Performance problems with Nvidia driver

[rmcd]

I am reporting this because it seems to be a different issue than #982710 . I am running 295.49, installed via precise-updates.

All is fine immediately after a restart. However, after a period of time, X becomes slow, and flash becomes unplayable. Youtube freezes. This behavior is a huge regression from 10.04 on the same hardware.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+12ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.39-generic 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jun 11 11:09:14 2012
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120327.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[rmcd (rmcd1024)]

I should add that I am running two G96 [GeForce 9500 GT] cards.

[Jonathan Lumb (jonolumb)]

I too am still experiencing problems with the 295.49 driver with my GeForce 8400M GS card. Nvidia bug report attached.

[Bernd Pfrommer (bernd-pfrommer)]

Same issue here: after a while, youtube slows down to a crawl. Restarting the X server brings performance up to acceptable levels, only to slow down after a while again.

I'm running Xinerama across 3 monitors, and have two graphics cards installed.

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G94 [GeForce 9600 GT] (rev a1)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G98 [GeForce 8400 GS] (rev a1)

An upgrade to 295.49 did not solve the problem (although I had the feeling it became somewhat better, but that could also be subjective).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[rmcd (rmcd1024)]

The slowdown problem persists with the 302.17 beta driver, downloaded from the x-swat/x-updates ppa and installed using jockey-gtk.

I should add that I am running two graphics cards powering two 1920x1200 displays. My original configuration had one of the two monitors rotated, but the problem occurs whether this monitor is rotated or not.

I want to repeat that this same hardware worked normally under 10.04.

[Duncan Ferguson (duncan-j-ferguson)]

I am also affected by this exact same issue

04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV44 [GeForce 7100 GS] (rev a1)

This card is used to drive two LCD screens for standard gnome shell configuration in 12.04

when i try using the normal nvidia-current package or the one from the ppa (with version 302.17) my desktop freezes. Last few times this has locked the whole machine meaning i needed to pull the plug to get the system back up. I have purged the nvidia-current package and now have LCD mirroring on my screens (not very useful for me). This did not happen before i upgraded to 12.04.

[Christoph Roeder (brightdroid)]

Same Problem with following card and twinview:
---
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1)
---
PS: 302.17 doesn't fix it

[Rovano (rovano)]

Hi, i have dramaticaly regression with Kubuntu 12.04 64bit with Nvidia binary blob 295.49 in quake based games, ...
But joke is... in 32bit Kubuntu(or Ubuntu) i havent regression.

Nvidia 295.49 on Nvidia 210 DDR2. 15-75fps on 64bit system versus 90 static(max in Tremulous without tweak) on 32bit system.

[rmcd (rmcd1024)]

I have just confirmed that beta driver 304.22 (installed via the upubuntu ppa) does not fix the problem. It has interesting effects, though. It apparently caused the sound to drop out on youtube (this had never happened before), and at times the video would stumble and other times it would start playing at double speed. These are new symptoms. But the bottom line is that graphical components that stopped working correctly with 12.04 still don't work with this driver.

[rmcd (rmcd1024)]

I've just installed 304.37 via x-swat ppa. Video is still broken. Here are some examples. 1. Chrome doesn't work properly with youtube videos (the screen essentially freezes while the video is initially loading and the controls such as youtube's sound level control don't respond to clicks ). 2. Firefox works better, but with odd bugs, for example when I move a terminal window over a playing youtube video, the video is visible through the terminal window. Everywhere else the terminal is opaque (compositing is turned off). 3. The rgl package in R doesn't work properly. In 11.10, I could resize and rotate graphics. In 12.04, the graphics are resizable when I first log in, but a few minutes after logging in the plot window freezes.

[rmcd (rmcd1024)]

Just to follow up on my previous comment, I had to downgrade to 295.40 because my system became unusable with any browser. I would click on a tab in either firefox or chrome, and the browsers would hang with cpu usage hitting 100%. 304.37 is not a fix for this problem.

[rmcd (rmcd1024)]

I'm wondering if the performance problem is related to monitor rotation. I have two monitors (both 1920x1200) with two video cards. When I rotate either or both, I get the slowdowns I have described above. A few days it occurred to me that rotation might be an issue. I experimented and learned that when I rotate neither, the problem largely goes away. I have been running like this without a reboot for several days now. Youtube still works fine and the R rgl package is mostly okay. I'm now using driver 304.37, installed using the nvidia installation package.

Could others experiencing this problem chime in on whether it might be linked to rotation? Are you rotating? Do you still experience the problem if you don't?

I've attached my xorg.conf. The rotation commands are commented out, but I wanted them visible so someone could say if there was a problem.

[Bernd Pfrommer (bernd-pfrommer)]

Following up on rmcd's comment: neither of my monitors is rotated, and I still have issues with the proprietary nvidia drivers.

I am now running on the open source nouveau drivers. They have a couple other glitches (I can watch flash videos only on the leftmost monitor!), but no slowdown over time. Overall much more acceptable.

[Roy Kishun (roy-kishun)]

Same problem with the following card and twinview. Nothing rotated.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G84 [Quadro FX 570] (rev a1)

[Adam Porter (alphapapa)]

I've never used any rotation when I experienced this bug. I've had no
problems since downgrading to 280.13. But I suppose eventually I'll
be forced to upgrade because of an incompatibility with a newer
version of X, and then...? Will I have to run old software? buy a
new laptop?