nvidia 3D/compiz performance is greatly reduced with each release

[Rocko]

Binary package hint: compiz

glxgears shows the following fps on my Nvidia 8600GT card when compiz is running:

173.14.12 driver:

Hardy, 32 bit: 4900 fps
Hardy, 64 bit: 5000 fps

Intrepid, 32 bit: 4200 fps

177.80 driver:

Intrepid, 32 bit: 3000 fps

ie there is a massive 40% in performance between Hardy using the old and Intrepid using the new driver and a 15% drop if both use the old driver.

With compiz disabled, all combinations of O/S and driver show around 5800 fps.

So with the new 177.80 driver, compiz is reducing glxgear performance by close to 50%.

Version info:

Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic vs Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-21-generic
nvidia 173.14.12 and 177.80
compiz (Intrepid) 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a00] (rev 0c)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:022e]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600M GT [10de:0407] (rev a1)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:022e]

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

 status incomplete

glxgears is worthless as a benchmark; it doesn't exercise the same paths
as essentially any other 3d app. If you can reproduce this with a
worthwhile benchmark there may be something to fix - Phoronix apparently
has a benchmark suite, OpenArena has a benchmark mode, etc.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I've confirmed the large difference between 173.14.12 and 177.80 drivers using the the OpenArena benchmark (both on amd64 installations with compiz running):

Intrepid, 177.80:

840 frames 3.1 seconds 267.9 fps 1.0/3.7/20.0/2.0 ms
840 frames 3.3 seconds 254.5 fps 2.0/3.9/33.0/1.9 ms
840 frames 3.4 seconds 246.8 fps 1.0/4.1/223.0/7.9 ms

average 257 fps

Intrepid, 173.14.12:

840 frames 1.8 seconds 471.1 fps 1.0/2.1/11.0/1.0 ms
840 frames 1.9 seconds 435.7 fps 1.0/2.3/11.0/1.1 ms
840 frames 1.8 seconds 465.4 fps 1.0/2.1/11.0/1.1 ms

average 457 fps

Hardy, 173.14.12:

840 frames 2.0 seconds 428.8 fps 1.0/2.3/19.0/1.0 ms
840 frames 1.9 seconds 434.3 fps 1.0/2.3/11.0/0.9 ms
840 frames 1.9 seconds 444.2 fps 1.0/2.3/10.0/0.8 ms

average 435

Using the averages, Intrepid's 173.14.12 driver comes out faster by 5% than Hardy.

But Intrepid's 177.80 driver is a whopping 44% slower than its 173.14.12 driver, so there is clearly a big performance difference between the two.

I seem the same degradation playing games under wine with 177.80 - once many things start going on concurrently, the fps reduces enormously and they become unplayable.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

Using Call of Duty 4 running under wine 1.1.7 as a benchmark, both 173.14.12 and 177.80 are much slower than Hardy with 173.14.12.

Intrepid only manages 10-13 fps (at the start of the 'War Pig' level) with either driver, while Hardy gets around 28-30 fps, ie over double the rate. This is running in 1680x1050 resolution on a second monitor (COD4 settings are identical in both Intrepid and Hardy).

So 3D in Intrepid is much slower than Hardy with *both* nvidia drivers for this game.

I just re-did the results for OpenArena with Intrepid's 173.14.12 driver and got vastly slower results than last time:

840 frames 3.1 seconds 272.6 fps 1.0/3.7/23.0/1.8 ms
840 frames 3.0 seconds 282.1 fps 1.0/3.5/41.0/1.9 ms
840 frames 3.0 seconds 280.7 fps 1.0/3.6/14.0/1.4 ms
840 frames 3.0 seconds 281.6 fps 1.0/3.6/13.0/1.4 ms

nvidia-settings confirms that the 173.14.12 driver is running. Is it possible that the problem is in the non-kernel driver and part of 177.80 has been left in userspace? I'm using envyng to change drivers and at one point after rebooting it had reverted to the 177.80 kernel driver without my asking it.

Also, I tried both OpenArena and COD4 with compiz disabled and the same results. So perhaps Intrepid's poor 3D performance should be listed against something like xorg-server 1.5? What's the best way to debug something like this?

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

Moving to the (two) nvidia-glx driver packages. This isn't (directly) going to be a problem with Xserver 1.5, because the nvidia drivers don't actually use any of the X server's GL stack (although it might be lack of optimisation against the new X server ABI or somesuch).

Further debugging at this point would probably be filing a bug report with nvidia on the nvnews forums(!). I don't think any part of this bug will be in anything we have source for.

[Stéphane Travostino (eazy87)]

Are you having this bug? http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=120794

I have a GeForce 9600M GT, updated Intrepid, and Compiz seems very slow (slows opening menus, slow workspace changes, slow expose effect, and I'm using Normal compiz effects). Running glxgears with the nVidia Server Settings app open shows that the GPU frequency never goes more than 275 MHz, although it is capable of 500 MHz under Windows Vista.
I don't know if the two issues are related, or related to this bug. I am new to nVidia drivers and I am very disappointed about it...
Please let me know how I can help.

Stephane.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I think I have a different problem from that bug. nvidia-settings says that PowerMizer is set at performance level 2 (maximum performance), even at idle (475MHz/702MHz). Compiz runs nice and fast with both 173.14.12 and 177.80 - it's only when running these games that I notice the big drop in fps.

I have noticed in the past in Hardy that very occasionally frame rates will drop dramatically in games, and I have to stop the game and either restart X or wait some time for it to resolve itself - this might be the card getting stuck at a low performance level like in the bug you mentioned.

I just tried my COD4 benchmark test in a 32-bit version of Hardy, and I got similar frame rates to what I'm seeing in both 32-bit and 64-bit Intrepid. So it seems that in this particular test the 64-bit driver in Hardy gives much better framerates than the 32-bit driver, but this doesn't carry across to Intrepid.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

Update: I'm still getting slow 3D with the latest 177.82 drivers.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I'm removing the COD4 benchmark results. I discovered that the Hardy 64bit had a lot of native Windows DLLs installed in its .wine folder: copying this .wine folder across to Intrepid sped up the fps to similar speeds as Hardy was getting (I'm using nvidia 180.08, but it was giving the same results as the 177.80 and 173.14.12 drivers).

I still get the slower OpenArena results, though, and in both Hardy and Intrepid I installed OpenArena using Synaptic and used the same benchmark configuration files.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I think compiz might actually be a problem now. Using both 2.6.27-11 and 2.6.28-4 with compiz 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1, I often get significantly reduced 3d performance (ie halved) - but not always - in CoD4 compared to when compiz is disabled. Sometimes restarting compiz fixes it, other times not.

I'm now using the nvidia 180.18 driver, playing on a second monitor with the wine screensize set to full resolution on the monitor (as opposed to fullscreen mode). Hardy doesn't have a problem with this setup (fps are independent of whether compiz is enabled or not) but Intrepid sometimes has slow frame rates with compiz enabled, other times high frame rates. Disabling compiz in Intrepid has so far always given high frame rates.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

In Jaunty (9.04), we are dropping the nvidia-graphics-drivers-177 package, which
is now superseded by then nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 package.

  http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-180

To transition your bug into the new package, we need your help. Please do the following:

 a. Verify the bug occurs in Jaunty with the -180 driver
     (ISOs: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/jaunty/)
 b. If you haven't already, please include in the bug:
     * Your /var/log/Xorg.0.log
     * Your /etc/X11/xorg.conf
     * The output of `lspci -vvnn`
     * Steps to reproduce the issue
 c. Under Affects, click the down arrow to the left of 'nvidia-graphics-drivers-177'
 d. Edit the Package to change 'nvidia-graphics-drivers-177' to 'nvidia-graphics-drivers-180'
 e. Click Save Changes

Thank you!

[We'll expire the remaining -177 bugs in a month or so.]

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I get the similar openarena-benchmark results with nvidia 180.27 on Jaunty alpha 4 as I did in Intrepid, ie 230-280 fps compared to Hardy's much faster 435 fps average.

Call of Duty 4 runs the same as in Intrepid, ie compiz sometimes slows it down and sometimes doesn't (but when not slowed down it gets the same fps as in Hardy).

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

In Jaunty (9.04), we have just updated to the latest
nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 package from nVidia, version 180.44.

This package provides fixes for a large number of bugs, and we need your
assistance in testing if it fixes the issue you reported.

To do this, please do the following:

 a. Update to the 180.44 version of -nvidia using your favorite update
     method

 b. Attempt to reproduce your bug

 c. If your bug still remains, please simply reply to this email
     indicating so.

 d. If your bug is now solved, you can help us by setting your bug
     report to Fix Released:
     * In launchpad, go to your bug report
     * Click on the downward pointing arrow under Status
     * Set the Status field to 'Fix Released'
     * Comment on the change, such as, 'Verified fixed in 180.44'
     * Click 'Save Changes'

 e. If the original problem is solved but there are now other problems,
     please close the original bug and open new ones for those issues.

Thank you!

For details on the changes in this version of -nvidia, please see:

   http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_180.44.html

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I just ran the openarena benchmark test with Jaunty and got 265-300 fps over five attempts, which is slightly faster than Intrepid but still much slower than Hardy. compiz doesn't seem to make any difference.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

With nvidia 185.18.04, I get a fairly consistent 280 fps in openarena, but I get much better performance from wine/COD4 - eg at the beginning of 'War Pig' I get 20-35 fps, which is comparable to Hardy.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

It's slightly faster still with kernel 2.6.30.rc3, maybe 10% better frame rate in COD4.

What _does_ seem to be an issue with both 2.6.28 and 2.6.30 that wasn't present in earlier kernels is that often the game will run fast but then 'stutter' - fps drops right down - and then recover again. This doesn't happen on a freshly booted machine, only after it has been running for some time. Earlier kernels would either be always fast or always slow (and recover back to being fast after reboot).

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

2.6.30.rc5 has even better framerates than 2.6.30.rc3.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I've posted a new version of the -nvidia driver to our xorg-edgers PPA,
would you mind testing it either on Jaunty or Karmic and see if it
resolves this bug?

Get nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 - 185.18.14 here:

  https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

With the 185.18.14 driver on the 2.6.30-10-generic kernel in Jaunty, the openarena benchmark has improved to around 300 fps in the openarena benchmark. This is still well below the 450 in the Hardy/Intrepid/173.14.12 combination, although to be fair I couldn't reproduce these results last time I tried.

wine COD4 typically runs at a better framerate, though with 185.18.14/kernel 2.6.30; 25-35 fps in 'war pig'.

I think the 'stuttering' in frame rate that I reported a few comments below can be attributed to compiz - see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/380129.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

The openarena benchmarks are worse again in Ubuntu 10.04:

with compiz on: ~175 fps

with compiz off: ~215 fps

Compare this with Hardy, ~450 fps, and Intrepid, ~250 fps, both with compiz running.

I've tried with nvidia 195.36.15 and 195.36.24.