Comment 180 for bug 803943

Okay, so I tried messing around with some options, and here's something that worked for me (on fglrx driver):

- The problem goes away when I turn off Sync to VBlank (ccsm, OpenGL section). I don't remember having the high CPU usage while idle, but I did have the usage spikes while dragging windows. On my desktop (Radeon 2600XT), and my laptop (Radeon 4670), turning off Sync to VBlank dropped compiz's CPU usage while dragging windows from 25-70% to around 3-9%.

I found the following workaround to be effective for me on both my desktop and laptop to both get rid of the tearing, and :
(requires proprietary ATi drivers.)
1. Turn off Sync to VBlank in ccsm.
2. Open up the Catalyst control center, (command: amdcccle)
3. Turn TearFree Desktop on (it's under Display Options)
4. Change the "Wait for vertical refresh" setting to "On, unless application specifies." (I had issues with compiz starting up, and changing that fixed it.)

The result will be: compiz running with acceptable CPU usage and no tearing. The only side effect I've noticed is that sometimes while moving windows very rapidly, the cursor will jump and the little hand will become separated from the window it is dragging.