Poor GUI performance in Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.1

[Veazer]

NOTE: This is not the same issue as the thread ‘Jerky/choppy window movement after hours of system uptime’. The choppiness i see is always present.

I recently installed LM 17.1 Cinnamon edition on my Dell XPS 15 9530 series. The system has a quad-core i7 (4702HQ) and nVidia graphics (GeForce GT 750M 2GB). I haven’t yet been able to enable the hybrid graphics, so the system is just using the onboard Intel HD 4600 (I assume) but with these decent specs, it should be able to handle any modern desktop environment.

Linux Mint 17.1 KDE and Kubuntu both run smoothly, and and Mint Mate (w/ Compiz) runs even faster but isn’t usable on the HiDPI screen (3200x1800). Cinnamon looks fantastic, but I’ve noticed that the GUI runs a bit choppy. I can move smaller windows fairly fluidly, but any ‘normal’ sized windows seem to fluctuate between 15fps and 30fps (estimated). Dragging a window over a browser windows seems especially bad. The windows content is fine, meaning that a 60fps YouTube video plays just fine and isn’t choppy at all. It’s just the actual window dragging, minimizing/maximizing, etc. that suffers. The 'Show all Windows' hot corner is very choppy, like 10-15 fps.

I understand that Cinnamon uses more resources than the lighter desktop environments, but it seems like a machine that can run a recent first person shooter at playable rates shouldn’t be bogged down by moving windows. I have Mint Mate + Compiz on an old Dell Mini 9 (1st gen Intel Atom) and window moving is smoother on that machine, it can maintain 60fps nearly all the time, including all the fancy stuff.

Is there anything I can do to improve GUI performance on Cinnamon? 95% of my use is plugged in, so I wouldn’t mind using the nVidia card full time if it might fix the issue. I tried installing the propietary nVidia drivers and the only difference I noticed was that it caused window tearing and didn’t improve performance. As I understand it, Compiz and Compton aren’t usable on Gnome3 or Cinnamon so I won't even attempt that.

[kelebek333]

Could you try to add following lines to /etc/environment file?

Code: Select all

CLUTTER_PAINT=disable-clipped-redraws:disable-culling
CLUTTER_VBLANK=True

Then you must restart system.

[Veazer]

Thanks for your suggestion.

The suggested changes don't seem to have any effect. I also tried adding CLUTTER_VBLANK=False to see if it would cause tearing (to see if the settings are applied) but that didn't effect anything either. Is it possible these changes are being ignored? Does Muffin use the same configuration parameters as Clutter?

EDIT: Where can I find a complete list of all clutter settings?

EDIT2: I noticed that the package muffin is not installed, isn't this a core component of Cinnamon? Mutter is not installed either.

[BlackVeils]

try disabling the clutter thing, then enabling the tearfree option for the Intel graphics:
http://askubuntu.com/a/469653

and then reboot the computer.

Sent from my Moto G using Tapatalk

[Veazer]

I'm not having any issues with tearing, just performance, so I'm curious why you would suggest this. Various methods to reduce or eliminate tearing almost always reduce performance further, yes? Regardless, I'll try it and report back.

EDIT: typos

[BlackVeils]

i mentioned because i had really choppy window movement, and bad firefox scrolling until i enabled the tearfree option. no matter the desktop or compositor. i have intel haswell HD 4400. plenty of people enable the tearfree for intel HD graphics and it solves problems.

as for "performance", its not just about powerful enough specs, cinnamon may just not go so well with your exact hardware setup - an incompatibility.

[Veazer]

i mentioned because i had really choppy window movement, and bad firefox scrolling until i enabled the tearfree option. no matter the desktop or compositor. i have intel haswell HD 4400. plenty of people enable the tearfree for intel HD graphics and it solves problems.

as for "performance", its not just about powerful enough specs, cinnamon may just not go so well with your exact hardware setup - an incompatibility.

I tried creating xorg.conf and enabling tearfree, no change. I guess the next step is to see if I can get the nVidia card working properly.

Are you guys getting a fluid, 60fps desktop experience? I booted the live USB on my desktop (Core2 Quad + ATI) and I see almost identical issues, sometimes decently smooth and sometime quite choppy. Maybe I'm just expecting too much from this DE. It's a shame that I can get it to perform like a compiz machine, Cinnamon is a beautiful piece of work.

[BlackVeils]

I wouldn't know how to check fps, besides I don't use cinnamon because programs take too long to load.

I would not have high expectations of things like this though, its Linux, that's fine for me, but clearly its an issue for you.

[kelebek333]

You can try to install Bumblebee wtih minimal setup.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends bumblebee

[Veazer]

You can try to install Bumblebee wtih minimal setup.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends bumblebee

Thanks. I just tried the latest nVidia proprietary driver and it had an option for graphics switching, so I haven't messed with Bumblebee yet. Cinnamon does run better on nVidia but cranks the fans up pretty loud so I'm going to give up at this point and go with something else that isn't as heavy. Unity + Nemo is tolerable, and despite its quirks KDE works pretty well with HiDPI and is far better than it once was. Plasma 5.x is looking quite nice, but it isn't anywhere close to bring stable enough for daily use.