Kwin compositing and the 945G netbook gpu - cube possible?

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#1

Hi all,

I am contemplating buying a netbook, in spite of my loathing for the utterly cack hardware within, in particular the 945G GPU used in the diamondville platform.

If i am going to have a 10" screen running at 1024x600 then having a compiz style cube application seems really useful, as opposed to a gimmick.

Can opensuse 11.1 upgraded to KDE 4.2 run Kwin compositing effects to achieve me a ‘cubey’ desktop on an eeepc 901 style diamondville netbook at ~30 FPS?

I am not expecting awesome 3D power (i know what that is owning a 9800GX2), but the ability to do basic compositing effects like a cube desktop is a bottom line for me.

Am i out of luck?

Regards

#2

with all the kde enthusiasm here, someone must have tried it on an eepc901/1001, or MSI wind etc…?

#3

I have a FSC Lifebook with a Intel 945gm running at 1400x1050. The cube effect - and other kwin effects in openSUSE KDE4.1.x packages run nice and smooth.

I’ve also seen kwin effects running nicely on the first generation of EeePCs (it was called 4G or something? It’s a 7" at least). This didn’t have the cube, but wobbly windows, switcher effects etc. ran nicely, so why wouldn’t the cube.

#4

fantastic news thank you.

since you seem so well informed i will try my luck with a few more questions:

  1. are there any videos on t’internet showing Kwin compositing in action on the eepc style hardware?

  2. i lean to kwin because it is native (to a kde system) unlike compiz, but is Kwin4 less resource hungry than compiz?

  3. if not, can we expect significant optimisations in the forthcoming KDE 4.2?

Many thanks

Dimble

#5

bump hopeful

#6

bump

i hope this is acceptable, i did wait till it hit page 7. :slight_smile:

#7

  1. Your searches are as good as mine.

  2. I’m not aware of any benchmarks. To me they feel about the same performance wise - but this all depends on specific hardware, driver versions, configurations, which specific effects are used etc. Personally I certainly prefer KWin for integration, stability and window management functionality reasons.

  3. I’m not aware of any “significant performance optimisations” for 4.2, but KWin effects are very young and improving all the time - almost on a daily basis.

#8

thank you for the info. :slight_smile: