Unity + HD 4250 = Not a good idea?

Question

I have been using 11.04 on my Compaq Presario CQ56-116SO. I have used Ubuntu from 9.10 version, and all have been working perfect, no lag etc.

But now, when the 11.04 was released, I installed it, I installed my ATI drivers (I play games like Urban Terror so i need those drivers) but oh my god!

All lags in 11.04! Well when I don't have any programs running it doesnt lag, but when I open apps like Nautilus, aMSN, etc., and they are open at the same time and when I move windows it lags like hell, and this will piss me.

I never had lag with other versions! I even tried to use Classic Desktop, all lags there too, same bad peformance like in Unity.

What is wrong with 11.04, why it lags with an HD 4250? In older versions all worked without lag, effects etc., no lag. But the 11.04 is a pain.

Any fix for this? Disabling VSync and Detect fresh rate makes it run much better, but I still have huge lags. Hope the 11.10 fixes this. When I buy a new computer I'm gonna buy a computer with an NVIDA graphics card, my friend got an 8800GT and he don't have any lag in Unity.

I even have tried 11.4 ATI drivers, no help.

What driver version are you using? and Nvidia cards lag too you are using a 3 generation old lowest of the lower end of ATI graphics cards... of course the 8800-GT is better ,it's like 5x more powerful. — Uri Herrera, Sep 06 '11 at 08:54
And 11.04 uses compiz 0.9.x which was a rewrite of compiz, downgrade to 0.8.6 which was the version used up to 10.10. — Uri Herrera, Sep 06 '11 at 08:58
No, Unity is a compiz plug in only available for 0.9.x and up. — Uri Herrera, Sep 06 '11 at 19:36

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

You seriously need to try the 11.10 drivers have a look here if you want to install them. They are really recommended!

They solve many many problems including lag on video play, desktop window dragging, etc.

As a general rule tough I really suggest you do not run a desktop environment with 3D effects while playing 3D games, specially if you are using wine. Unity2D is a very good choice for you, its fast, nice to look at and works flawless.

I was using Unity2D until a few days ago with the 11.8 drivers cause of stability and use (no need for 11.9 if they worked the same). Installed 11.10 and the difference was humungous, went straight for Unity3D, effects: working, video play: working, necessary hacks and mods: none. Everything worked out of the box just perfect. At the moment I have to say 11.10 drivers are the best I have used till now.

About the nVidia purchase, well do as you want ofc but since most of these issues are driver related and both ATI and nVidia seem to have problems anyways I would say its a waste of money. Specially because google is reporting that the future 11.12 drivers from ATI are "even better then the 11.10 version".

mikewhatever · Answer 2 · 2011-09-06T14:14:37.563

0

Unity in 11.04 uses Compiz and doesn't work well with many Nvidia and ATI cards. That's probably not going to change with 11.10, but Unity2d, provided with 11.10, should work. A lot of users think that Natty's Unity is at the experimental level, and making it the default window manager was a mistake. :)

edited Sep 06 '11 at 14:14

answered Sep 06 '11 at 08:34

mikewhatever

32,638

It doesn't work well with older, and less powerful cards. both ATi and NVIDIA cards run fine, i have a HD 4770 and it works. – Uri Herrera Sep 06 '11 at 08:56
2

Respectfully, I beg to disagree. Claiming that Unity works well with newer cards, just because yours works, is a major overstatement. In fact, there are numerous reports of Unity breaking dual screen setups with Nvidia cards, as well as screen flickering, which is a long standing bug. As for the older cards, Unity 3d doesn't work at all with them, although compiz 0.8.6 did. IMHO, all in all, Unity devs took an overoptimistic approach, thus leaving behind a lot of the older hardware as a consequence. – mikewhatever Sep 06 '11 at 13:47
This isn't a problem with the card, it's a problem with ATI's driver. I have a machine with an HD 4250, and compiz+unity work just fine with the open source driver. It's only if you need some feature of the proprietary driver that it's a problem. – cscarney Sep 06 '11 at 21:06
@mikewhatever The hardware does not break unity, its the drivers that do. Unity did not drop support on older cards in any point, simply the current drivers are still not adjusted fully to all compiz brings to the desktop. We need to remember that unity is not that old. Its just something that needs some time to shape off those sharp edges and wait for better drivers. – Bruno Pereira Nov 09 '11 at 21:54

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 10 '11 at 20:23

Yes, there are some issues with AMDs proprietary drivers with Unity on 11.04. It has improved in 11.10 and the Unity 2D has also become a dashing ... shell. :)

In 11.04, what you'll want to do, is to deactivate Compiz. You can do that by choosing the "No effects" option when you login.

Unity + HD 4250 = Not a good idea?

3 Answers3