slow draw on some 2D apps and dynamic clocks not working properly

[Raphaela]

Ehllo Tehre!

I've recently purchased a new computer (around July 2010) and I've been having some problems with proprietary video drivers on linux.

The Hardware:
Video ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5870 (XFX HD-587X-ZNFC)
Motherboard Asus P7P55D-E Deluxe
Processor Intel i5 750
Memory Kingston Hyperx KHX1600C8D3K2/4GX (2x - 8GB Total)
Power Supply XFX P1-750B-CAG9

There are no overclocks, not even the memories (they are at 1333mhz due processor memory controller limitation)

The Current Software (Own distribution):
Arch x86_64 (multilib)
Kernel 2.6.35.10
Xorg 7.5
wmii-3.9.2
Catalyst 10.12

There are no desktop effects programs like compiz fusion

The problems:
With ATI/AMD proprietary driver (fglrx), some applications are with slow draw/redraw

--

xpdf
Painfull slow scrolling;

--

display (from ImageMagick)
Slow menus and sometimes slow image redraw;

--

xterm
Flickers a lot when drawing continuous output
Examples:
mplayer time info flickers on terminal;
"find /" flickers a lot (It takes some time to stop with control-c. But, If I change the workspace or put some window upon it, just after the control-c, It stops instantly);
"cat somefile" if the file is big (Xorg.0.log for example) it takes some time to display;

vim and less (ex: find / | less) don't have much problems, just a little flicker;

--

mplayer (no gui)
Slow reproduction and seek with -vo x11;
Tearing with -vo xv;
Time info flickers on terminal (xterm consequence);

--

gvim
A little slow draw when scrolling with page up/page down;

--

firefox
Slow draw/redraw on some pages like www.boadica.com.br (never noticed on many pages);
Corruptions when informative yellow boxes are showing and scroll the page;

--

"Wallpaper"
After minimizing a fullscreen window or changing to an empty workspace it takes *some* time to redraw wallpaper.I've made a gif to explain that. http://img210.imageshack.us/i/animation2qn.gif/ (not so slow like in the gif, but that is what happens);

--

"Video Card"
The core and memory clocks are increased with the events described above and on other situations like change workspace (even without wallpaper);

Idle clocks: Core: 157mhz, Memory: 300mhz
Full clocks: Core: 850mhz, Memory: 1200mhz

--

Programs that I use and are apparently without problems:
gimp, pidgin;
mplayer (-vo gl, gl2);
blender, unigine heaven (better fps than on windows);
doom3, tibia, penumbra overture, amnesia the dark descent (wine), diablo 2 (wine);

No problems on windows (Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit).

And special attention to this:
Full desktop effects on ubuntu/debian don't cause ANY problems, even the core and memory clocks don't increase with the effects.

Unsucessfull tests:
Tested with all drivers versions since 10.6 (released approximately when I've installed the first slackware in this PC);
Tested other video card - ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5570 (XFX HD-557X-ZHF2);
Tested some options on xorg.conf and amdpcsdb that I've found googling;

Tested other distros and software versions:
Tested XORG-7.6 on my own distribution;
Tested Debian Squeeze (testing - from 2010-12-20);
Tested Ubuntu Marverick (10.10);
Tested Slackware 13.1;

Notes for that distros:
Arch i386;
All default software (kernel, gnome, xorg, drivers) except in slackware that don't have the catalyst by default;

Sucessfull tests:
Tested other video card - NVIDIA Geforce 7300GS with driver 260.19.29;

Tested other hardware:
Video ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5570 (XFX HD-557X-ZHF2);
Motherboard Intel DG31PR;
Processor Core 2 Duo E6750;
Tested with fresh install of same distros with same program versions;

That video card (HD 5570) clocks were full time at the maximum (something like 500/750, don't remember) in all the operational systems (Windows xp and Windows 7 too), but it didn't show the same problems that I have here.

I don't dispose of other video cards to make more tests, like nvidia gtx 200~400~500 or Radeon HD 4000/6000.

I've googled a lot about common problems with ATI/AMD driver for linux and didn't find anything, except by the firefox corruptions, that the solutions were to disable ATI Direct2DAccel and use XAA. With XAA the problems persists and the other applications like pidgin and rest of firefox were shows the same problem of slow draw/redraw.

With opensource drivers, I hadn't the same draw problems, but, had other problems that I don't know if it can be discussed in this forum session.

What I need from the system:
Good power saving (like that have in windows)
Opengl working properly

(don't need full features of video card, just need stability for use with overall opengl applications like blender and some developed by myself and friends)

Logs and Configs:
kernel .config:
http://pastebin.com/bNHcFFCF

dmesg:
http://pastebin.com/ucvEJwMx

xorg package list:
http://pastebin.com/UG2jd5uL

xorg.conf:
http://pastebin.com/sAz24X9e

Xorg.0.log:
http://pastebin.com/NzDbXc8F

[evolution]

Greetings,
Did you take a look here? (click here)
In that wiki, you can find a way to add a Catalyst repository (along with your official Arch repositories) and, in that repository, there's a patched xorg server that fixes some slow resizing and scroll problems. (maybe it can fix yours)

Did you give it a try?
If you have any doubt, post here!

Cheers

[Raphaela]

Greetings,
Did you take a look here? (click here)
In that wiki, you can find a way to add a Catalyst repository (along with your official Arch repositories) and, in that repository, there's a patched xorg server that fixes some slow resizing and scroll problems. (maybe it can fix yours)

Did you give it a try?
If you have any doubt, post here!

Cheers

Ehllo!

Thanks for reply, and sorry for possible misunderstanding. When I've said "Arch x86_64" I meant "Architecture x86_64" and not that I'm using Arch linux.

By the way, I've tried one xorg patch someday (107_fedora_dont_backfill_bg_none.patch was the name), and had no success. I'll try that ones shown in the link just for the sake of consience

[evolution]

Ehllo!

Thanks for reply, and sorry for possible misunderstanding. When I've said "Arch x86_64" I meant "Architecture x86_64" and not that I'm using Arch linux.

By the way, I've tried one xorg patch someday (107_fedora_dont_backfill_bg_none.patch was the name), and had no success. I'll try that ones shown in the link just for the sake of consience

Ok, sorry, I thought you were talking about Arch Linux , so, which distro are you using?

BTW, there's already a "newer" and more efficient patch than the Fedora's one: backfill patch, to download it click here.

Another way of "fix" you problem, is try to upgrade your Catalyst to a newer version (10.12, of preference, or wait this week for Cat 11.1)...
But, as I don't know which distro are you using, I can't help you very much ATM... .

Cheers

[evolution]

About my last post, sorry, I didn't notice you were using a homebrew distro... ^^

(the 1 minute edit rule really rules! )

Cheers

[Raphaela]

Ok, sorry, I thought you were talking about Arch Linux , so, which distro are you using?

BTW, there's already a "newer" and more efficient patch than the Fedora's one: backfill patch, to download it click here.

Another way of "fix" you problem, is try to upgrade your Catalyst to a newer version (10.12, of preference, or wait this week for Cat 11.1)...
But, as I don't know which distro are you using, I can't help you very much ATM... .

Cheers

Ehllo again!

I've tested the Arch Linux Catalyst page patches and had no sucess, same problems. Later I will try the "newer" one that you've posted.

About the driver version, I'm already using 10.12. The problem persists since the first version that I've installed (10.6 on an slackware 13.1). I hope that the future release "fix" the problem, since I dunno if this is really an fglrx problem.

And about the distros, I'm using a homebrew distro, and, all distros that I've tested showed the same problem (slackware, debian squeeze, ubuntu marverick), so, if there's something to test on any of them, or others, I can do without problems (except for rebuild xserver on debian or ubuntu ).

[BlackStar]

Can't find anything out of order in Xorg.0.log, but these issues indicate that catalyst is not installed correctly.

Try running glxinfo (it's a mesa utility) and post the output here. It should give a hint on whether 3d is working correctly (everything depends on that, as 2d acceleration builds on the 3d engine).

[Raphaela]

Can't find anything out of order in Xorg.0.log, but these issues indicate that catalyst is not installed correctly.

Try running glxinfo (it's a mesa utility) and post the output here. It should give a hint on whether 3d is working correctly (everything depends on that, as 2d acceleration builds on the 3d engine).

glxinfo output: http://pastebin.com/68VTf6kc

fglrxinfo output:

display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
OpenGL version string: 4.1.10362 Compatibility Profile Context

Dunno if it is exactly an installation problem, since Debian and Ubuntu install it on their own way.

[Blacksmith]

This will be little help I suppose but I have had a simliar problem with a Gigabyte Radeon 5870 on the same motherboard. I did not do such detailed testing as I have a spare card I can use (a Nvidia GTX 260 SOC), the monitor though is a Samsung 305T (2560x1600). The main problem showing up where the screen background image drawing VERY slowly, around 1/5 th of a second, sometimes drawing speed is OK when image is first displayed. Gimp simliar.

A difference though (possibly) in my case the monitor is not detected correctly FGLRX bringing it up as a 1280x800 not 2560x1600 and it appears the failures only occur in the higher resolution. One wonders a little if FGLRX does NOT like dual link DVI.

I am going to give the card another crack when catalyst 11/1 comes out. Hopefully it will work OK some time soon. In my case no real major disaster as I have decent cards on standby, as well as the Nvidia there is a Radeon 4870 and also a 3870 (I have two main systems in use).

[Blacksmith]

Distribution is a somewhat modified version of Debian testing, among other things I compile my own kernel.