MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel

Bug #252094 reported by bingo
860
This bug affects 106 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xf86-video-intel
Won't Fix
High
linux (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
Declined for Intrepid by Bryce Harrington
Nominated for Jaunty by nogac
Karmic
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Wishlist
Unassigned
Declined for Intrepid by Bryce Harrington
Nominated for Jaunty by nogac
Karmic
Fix Released
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

I experience significant performance loss with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3 with my Intel DG965WH based system and SVDO/ADD2 video card. Actually, the performance loss started with ubuntu 8.04.1; I upgraded to see if there was any performance gain with the new version. While "glxgears" produced values between 1580 fps and 1496 fps with ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, respectively, now I can only achieve something like 445 fps with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3. I get an error message when starting glxgears that "TTM" was not available and classic mode would be used. Similary, the flight simulator "flightgear" achieves frames rates of 1-2 fps only.
My suspicion is that some of the hardware acceleration features of the X3000 system are not being used, and I don't know how to activate them with the new xorg.conf structure and the underlying automatic configuration approach.
I would like to see the graphics performance go back to the values achieved in ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10.
Your help / comment is greatly appreciated.
Bingo

[Update]
Intel upstream has been in a multi-year effort to rearchitect X and the Intel 2D and 3D driver to provide better performance. While this work is underway, people are seeing variations in performance levels from version to version, for a variety of reasons. There are probably multiple unrelated bugs being reported in the comments here.

It is important to note and remember that glxgears is *not* a benchmark tool. It simply measures how fast the driver writes images to the screen, whereas most 3D applications are limited by render speed, not merely blit speed. Instead use a 3D game (flightgear, tremulous, etc.) that has a real rendering workload to make comparisons.

If you're definitely seeing performance problems and are able to narrow it to a specific cause, please do not comment onto this bug report - it's too lengthy and rambling already, and your issue will just be lost in the noise. Instead, make a new report and please be as specific as possible with exact steps to reproduce and as much detail and logs as you can. See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Reporting for tips on making a good X bug report.

A troubleshooting guide, with additional background about performance issues on Intel is available at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/IntelPerformance

Revision history for this message
bingo (stefandrude) wrote :
Revision history for this message
bingo (stefandrude) wrote : Re: Poor graphics performance on Intel G965 system, ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3
Revision history for this message
Störm Poorun (subs-olan) wrote :

Same problem here, with an intel x3100 card (on a Samsung Q45).
Up to 8.04.1 (Kubuntu) I was able to use KDE4 'desktop effects' easily.
Also, sInce upgrading to 8.10 Alpha 3 (from 8.04.1), desktop effects are not working, enabling them results in a mainly black, garbled screen.

Revision history for this message
Störm Poorun (subs-olan) wrote :

I have now found a workaround for the issue.

I think it basically is to do with the upgrade from XAA to EXA acceleration.

EXA appears not be working with the Intel GMA 965 (GM) chipset (including the Intel X3100).

Upon editing my xorg.conf file to add references to XAA I now have better performance, and am able to use KDE4 desktop effects.

In particular, under Section Device, I added:

 Option "XaaNoPixmapCache"
 Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "1"
 Option "DRI" "true"
 Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

and also

 VideoRam 440320
 Option "XvMCSurfaces" "6"
 Option "May_Need_ForceBIOS" "1"

but not sure if these last three items are necessary.

Revision history for this message
Störm Poorun (subs-olan) wrote :

Also, remove (or comment-out) any lines in your xorg.conf file referring to EXA, if you have them!

Revision history for this message
Störm Poorun (subs-olan) wrote :

And one more thing, I'm not sure it's essential, but it may be wise to ensure that you specify the driver as 'intel' in your Device Section.

i.e.
        Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "intel"

Revision history for this message
oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad) wrote :

Bug confirmed for an Acer TravelMate 6292-602G25MN (Intel GMA X3100 (IGP)).

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: New → Confirmed
bingo (stefandrude)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
bingo (stefandrude) wrote :

Störm,

I have tested your suggestion, but I don't see any improvement in the graphics performance. I restarted the X server with the changes to xorg.conf as you suggested, and glxgears still produces no more than about 420 fps. I can confirm, however, that according to the log output produced, i.e. Xorg.0.log, the acceleration switched back to XAA based acceleration.

Bingo

Revision history for this message
bingo (stefandrude) wrote :

I just wanted to share that with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 4 there is no improvement. A test with glxgears produces around 440 fps.

Bingo

Revision history for this message
bingo (stefandrude) wrote :

With the updates as of August 30, 2008 the performance dropped even further. I get a mere 59 frames per second with these updates.

Bingo

Revision history for this message
Störm Poorun (subs-olan) wrote :

Same here, just 59 frames per second as of today's updates.

Revision history for this message
oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad) wrote :

On a test machine, a strange flickering can be seen which occurs during the first 10 seconds of opening the GNOME desktop. This wasn't before the latest updates.

Revision history for this message
Roberto Cássio Jr. (rcsdnj) wrote :

59.xxyy frames per second looks like an indication of vsync is being used.

But I also find my X3100 performance too low.

Do you guys with X3100 have problems using Celestia? Here I get bad performance, missing textures and other weird artifacts.

Revision history for this message
unggnu (unggnu) wrote :

I can confirm the 59.xx frames problem with i915 and i965. Looks pretty much like vsync which wouldn't be so bad.
Btw. textured video seems to be activated per default again but it doesn't seem to so slow but I haven't made so much tests.
I can confirm the flickering too on my laptop with i915 hardware. I965 doesn't seem to be affected.

Revision history for this message
Roberto Cássio Jr. (rcsdnj) wrote :

I'd like to point that, even if this 59.* frame rate is due to vsync, it doesn't behave nice (like if it was vsynced). Tearing is still there.

Revision history for this message
bingo (stefandrude) wrote :

I just ran a test with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 6. Running from the CD-ROM without installation I get glxgears to produce about 440 fps again.

Bingo

Revision history for this message
Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton) wrote :

for the record, the message about TTM is purely informational and doesn't change the performance one bit.

Revision history for this message
Johnny Levai (digistyl3) wrote :

Then what is causing the performance drop?

Revision history for this message
Alberto (elba) wrote :

I have just marked bug 270563 as a duplicate of this one.

Revision history for this message
Pablo Marchant (pamarca) wrote :

Last update of intrepid made the ttm messege dissapear for me.

Revision history for this message
bingo (stefandrude) wrote :

With the final release of ubuntu 8.10 the result of glxgears stays around 440 fps. I can confirm that the message about "TTM" not being available disappeared indeed.

Is there any hope the performance will ever go back up to where it was in ubuntu 7.10?

Revision history for this message
tapczan (tapczan) wrote :

Hardy 8.04:
$ glxgears
5530 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1105.941 FPS
5740 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1147.867 FPS
5671 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1134.048 FPS

Intrepid 8.10:
$ glxgears
2842 frames in 5.0 seconds = 568.360 FPS
2796 frames in 5.0 seconds = 559.099 FPS
2874 frames in 5.0 seconds = 574.798 FPS

Revision history for this message
tapczan (tapczan) wrote :

I use Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller:

# dpkg -l xserver-xorg-video-intel|grep ^ii|awk {'print $2" "$3'}
xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.4.1-1ubuntu10

Revision history for this message
Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen (marc-nieper-wisskirchen) wrote :

When you use 3D desktop effects (KWin, Compiz), does the canvas of glxgears always stay on top? Is the rendering of Google Earth distorted?

Revision history for this message
tapczan (tapczan) wrote :

Yes, glxgears stay on top (using compiz).

Revision history for this message
Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen (marc-nieper-wisskirchen) wrote : Re: Poor graphics performance and rendering errors on Intel GM965 system, Ubuntu 8.10

Extented the title of the bug and marked another one as a duplicate of this one.

Revision history for this message
Botond Szász (boteeka) wrote :

I have an Inspiron 1525 notebook with GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller. In Hardy it worked flawlessly. I upgraded to Intrepid after it was released and I have my Ubuntu fully updated. Still, I have this problem. If I run glxgears and move the window it leaves garbage on the screen (seems like glxgears renders on top of compiz, which I have enabled). Also OpenGL screensavers doesn't seem to work either, sometimes they start, but something is wrong with them. I did not experienced a total X lock-up until now. Also OpenArena's screen is corrupted and the menu is invisible. Besides this normal desktop operations work OK, and all compiz effects are also OK. I have experienced a total system lock-up during a fullscreen video playback after about one hour of watching, only a hard switch-off/switch-on worked. I emphasize that this does not happened on Hardy. Maybe something in the new intel driver features causes the problem, like the acceleration architecture, not sure, though. In glxgears I get only around 500 fps. I used to get above 1000 fps.

@Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen: Google Earth is unusable, the screen gets all messed up, and the textures on the globe's surface doesn't show up, either.

If you need any other info, please let me know.

Revision history for this message
Paulo Fidalgo (o-kanniball-o) wrote :

I'm also experience frame drops, while watching some videos on the second monitor, on my laptop.
I confirm, with Hardy, this problem was not noticed.

Revision history for this message
In , Delder (delder) wrote :

I'm running the latest OpenSUSE 11.1 beta (SLED 11 beta really) and have to face a cruel choice between very poor window drawing performance with EXA (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=438266) or having the Xserver crash during resume with Xaa (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=439214). I have a Lenovo T61 with an Intel 965 GM card that can either suspend properly but have lousy performance (EXA) or good window drawing but not be able to resume without killing X (XAA). Since EXA appears to be the way going forward I would think the best course of action is fixing the Window drawing performance problems of EXA. With EXA enabled it feels like I'm on a slow terminal server and WINE applications in particular take forever to render. Just let me know what information I can provide.

Revision history for this message
Jan Girlich (vollkorn) wrote : Re: Poor graphics performance and rendering errors on Intel GM965 system, Ubuntu 8.10

I'm experiencing the same problems on a thinkpad with an Intel Mobile GM965/GL960.
I noticed two things:
1) GL-applications seem to work better (less flickering, less textures missing) when compiz is turned off (tested with glxgears and google earth)
2) There is no hardware acceleration available which explains the low framerates (do a 'glxinfo | grep direct' to check on your machine)

jan@jan-x61:~$ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: No (LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT set)

Revision history for this message
LarsIvarIgesund (larsivar) wrote :

@Jan Girlich: I get "direct rendering: Yes", but I still experience low framerates for glxgrears.

I use Kwin, not compiz. After I turned off all effects, I see no more artifacts, however - with them on, I could see quite a bit in addition to the effects being absurdly slow. In particular, when I opened a new window, I just got interference pixels until the proper window showed up.

Revision history for this message
Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen (marc-nieper-wisskirchen) wrote :

I also have "direct rendering: Yes" and nevertheless low framerates.

@Jan: How low are your framerates? Even lower than those of the rest of us?

Revision history for this message
Jan Girlich (vollkorn) wrote :

Without compiz:
jan@jan-x61:~$ glxgears
2798 frames in 5.0 seconds = 559.539 FPS
2671 frames in 5.0 seconds = 533.488 FPS
2760 frames in 5.0 seconds = 550.889 FPS

With compiz:
jan@jan-x61:~$ glxgears
2293 frames in 5.0 seconds = 458.450 FPS
2360 frames in 5.0 seconds = 469.041 FPS
2300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 459.050 FPS

So the framerates are about the same.

Revision history for this message
Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen (marc-nieper-wisskirchen) wrote :

That's interesting. My system, which claims to use hardware acceleration (direct rendering: Yes), doesn't seem to be much faster (~600 FPS) than yours, which claims not to use hardware acceleration. So is the 3D acceleration of the GM965 of any use in Intrepid???

Revision history for this message
MaCXyLo (macxylo) wrote :

i can confirm the bug;
a friend from me try to solve the problem but no solution....

I have a thinkpad r61i
graphiccard: x3100
chipset: gma965

Hope that this problem is fixed at the future -.-

Revision history for this message
In , Sndirsch-suse (sndirsch-suse) wrote :

Since Kent asked me about the severity/priority.

Revision history for this message
Sarath (prosarath) wrote : Re: Poor graphics performance and rendering errors on Intel GM965 system, Ubuntu 8.10

Confirmed,

Lenovo Y410
GM965/GL960
lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Revision history for this message
Rocko (rockorequin) wrote :

I don't have an Intel graphics chipset, but I find 3D in Intrepid is considerably slower with an nvidia chipset as well - in Hardy with compiz on, I get close to 5000 fps, but in Intrepid with compiz on I get either 4200 fps with the older 173.14.12 driver or 3000 fps with the new 177.80 driver (40% slower!). With compiz off both Hardy and Intrepid can manage around 5800 fps.

So maybe this bug also has something to do with compiz?

Revision history for this message
Paulo Fidalgo (o-kanniball-o) wrote :

The problem is not with compiz, i think, because I use KDE, and Kwin effects, not compiz.
I don't know what be the source of the problem, but this is really annoying.

Revision history for this message
In , Gordon Jin (gordon-jin) wrote :

Yes, let's focus on EXA bug.

The novell link needs login. Please provide the info according to http://intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html.

Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: Incomplete → Triaged
Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: Triaged → Confirmed
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
importance: Medium → Wishlist
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
description: updated
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
description: updated
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
description: updated
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
description: updated
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
tags: added: performance
341 comments hidden view all 421 comments
Revision history for this message
Ralf Philipp (info-monatssong) wrote :

Hi there,

I've the same problems with kubuntu and jaunty on a minimac with 945G. After googling around I found different proposals. To get some solutions to work I opened a file with 'sudo kate' from konsole. Kate was starting but I got an error-message like this 'Could not start ksmserver. Check your installation.'. After clicking OK to that message kdm (xorg?) is doing a restart. After logging in back everything is going smooth. glxgears makes 1100 fps (former 400fps) and all the dasktop effects and 3d-games are working well. If I restart the machine I've again the slow and sluggish desktop. I reproduced this behaviour serveral times. I didn't touch any configuration files.

Revision history for this message
Richard Guo (rfguo) wrote :

Performance is now drastically higher using libdrm 2.4.9 and intel driver 2.7.1 in UXA mode on a GM965 (PPA: https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa). Though glxgears is hovering around 600 fps now (see reason: http://qa-rockstar.livejournal.com/7869.html), actual 2D rendering speeds and 3D performance in games are much higher. Games in wine that were previously unplayable in 2.6 or 2.4 are now running at ~30 fps (War3 in opengl mode). UT2004 is around 20 fps (1280x800 res, medium settings). I'm getting speeds that are higher than I would get in windows (using friend's almost identical PC for comparison).

Revision history for this message
salemboot (salemboot) wrote : Re: [Bug 252094] Re: MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel
Download full text (3.9 KiB)

Sounds like the kde session manager may have crashed, stalled and another
copy got loaded.
I'm not experienced enough with the internals of KDE to give you a deffinate
hypothesis.
A lot has changed from 3.5 up to 4.2.

Buntu is starting to become more like Slackware.

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 6:38 PM, Ralf Philipp <email address hidden> wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I've the same problems with kubuntu and jaunty on a minimac with 945G.
> After googling around I found different proposals. To get some solutions
> to work I opened a file with 'sudo kate' from konsole. Kate was starting
> but I got an error-message like this 'Could not start ksmserver. Check
> your installation.'. After clicking OK to that message kdm (xorg?) is
> doing a restart. After logging in back everything is going smooth.
> glxgears makes 1100 fps (former 400fps) and all the dasktop effects and
> 3d-games are working well. If I restart the machine I've again the slow
> and sluggish desktop. I reproduced this behaviour serveral times. I
> didn't touch any configuration files.
>
> --
> MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/252094
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in X.org xf86-video-intel: Confirmed
> Status in “linux” source package in Ubuntu: New
> Status in “xserver-xorg-video-intel” source package in Ubuntu: In Progress
> Status in linux in Ubuntu Karmic: New
> Status in xserver-xorg-video-intel in Ubuntu Karmic: In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> I experience significant performance loss with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3 with my
> Intel DG965WH based system and SVDO/ADD2 video card. Actually, the
> performance loss started with ubuntu 8.04.1; I upgraded to see if there was
> any performance gain with the new version. While "glxgears" produced values
> between 1580 fps and 1496 fps with ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, respectively, now I
> can only achieve something like 445 fps with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3. I get an
> error message when starting glxgears that "TTM" was not available and
> classic mode would be used. Similary, the flight simulator "flightgear"
> achieves frames rates of 1-2 fps only.
> My suspicion is that some of the hardware acceleration features of the
> X3000 system are not being used, and I don't know how to activate them with
> the new xorg.conf structure and the underlying automatic configuration
> approach.
> I would like to see the graphics performance go back to the values achieved
> in ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10.
> Your help / comment is greatly appreciated.
> Bingo
>
> [Update]
> Intel upstream has been in a multi-year effort to rearchitect X and the
> Intel 2D and 3D driver to provide better performance. While this work is
> underway, people are seeing variations in performance levels from version to
> version, for a variety of reasons. There are probably multiple unrelated
> bugs being reported in the comments here.
>
> It is important to note and remember that glxgears is *not* a benchmark
> tool. It simply measures how fast the driver writes images to the screen,
> whereas most 3D applications are limited by render speed, not merely blit
> speed. Instead use a...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
bouazza (sbouazza) wrote :

Hello !

@Richard Guo : Are you getting those good performances only using libdrm and intel driver packages from Xorg Edgers ? Sounds really good !

What about crashes ? I mean, those who freeze the entire system ( not possible to switch to console mode ), are they still present ?

Revision history for this message
NB (n4xxx) wrote :

After I followed this HOW TO, I'm getting good performances:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1130582
On my case (I'm using a 945) I had to upgrate the kernel to 2.6.30 rc

Revision history for this message
bouazza (sbouazza) wrote :

@NB : What do you mean with "good performances" ? Good scores which can compete with Windows XP ?

Revision history for this message
bouazza (sbouazza) wrote :

Well, I installed the 2.6.30rc7 kernel, libdrm/libdrm2 and the intel driver from xorg-edgers .

The rendering errors with Compiz are corrected, I don't even see crashes now, but still no performances improvements ...

I have an Intel X3100 card, do I need to install another package ? Do I have to install also the mesa packages from xorg-edgers ?

Revision history for this message
Richard Guo (rfguo) wrote :

@bouazza: Yes, I still have crashes, but they're much more infrequent now (once every 2 days). I did a dist-upgrade after adding the PPA, so there may have been other packages (most likely mesa) fetched as well. How are you measuring performance improvement?

Revision history for this message
NB (n4xxx) wrote :

@bouazza: I means that Tux Racer now runs at 25-35 FPS instead of 1-2 in Jaunty. Just by adding UXA it was only 10-25 FPS. I followed ALL the "Bleeding-Edge Configuration" steps in the guide, else the performances was almost unchanged; but the configuration and the result may depend on your graphic card.
In default Jaunty some games under Wine are unplayable: even enabling UXA didn't help. Of course I don't mean to play current 3D Windows games on a little i945 and I don't expect to get the same performances under Wine. Anyway that guide made them playable again. I don't remember the exact Wine performances on Hardy, but Jaunty with this changes seem faster. Tux Racer is faster for sure (it was around 15 FPS). Compiz effects are no longer choppy and the 2D is also OK (it don't looks slower than Windows), so I no longer miss Hardy.

Revision history for this message
bouazza (sbouazza) wrote :

Well, when I measure performance improvement, I usually use PPRacer, but even if the FPS goes from ~5 to ~20~30 ( Intel X3100 card ), I still think that there's no improvement ...

We have to compare to the Intel graphics performances under Windows XP ( my brother's PC with its Intel 8XX card runs games much faster on Windows ... ), and not to those under previous versions of Ubuntu ( people here compare to Hardy I think, which itself has poor graphics performances than Windows ) .

Revision history for this message
NB (n4xxx) wrote :

I would call a 4-6X improvement an HUGE improvement. However it was Jaunty (and Intrepid) that showed a big drop in performances, so with that guide I can use Compiz and some Wine games again as I did on Hardy. And that is why people compare Jaunty to Hardy. The modified Jaunty performs better than Hardy on my hardware: Extreme Tux Racer is 2 times faster as I said before, so there is an improvement. But you are right: Hardy was slow, compared to Windows and there is still room for more improvements. I'm not saying I'm totally satisfied.
I'm not sure if I can directly compare Exrteme Tux Racer to the Windows port, anyway Extreme Tux Racer for Windows hits 50-60 FPS, a lot more than that "Bleeding-Edge Configuration" for Jaunty.

Revision history for this message
bouazza (sbouazza) wrote :

The reason I'm not satisfied with this "improvement" is that we are just back to the Hardy performances, so nearly 0% loss and gain on graphics performances ...

But even on Hardy, Windows games that were smoothly playable under Windows Vista are totally unplayable now, even with these "improvements" ...

We can talk about improvements only if we can really compete with Windows, also, if this goal will be achieved, then Ubuntu will really rule the notebook market ( since 90% of notebooks are based on Intel graphics ) .

Revision history for this message
Mike Kaplinskiy (mike-kaplinskiy) wrote :

@bouazza: we're not quite there yet. In fact, we haven't even begun talking about catching up to windows. The main reason is that the graphics drivers for intel are currently (relatively) unstable. If you read the bug description, intel is doing a major rework of their linux drivers.

In particular the two outcomes of this are two new driver components: GEM and Gallium3D. GEM has been introduced into the release, and most of the performance decreases from hardy were due to GEM being unstable (ie failing on certain hardware). The next step would be to move the Mesa Gallium3D driver into ubuntu, and i am 95% sure it's not happening until karmic. Then we can talk about catching up to windows, since as of now intel drivers crash on anything more than glxgears (GLSL makes them cry).

For an example of current developments in the intel linux graphics world - EXA support was recently removed, so we're moving closer to a single stable intel backend driver (on UXA only). But this is not making it into jaunty since it requires the new kernel. Bottom line - you probably shouldn't expect "improved" (as you define it) intel performance on jaunty without manual tweaking. Or you could just update to the karmic alpha :).

my 2c

Revision history for this message
J.P. (mackdieselx27) wrote :

FWIW my ThinkPad R61i had a drastic improvement after upgrading the kernel to the 2.6.29 line following the 'optimal' config per this HOWTO:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1130582

Unfortunately, the text will garble up after suspending/hibernating or switching users. Restarting X solves the issue. Others have reported the issue in the above thread as well, including Karmic testers.

Revision history for this message
Mark (mark-wege) wrote :

I can confirm both: drastic improvement as well as problems after returning from suspension on my R50e. But it could/should still be faster and there are still some "minor" glichtes in the screen without having used suspension.

Revision history for this message
Ace Suares (acesuares) wrote :

J.P. wrote:
> FWIW my ThinkPad R61i had a drastic improvement after upgrading the kernel to the 2.6.29 line following the 'optimal' config per this HOWTO:
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1130582
>
> Unfortunately, the text will garble up after suspending/hibernating or
> switching users. Restarting X solves the issue. Others have reported
> the issue in the above thread as well, including Karmic testers.
>

After the most recent update, hibernate works as expected, i.e. it's not
giving a black screen after waking up anymore. thx.

Revision history for this message
In , Carl Worth (cworth) wrote :

I'm closing this bug because, as described in comments #26 and #27, analysis showed that the problems existed in the OpenSuSE Beta but not in the latest versions of the driver, (potentially including kernel components).

If there are separate issues discussed here that people are still interested in, I'm not trying to ignore them. But we need separate bug reports for those so that we can track them better. So please feel free to open new bugs for any outstanding issues.

Thanks for your understanding,

-Carl

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: Confirmed → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Zack Evans (zevans23) wrote :

OK. Can't try the current (20090603) xorg-edgers build for performance because it just plain won't run games, but I believe this is a known problem.

Meanwhile, on the latest Jaunty proposed versions UXA is about half the speed of EXA on a couple of games. Which bug are you using to track UXA performance regression - I'd like to test the versions recommended there and see how far off the best EXA performance we are now...

In other words if this is now an invalid bug, where's the valid one, or would you like me to file a more structured bug report anew?

Revision history for this message
Benjamin Drung (bdrung) wrote :

Zack, please file a new bug report and add all relevant information. This bug report is too long and not specific enough.

Revision history for this message
Radu Cristian Fotescu (beranger) wrote :

Dear Benjamin MOTU,

Whatever is needed to be "specific" about this bug is written in the Ubuntu 9.04 Release Notes, right here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904#Performance%20regressions%20on%20Intel%20graphics%20cards

"Users of Intel video chipsets have reported performance regressions in Ubuntu 8.10 compared with previous releases (252094). Many of the issues have been resolved in Ubuntu 9.04, but some remain."

By declaring this bug as "Invalid", you're suggesting that the Ubuntu Release Notes are LYING. Next you should probably deny that the Holocaust ever existed.

The Internet is full of THOUSANDS of proofs that recent versions of xserver-xorg-video-intel/ is SCREWED. This is very specific, and people with Intel video can experience this regression in Mandriva 2009.1, in Fedora 11, in openSUSE 11.2-M2/Factory, and so on.

Mark Shuttleworth should simply send you to the garbage bin. You're undermining Ubuntu's reputation (if any of it left after shipping a release with Intel performance dropped to 10%).

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Radu, your comments are inappropriate, please remain civil. Remember many of the people assisting with people's bugs are volunteers, and expressing your frustration here (while valid) does not help move things towards a solution.

In this case Benjamin is correct, and is simply repeating information already provided earlier in the bug report.

I am closing the Karmic task because the causes of the performance issues on Jaunty are no longer valid on Karmic. There are still some performance issues being tracked, but they're particular to Karmic and due to unrelated reasons; we expect all performance issues should be resolved by Karmic Alpha-3 or Alpha-4.

The causes for performance issues in Jaunty have already been well characterized in other bug reports, and kernel patches are being tracked for potential SRU into Jaunty, if they do not expose other regressions.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Karmic):
status: New → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Benjamin Drung (bdrung) wrote :

Radu, please respect the Code of Conduct. The bug status for xf86-video-intel was set by the Bug Watch Updater to invalid, because the freedesktop bug #18389 was closed. As you wrote, this bug is well known. I never said, that this bug does not exist. I am affected of this bug, too. To solve this problem I have updated the Intel driver (provided by a PPA), the kernel to version 2.6.30-7 (grabbed from Karmic) and use UXA now.

BTW, I am not a MOTU (yet).

Revision history for this message
Radu Cristian Fotescu (beranger) wrote :

1. The freedesktop bug #18389 was closed with NOTOURBUG, which does NOT solve it.

2. The freedesktop bug #18389 was opened for openSUSE, so this does NOT solve Ubuntu's bug.

3. As long as Jaunty is affected by this bug, the bug status can NOT be Invalid!

I stop using Ubuntu effective now, and I am shredding all the Ubuntu CDs I own. This is unacceptable. You're not using your brains. Jaunty is severely affected and can't be fixed with the *official* packages for 9.04 (kernel, xf86-video-intel), and you are playing with "freedesktop closed, Karmic apparently fixed", etc.

Revision history for this message
aussiebuddha (au-mario-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

you should try windows 7, it's very neat, been using it since ubuntu started having issues with video.
The only times I boot back into ubuntu now, are to try and fix the video.

Revision history for this message
Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox) wrote : Re: [Bug 252094] Re: MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel

2009/6/5 Radu Cristian Fotescu <email address hidden>:
> 1. The freedesktop bug #18389 was closed with NOTOURBUG, which does NOT
> solve it.
>
> 2. The freedesktop bug #18389 was opened for openSUSE, so this does NOT
> solve Ubuntu's bug.
>
> 3. As long as Jaunty is affected by this bug, the bug status can NOT be
> Invalid!
>

There are a lot of reports of improved performance with using 2.6.30rc
kernels in combination with newer versions of intel drivers from the
x-org edgers PPA's in Jaunty and Karmic.

> I stop using Ubuntu effective now, and I am shredding all the Ubuntu CDs
> I own. This is unacceptable. You're not using your brains. Jaunty is

Keep it cool, eh?!

> severely affected and can't be fixed with the *official* packages for
> 9.04 (kernel, xf86-video-intel), and you are playing with "freedesktop
> closed, Karmic apparently fixed", etc.
>

It was affected on the day of the release, packages from karmic are
*official* and have been backported via PPA and do fix the problem.
Right now it's the waiting time to decided what will qualify for SRU.
It is Ubuntu policy not to include new versions of software after the
release.

Noone forced you to upgrade to Jaunty. Hardy is LTS and still
supported. If you want stable and long-term machine use LTS releases.
If you upgrade on day of the Release well you should expect that not
everything will work as *you* wish it to work. Look how KDE 4.0 worked
out and you have installed Jaunty 9.04.0 - point 0 version!

--
With best regards

Dmitrijs Ledkovs (for short Dima),
Ледков Дмитрий Юрьевич

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

I think we can close this one now. The issue is largely resolved in Karmic, and the commentary on this bug seems to have degenerated past usefulness. Other bug reports are tracking kernel patches and other fixes proposed for Jaunty.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu Karmic):
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
JoseLVG (josvazg) wrote :

Last time I tested with last intel, X and kernel 2.6.30 (rc7?) versions
available the results were poor and not stable.
Has anyone got it working fine? (no render errors and good fps on
googleearth and tux racer?)
Has anyone got it working fine on a eee 901?

Jose

2009/6/28 Bryce Harrington <email address hidden>

> I think we can close this one now. The issue is largely resolved in
> Karmic, and the commentary on this bug seems to have degenerated past
> usefulness. Other bug reports are tracking kernel patches and other
> fixes proposed for Jaunty.
>
>
> ** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu Karmic)
> Status: In Progress => Fix Released
>
> --
> MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/252094
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Revision history for this message
Ofir Klinger (klinger-ofir) wrote :

I updated my system to the latest drivers and X, and it works fine (better then before to be sure).

No screen flicker. However, when I try to change the brightness through the shortcut keys on my laptop keyboard, or through the brightness applet in gnome, the screen flicker and CPU get high, but after 5 sec it reaches the desired level and stops. It is the most annoying when trying to change brightness to maximum.

Revision history for this message
salemboot (salemboot) wrote :
Download full text (3.7 KiB)

I updated 9.10 again today
A new kernel and Intel driver got installed.
2.6.30-10 has lowered performance considerably.
The new upgrades to Xorg have a few issues with external LCD's.

Stepping back to 2.6.30-9 stablized things as long as I didn't push past the
resolution of my laptop's
onboard display. It's probably about the best speeds I've seen in games.

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 5:56 PM, Ofir Klinger <email address hidden>wrote:

> I updated my system to the latest drivers and X, and it works fine
> (better then before to be sure).
>
> No screen flicker. However, when I try to change the brightness through
> the shortcut keys on my laptop keyboard, or through the brightness
> applet in gnome, the screen flicker and CPU get high, but after 5 sec it
> reaches the desired level and stops. It is the most annoying when trying
> to change brightness to maximum.
>
> --
> MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/252094
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in X.org xf86-video-intel: Invalid
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “xserver-xorg-video-intel” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in linux in Ubuntu Karmic: Fix Released
> Status in xserver-xorg-video-intel in Ubuntu Karmic: Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> I experience significant performance loss with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3 with my
> Intel DG965WH based system and SVDO/ADD2 video card. Actually, the
> performance loss started with ubuntu 8.04.1; I upgraded to see if there was
> any performance gain with the new version. While "glxgears" produced values
> between 1580 fps and 1496 fps with ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, respectively, now I
> can only achieve something like 445 fps with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3. I get an
> error message when starting glxgears that "TTM" was not available and
> classic mode would be used. Similary, the flight simulator "flightgear"
> achieves frames rates of 1-2 fps only.
> My suspicion is that some of the hardware acceleration features of the
> X3000 system are not being used, and I don't know how to activate them with
> the new xorg.conf structure and the underlying automatic configuration
> approach.
> I would like to see the graphics performance go back to the values achieved
> in ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10.
> Your help / comment is greatly appreciated.
> Bingo
>
> [Update]
> Intel upstream has been in a multi-year effort to rearchitect X and the
> Intel 2D and 3D driver to provide better performance. While this work is
> underway, people are seeing variations in performance levels from version to
> version, for a variety of reasons. There are probably multiple unrelated
> bugs being reported in the comments here.
>
> It is important to note and remember that glxgears is *not* a benchmark
> tool. It simply measures how fast the driver writes images to the screen,
> whereas most 3D applications are limited by render speed, not merely blit
> speed. Instead use a 3D game (flightgear, tremulous, etc.) that has a real
> rendering workload to make comparisons.
>
> If you're definitely seeing performance problems and are able to narrow it
...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
Störm Poorun (subs-olan) wrote :

Just for info:

Intel Linux Graphics On Ubuntu Still Flaky
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_q309_flakes&num=3

Revision history for this message
Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb) wrote :

Quote from Storm's URL : " within Mesa there are regressions where we could not even complete OpenGL tests with the current Karmic stack that had run fine under Ubuntu 9.04". Although it says the stack has less glitches, which is at least some improvement.

Revision history for this message
salemboot (salemboot) wrote :
Download full text (4.5 KiB)

http://anholt.livejournal.com/41306.html
()_- [ We do use ut2004. It does stutter with 2.6.31rc (unstable code)
due to a performance improvement that requires a Mesa fix to avoid the
stuttering. The Mesa fix has been undergoing review.]-_()
}-._
He never mentions the fix. I haven't had time to look through the
intel forums to find the thread with the discussion.

Observations-_
Use of the rc kernels is a bad idea. You risk loosing functionality.
Best practice would be to use 2.6.29 and back-port all the GEM revisions.
( compare the two kernels and copy source files from one to the other )
I used to do this a lot. To me 2.6.24 was the best so I'd port back
all the junk I liked in the newer kernels. It's time consuming but
worth it if you want to keep everything going. Think Red Hat here.

Below is what I have:
1.mesa-git/glew-git
2.linux-2.6.31rc5
3.xf86-video-intel-2.8.0

Not much of an improvement.

-- "it's worst than that he's dead jim, dead jim dead jim." Bones
looking at the intel driver.

On 8/4/09, Tom Chiverton <email address hidden> wrote:
> Quote from Storm's URL : " within Mesa there are regressions where we
> could not even complete OpenGL tests with the current Karmic stack that
> had run fine under Ubuntu 9.04". Although it says the stack has less
> glitches, which is at least some improvement.
>
> --
> MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/252094
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in X.org xf86-video-intel: Invalid
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “xserver-xorg-video-intel” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in linux in Ubuntu Karmic: Fix Released
> Status in xserver-xorg-video-intel in Ubuntu Karmic: Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> I experience significant performance loss with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3 with my
> Intel DG965WH based system and SVDO/ADD2 video card. Actually, the
> performance loss started with ubuntu 8.04.1; I upgraded to see if there was
> any performance gain with the new version. While "glxgears" produced values
> between 1580 fps and 1496 fps with ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, respectively, now I
> can only achieve something like 445 fps with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3. I get an
> error message when starting glxgears that "TTM" was not available and
> classic mode would be used. Similary, the flight simulator "flightgear"
> achieves frames rates of 1-2 fps only.
> My suspicion is that some of the hardware acceleration features of the X3000
> system are not being used, and I don't know how to activate them with the
> new xorg.conf structure and the underlying automatic configuration approach.
> I would like to see the graphics performance go back to the values achieved
> in ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10.
> Your help / comment is greatly appreciated.
> Bingo
>
> [Update]
> Intel upstream has been in a multi-year effort to rearchitect X and the
> Intel 2D and 3D driver to provide better performance. While this work is
> underway, people are seeing variations in performance levels from version to
> version, for a variety of reasons. There are probably multiple unrelat...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
salemboot (salemboot) wrote :
Download full text (5.3 KiB)

Figured I'd make an update.

Mesa git fixed some issues for me.
unreal tournament isn't hoping around anymore.
Actually is pretty smooth now.

Blender's latest available build still renders outside the container
window but some of the glitches were fixed. You still can't see the
selection window.

L ate r

On 8/4/09, Jerry McCarthy <email address hidden> wrote:
> http://anholt.livejournal.com/41306.html
> ()_- [ We do use ut2004. It does stutter with 2.6.31rc (unstable code)
> due to a performance improvement that requires a Mesa fix to avoid the
> stuttering. The Mesa fix has been undergoing review.]-_()
> }-._
> He never mentions the fix. I haven't had time to look through the
> intel forums to find the thread with the discussion.
>
>
> Observations-_
> Use of the rc kernels is a bad idea. You risk loosing functionality.
> Best practice would be to use 2.6.29 and back-port all the GEM revisions.
> ( compare the two kernels and copy source files from one to the other )
> I used to do this a lot. To me 2.6.24 was the best so I'd port back
> all the junk I liked in the newer kernels. It's time consuming but
> worth it if you want to keep everything going. Think Red Hat here.
>
>
>
> Below is what I have:
> 1.mesa-git/glew-git
> 2.linux-2.6.31rc5
> 3.xf86-video-intel-2.8.0
>
> Not much of an improvement.
>
> -- "it's worst than that he's dead jim, dead jim dead jim." Bones
> looking at the intel driver.
>
> On 8/4/09, Tom Chiverton <email address hidden> wrote:
>> Quote from Storm's URL : " within Mesa there are regressions where we
>> could not even complete OpenGL tests with the current Karmic stack that
>> had run fine under Ubuntu 9.04". Although it says the stack has less
>> glitches, which is at least some improvement.
>>
>> --
>> MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/252094
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of a duplicate bug.
>>
>> Status in X.org xf86-video-intel: Invalid
>> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
>> Status in “xserver-xorg-video-intel” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
>> Status in linux in Ubuntu Karmic: Fix Released
>> Status in xserver-xorg-video-intel in Ubuntu Karmic: Fix Released
>>
>> Bug description:
>> I experience significant performance loss with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3 with
>> my
>> Intel DG965WH based system and SVDO/ADD2 video card. Actually, the
>> performance loss started with ubuntu 8.04.1; I upgraded to see if there
>> was
>> any performance gain with the new version. While "glxgears" produced
>> values
>> between 1580 fps and 1496 fps with ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, respectively, now
>> I
>> can only achieve something like 445 fps with ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3. I get
>> an
>> error message when starting glxgears that "TTM" was not available and
>> classic mode would be used. Similary, the flight simulator "flightgear"
>> achieves frames rates of 1-2 fps only.
>> My suspicion is that some of the hardware acceleration features of the
>> X3000
>> system are not being used, and I don't know how to activate them with the
>> new xorg.conf structure and the underlying automatic configuration
>> approach.
>> I wo...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
john (no2498) wrote :

this is not only for intel drivers
804.3 hardy
 lspci|grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. UniChrome Pro IGP (rev 01)

this just hit me over the last week
webcam is giving me 1.2 fps

Revision history for this message
Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox) wrote : Dmitrijs Ledkovs wants to stay in touch on LinkedIn

LinkedIn
------------

Bug,

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

- Dmitrijs Ledkovs

Dmitrijs Ledkovs
Student at The University of Hull
United Kingdom

Confirm that you know Dmitrijs Ledkovs
https://www.linkedin.com/e/isd/1067430355/atgqGcaI/

------
(c) 2010, LinkedIn Corporation

Revision history for this message
JemsRoker (bithy1991) wrote :

Hi friend it’s looking a nice informative post in this blog . Thanks and like to share my thought here.
<a href="http://www.xigmapro.com/e-commerce-website-design-and-development/">Ecommerce Website Design Company</a>

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
importance: Unknown → High
status: Invalid → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) wrote :
Revision history for this message
salemboot (salemboot) wrote : Re: [Bug 252094] Re: MASTER: Poor graphics performance on Intel

This page was last modified on 20 May 2009, at 14:08.

2-Year old page bro! Even the radeon driver has matured significatly since
then.

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 12:31 AM, actionparsnip <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> I'd just like to add:
> http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Glxgears_is_not_a_Benchmark--
>
Without fear we must walk forward and without doubt we must not look back.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
importance: High → Unknown
Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
importance: Unknown → High
Displaying first 40 and last 40 comments. View all 421 comments or add a comment.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Related questions

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.