a
> noticeable lag to them - a short but very noticeable delay after mouse
> clicks for example. It all looks very much like some process is blocking
> as when things get around to happening, they happen quickly - like
> glxgears spins it's wheels at a terrific rate and very little gets in it's
> way once it starts.
> 
> I reckon it should not be this way and I have yet again done something
> stupid. I've scoured the net and forums for howtos but found nothing and
> this has been going on for at least 5 kernel versions.
> 
> Are there any known issues that cause things like this that I've
> overlooked? I strongly suspect it's not an obscure detail peculiar to me,
> more like I absolutely need kernel feature X for best results.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: [gentoo-user] Re: nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT
  2011-01-30  6:09 ` [gentoo-user] " Alan McKinnon
@ 2011-01-30 14:26   ` Allan Gottlieb
  2011-01-30 20:16     ` Alan McKinnon
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Allan Gottlieb @ 2011-01-30 14:26 UTC (permalink / raw
  To: gentoo-user

On Sun, Jan 30 2011, Alan McKinnon wrote:

> Happy news:
>
> Upgrading to KDE-4.6.0 fixed all the annoying issues below.

Does this mean you are now running you nvidia graphics using the nouveau
driver?  That is, not just testing nouveau, but using it essentially all
the time.

thanks,
allan



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: [gentoo-user] Re: nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT
  2011-01-30 14:26   ` Allan Gottlieb
@ 2011-01-30 20:16     ` Alan McKinnon
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Alan McKinnon @ 2011-01-30 20:16 UTC (permalink / raw
  To: gentoo-user

Apparently, though unproven, at 16:26 on Sunday 30 January 2011, Allan 
Gottlieb did opine thusly:

> On Sun, Jan 30 2011, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > Happy news:
> > 
> > Upgrading to KDE-4.6.0 fixed all the annoying issues below.
> 
> Does this mean you are now running you nvidia graphics using the nouveau
> driver?  That is, not just testing nouveau, but using it essentially all
> the time.

No, I still use nvidia drivers for day to day work. I install and check out 
nouveau every now and again.

Soryr. I should have re-read my mail and been more clear. The main issue I had 
with nvidia was that desktop effects raised the load and made the laptop run 
hot especially with blur effect. 4.6.0 fixed that and lets the machine perform 
acceptably.



-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2011-01-30 20:17 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 6+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2011-01-25 22:54 [gentoo-user] nVidia & nouveau on nVidia 8600M GT Alan McKinnon
2011-01-25 23:28 ` Alex Schuster
2011-01-25 23:41   ` Alan McKinnon
2011-01-30  6:09 ` [gentoo-user] " Alan McKinnon
2011-01-30 14:26   ` Allan Gottlieb
2011-01-30 20:16     ` Alan McKinnon

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