Nvidia xorg.conf options for better performances in Unity 3d

Question

I am on precise, unity works fine but I would like to improve the performances of the system. The dash, for example, is slow and has an high cpu usage. Compiz in general uses 3-4% of cpu, and this is quite annoying for a notebook. What can I do?

Answer 1

Take the following steps for better performance:

1. Open compizconfig-settings-manager. Go to OPENGL section. uncheck Sync To VBlank

2. Add vm.swappiness=$VALUE in /etc/sysctl.conf file by executing

   echo "vm.swappiness=10" |sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf > /dev/null
   

3. Use swap. If you don't have, create using this tutorial.
4. Again compiz-settings-manager. Go to Unity plugin > Experimental section. Change Dash bar to static blur
5. Avoid left click on dash. Use right click for specific option.

6. If you have a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (do not create it if you do not have one), add the following lines in Device section

   Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
   Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
   Option "AccelDFS" "true"
   Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
   Option "EnableDepthMoves" "true"
   

Answer 2

That is actually quite good for compiz on nvidia, as it can be much higher.

See this thread for more information on the problem.