Comment 74 for bug 657976

here is the gma 950 running metacity
jeramy@jubuntu:~$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
87 frames in 5.0 seconds = 17.298 FPS
158 frames in 5.0 seconds = 31.352 FPS
69 frames in 5.1 seconds = 13.571 FPS
63 frames in 5.0 seconds = 12.557 FPS
92 frames in 5.0 seconds = 18.340 FPS

now, start the intel_gpu_top in another window and re-run
jeramy@jubuntu:~$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
303 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.591 FPS
306 frames in 5.0 seconds = 61.147 FPS
306 frames in 5.0 seconds = 61.147 FPS
306 frames in 5.0 seconds = 61.149 FPS
306 frames in 5.0 seconds = 61.146 FPS

So, in theory, someone might be able to fix their Unity problem by running a daemonized intel_gpu_top (or set it running in a detached screen automatically). That is not a great workaround, but it might work.

I have this behavior with both the current Ubuntu 10.10 kernel and with the Natty backport kernel for LTS. So there are no fixes to intel drm at the kernel level that fix this issue right now in any released/proposed packaged kernel.

I have not tried different driver versions since the latest xorg intel driver is basically unusable on the GMA 950.

To recap: Unity slowness on GMA 950 (the chip in tons of awesome netbooks that shouldn't be overlooked) is probably due to drm or xorg issues that aren't obvious to me at the moment. There might be an existing bug against intel-drm in the kernel or against the xorg intel driver for this very problem.