2. Check with xrandr to see what refresh rate it is telling compiz to use (in the absence of sync-to-vblank):
xrandr | grep '\*'
If xrandr (hence the driver) is reporting the wrong refresh rate for your monitor then you can fix it using either of the workarounds listed in: Bug 92599: Incorrect (low/stuttering) refresh rate with NVIDIA driver Bug 1009338: composite refresh rate falls back to 50Hz, which is wrong in most cases
3. Install "glmark2" and tell us if it looks significantly smoother than glxgears?
Regarding WebGL Aquarium performance with NVIDIA:
The above history says you had ~20 FPS in Gnome Classic (basic compiz), but only ~2 FPS in Unity (?). That would suggest WebGL in Chrome is mostly being impacted by bug 987304 and/or bug 1005074.
Kenneth, could you please:
1. Attach output from "glxinfo".
2. Check with xrandr to see what refresh rate it is telling compiz to use (in the absence of sync-to-vblank):
xrandr | grep '\*'
If xrandr (hence the driver) is reporting the wrong refresh rate for your monitor then you can fix it using either of the workarounds listed in:
Bug 92599: Incorrect (low/stuttering) refresh rate with NVIDIA driver
Bug 1009338: composite refresh rate falls back to 50Hz, which is wrong in most cases
3. Install "glmark2" and tell us if it looks significantly smoother than glxgears?
Regarding WebGL Aquarium performance with NVIDIA:
The above history says you had ~20 FPS in Gnome Classic (basic compiz), but only ~2 FPS in Unity (?). That would suggest WebGL in Chrome is mostly being impacted by bug 987304 and/or bug 1005074.