[HLUG] OTish: Graphics Cards/Xorg usage/GPU upgrade

[Ralph Jones]

Hello all, 

A quick update. Having done a bit more browsing, and a bit more
indiscriminate use of apt-get install and uninstall, I think I've
managed to get Xorg usage of the CPU and RAM down to levels where my PC
doesn't groan like a mob teen schoolkids bewailing the 'unfair' fact
that they've been given homework.

I uninstalled everything marked 'Direct Rendering' as well as xorg
packages 'video-fbdev' and 'video-v4l'. That seems to have done the
trick. I think with an old Rage Pro card, it's just as well that I just
want crisp clear webpages and work docs.

More questions to follow, watch this list :)

Regards one and all
Ralph
 
On Sat, 2008-04-05 at 08:47 +0000, matt at mattjones.me.uk wrote:
> AGP 8x are backwards compatible with 4x, but not with the 1x and 2x  
> IIRC(Although some boards support all of them, which sounds like yours).
> 
>   I suspect that 4x interface would not be a particular issue, the 8x  
> card would still provide a significant increase in graphics  
> capability. A processor upgrade should be low cost as well, I picked  
> up a 2.8ghz P4 from ebay for about £5, and this may help with the xorg  
> problem (Not really a solution I know...)
> 
> I am not sure why xorg, running a similar amount of apps on my EEE,  
> the xorg usage was never a problem, is there a common hardware between  
> the reporters of the bug?
> 
> Installing Xfree86 is probably not a good idea, it won't upgrade  
> cleanly with the distro, and since Hardy is coming out at the end of  
> the month the problem may be fixed anyway.
> 
> The hardware upgrades should be pretty cheap, and more performance is  
> not a bad thing. Surely going to fluxbuntu is fairly extreme, the full  
> fat ubuntu runs very nicely on a 630mhz processor with 512mb ram.
> 
> Matt Jones
> 
> Quoting Ralph Jones <ralphkj at gmail.com>:
> 
> > Lo all,
> >
> > Just a quick question as regards graphics cards. I've just been browsing
> > eBay to see what's available second-hand, and is it me, or are 128/256Mb
> > AGP cards ridiculously cheap? Has everybody (who's anybody) now moved
> > onto PCI-E cards?
> >
> > And more importantly, how 'backward-compatible' are AGP cards as regards
> > speed? Will a 8x card still work in a mobo that only supports 1x/2x/4x
> > cards? (albeit running at 4x max speed).
> >
> > The reason I ask, and and nicely brings this missive back on topic, is
> > X.org.
> >
> > Most certainly since upgrading to Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy?) from the
> > previous incarnation, I've found Xorg hogging the CPU (70-90%), as well
> > as a majority of my RAM (20-30%), when running 2-3 sessions of Firefox +
> > Evolution + Azureus/Frostwire + Icepodder. Doing a bit of googling shows
> > me that a lot of people have registered this as a bug; some as an Ubuntu
> > bug, some as an X.org bug, and some as a Firefox bug. I just hope they
> > don't come up with three patches/upgrades, which conflict with each
> > other further.
> >
> >
> > So, I am faced with three options:
> >
> > a) at the beginning of the 21st century to modify the way I use my
> > computer to suit hardware + software.
> >
> > b) upgrade my hardware to suit the requirements of 21st century
> > computing.
> >
> > c) downgrade my software to suit my late 20th century hardware (Athlon
> > XP1500/1048Mb RAM/32Mb ATi AGP card).
> >
> >
> > Option a) got kicked out in the first round, I haven't time to
> > reschedule my day to make time to suit.
> >
> > Option c) is something I will be looking at further; I've just
> > downloaded Fluxbuntu to install on a rainy day and will be looking at
> > DSL and Puppy as well. I am also looking into ditching FF and Evolution
> > in favour of Kazekhase and Claws.
> >
> > Option b) is where I'd appreciate your ha'penny's worth. Will a
> > seemingly cheap upgrade of my AGP graphics card take some of the strain
> > off my CPU and RAM? I could also stick another 1Gb of RAM in there, but
> > at the moment graphics cards seem to be dirt-cheaper than RAM.
> >
> > And it occurs to me that perhaps I should ditch X.org and install the
> > current version version of XFree86? How easy/difficult would that be?
> > Bearing in mind that I've never 'rolled' my own kernel.
> >
> > Your thoughts on this appreciated. And apologies for the missive getting
> > out of hand - I only mail once a year, so tend to use my quota up in one
> > go!
> >
> > Regards
> > Ralph
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Herefordshire LUG mailing list
> > Web:  http://www.herefordshire.lug.org.uk
> > List: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/herefordshire
> >
> 
> 
> 
>