Nvidia driver is slower than open source driver

English Hardware
#1

I recently onstalled Nvidia driver in openSUSE 12.1 useing one click install to increase my laptop performance but i feel my laptop after installing that driver has been slower. for example now Firefox act slower than before and scrolling up or down webpage is very slow, also scrolling in pdf documents has been slow.
some mounths ago when i had openSUSE 11.4 installed in this laptop, i installed Nvidia driver in it and in that case also this installation caused to slower performance in my laptop.
how can i solve the problem? (if there is any)
is this problem popular?

#2

Your experience is not typical.
The opposite is usually true.

There are some graphics Junkies here that may be able to advise you…

#3

Did you read the openSUSE-12.1 release notes and follow the openSUSE-12.1 release notes suggestion to disable KMS ?

#4

On Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:26:03 +0000, ilAli wrote:

> I recently onstalled Nvidia driver in openSUSE 12.1 useing one click
> install to increase my laptop performance but i feel my laptop after
> installing that driver has been slower. for example now Firefox act
> slower than before and scrolling up or down webpage is very slow, also
> scrolling in pdf documents has been slow.
> some mounths ago when i had openSUSE 11.4 installed in this laptop, i
> installed Nvidia driver in it and in that case also this installation
> caused to slower performance in my laptop.
> how can i solve the problem? (if there is any)
> is this problem popular?

You’ve now got three separate threads in this forum about your NVidia
driver issues. I suggest you stick to a single thread so the issue and
potential solutions are not scattered throughout the forum.

Thanks,

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

#5

one of people advise me to creat a new thread about my nvidia driver problem, so i created this thread.
and as you may know, it is better to only ask one question in each thread.
Thanks.

#6

On Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:16:02 +0000, ilAli wrote:

> one of people advise me to creat a new thread about my nvidia driver
> problem, so i created this thread.

Fair enough, I hadn’t seen caf’s message to that effect.

In general, yes, one topic per thread is desired, but IMHO if you’ve got
general issues with the nVidia driver, those are all likely a related
issue. Spreading related issues through different threads is generally
not a good idea, as the interrelatedness of those issues may be relevant
to resolving the overall issue.

In other words, it is entirely possible to get too granular if you break
down a larger issue into smaller issues, and that can hinder you getting
the assistance you need.

My $0.02.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

#7

Yes, i read that now, but i do not know how can i add nomodeset.
should i only add nomodeset word to the end of /boot/grub/menu.lst or i should add some other commands to it?

#8

I simply add “nomodeset” word in end of /boot/grub/menu.lst file.
menu.lst contents are following:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Dec 30 00:07:53 IRST 2011
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# For the new kernel it try to figure out old parameters. In case we are not able to recognize it (e.g. change of flavor or strange install order ) it it use as fallback installation parameters from /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.0-1.2 (default)
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500BEVS-60UST0_WD-WXEX07196210-part6 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500BEVS-60UST0_WD-WXEX07196210-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x314 nomodeset
    initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###
title Windows
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.0-1.2 (default)
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500BEVS-60UST0_WD-WXEX07196210-part6 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x314 nomodeset
    initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default

nomodeset

did i do the job correctly?

#9

I assume that did not help.

You could also check this comment of the openSUSE-12.1 release notes:

ie
run “yast” (you can run yast in text mode with root permissions if X window not available) and navigate to yast > System > /etc/sysconfig Editor > System > Kernel > NO_KMS_IN_INITRD and change it to “yes”. This takes a minute or two to save once changed is submitted.

It may already be set to ‘yes’ on your PC in which case there is nothing to be tuned there.

#10

No. Thats wrong. Remove it. It does not belong there.

#11

where does it belong? what should i do?

#12

It was “yes” by default in my laptop.

#13

This is better:


# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Dec 30 00:07:53 IRST 2011
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# For the new kernel it try to figure out old parameters. In case we are not able to recognize it (e.g. change of flavor or strange install order ) it it use as fallback installation parameters from /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.0-1.2 (default)
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500BEVS-60UST0_WD-WXEX07196210-part6 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500BEVS-60UST0_WD-WXEX07196210-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x314 nomodeset
    initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###
title Windows
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.0-1.2 (default)
    root (hd0,5)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500BEVS-60UST0_WD-WXEX07196210-part6 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default

Note you had a ‘nomodeset’ at the end of the file which is totally inappropriate.

Note you added an extra ‘nomodeset’ at the end of the kernel line in the ‘FailSafe’ section which is inappropriate as that meant the same boot code was twice in the same line - there is NO point in that and it can lead to misunderstandings later.

#14

I removed that “nomodeset” word and then run following code in terminal to block “nomodeset”:

echo "blacklist nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf

is it true?
anyway, my problem still exist, specially some times that i work with firefox, openSUSE bcome locked (it does not responce to any click, key, command, etc) and i have to restart it with laptop button.

#15

How long did you wait before deciding to restart. Did you run top to help diagnose ?? Did you check any log files for errors? Which ones did you check? did you try to ssh into laptop from other pc??

#16

I could not remember but i think about 5 min after doing that i restarted system (is it really important?). i did top and didn’t see any thing unormal related my problem. i did not do any of {Did you check any log files for errors? Which ones did you check? did you try to ssh into laptop from other pc??}, infact i don’t understand the meaning of them.

#17

YES. Some people wait 10 seconds, say it freezes, and hit the reset. So when someone say’s it freezes we need to understand their ‘time’ definition of ‘freeze’.

‘top’ is a command that is run at a terminal which lists the running processes. To quit it one simply presses ‘q’ for quit. If the desktop freezes it can be useful to see what app is running at the time.

Checking the log files is absolutely and unequivocally essential to try and figure out why there was a freeze.

ssh from another pc allows one to connect to one’s frozen pc if the desktop is frozen but the underlying gnu/linux not frozen.

Many apologies, but I’m afraid I’ve mostly lost touch with my ‘inner newb’ and I may not be much more help on this thread.

#18

I did top and didn’t see any thing unormal related my problem. but i couldnot run top when my system was freezed.

#19

Of course one needs to start top before a freeze and keep it visible.

#20

in top resaults, firefox-bin uses 15% cpu and 10.3% mem. xorg sometimes use about 38% cpu and 5% mem.
are they normal?
i could not open log files, should i log in as root to read them?
and i tried to change desktop manager from KDE to Gnome, after logining to Gnome it show an error that said: because of your graphic you cannot use all Gnome 3 features and gnome fallback to …