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I am new to Ubuntu and I like it.

I have some issues with the window movement performance (in Unity). My PC has a AMD Phenom X4 955 processor, 4 GB ram and AMD HD 6950 graphics card.

So its not that slow, but the windows (Nautilus, Firefox - just about any window really) move very sluggishly. I tried it with the AMD driver that Ubuntu provides (FGLRX driver, the standard, not the newest) and without it. I have installed Compiz Config and disabled the vsync, and also tried to switch vsync in the catalyst drivers on and off. Nothing seems to work.

Sometimes the window movement is perfectly smooth for a moment, then it gets slow as hell again. the other effects like minimizing are working very smooth. Any ideas what to do? It's really annoying.

RolandiXor
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Nekomancer
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1 Answers1

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You should install the latest drivers for your card, they give so much better support than the ones included on the Ubuntu repos.

If you need any help to install the ATI drivers on your system have a look at this question Is my ATI graphics card supported in Ubuntu? It will help you download and install the latest drivers in your system.

The included drivers (fglrx 11.08 and fglrx 11.09) in the Ubuntu repos are not really the best ones to fully appreciate Unity, only after the upgrade to fglrx 11.11 had I a good experience with it, no more slowness and hanging windows and movies. All worked much, much better.

The guide I included will install fglrx 11.12, they are the current latest drivers from ATI.

Community
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Bruno Pereira
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  • Thanks, the installation went fine. The windows movement is way better now. Huge improvement. Thanks alot! :D Most of the time the movement is almost smooth, but sometimes it still laggs a bit. Any further advice? :) – Nekomancer Jan 08 '12 at 15:21
  • No, unless you want to go back to the opensource ones, they where the ones that worked best till now, but they are not good enough to use for multimedia and games. Its an ATI thing, not much we can do with them, I would at least expect that they keep the good work on the drivers that they did till now. – Bruno Pereira Jan 08 '12 at 15:23
  • Hm, okay. I also noticed just now: when i click on the dash-start icon (not shure how to call it) the window does not imediatly open like before, it now takes about 2 seconds, and in that time the flashvideo that i watch in the background freezes. any ideas on why? also: i read its good to disable the vsync in Compiz config, but it seems its on every time i restart the pc. any way to make the setting permanent? – Nekomancer Jan 08 '12 at 15:27
  • try Option "EXAVSync" "yes" in your xorg.conf file, it helps me a bit. Also Option "AccelMethod" "EXA" should work better on newer cards, if you cant boot with any of these options remove them and reboot. – Bruno Pereira Jan 08 '12 at 15:43
  • What "Section" would that go in? – Nekomancer Jan 08 '12 at 16:43
  • Under Device for your graphics. – Bruno Pereira Jan 08 '12 at 17:15
  • hmm, okay i'll try. meanwhile i put that in another section and couldnt boot ^^. i booted from live cd to edit the xorg.conf and realized how smooth everything is. so i reinstalled ubuntu (didnt have any data or programms yet anyway) and now i didnt install the recommended ati drivers. just in default drivers (i guess) now. everything smooth and fast. i think i'll make a proper backup before trying to install drivers again. ^^ – Nekomancer Jan 08 '12 at 17:57