# [SOLVED] Radeon - video card "slow scrolling"

## Joseph_sys

I have a new box with Radeon - video card: Ausus EAH6770 DC SL 2DI1GD5  

This video card has 1Gb or RAM  but the scrolling on the screen is noticeably slower than my old:

 GeForce 8600 256MB or RAM

The new card seems to have all better numbers all around but when I lookup something on Google (the page is loaded) and hit "PageDown / PageUP" the text scrolling is much, much slower than on my old card. 

Why?  What it depends on?  I was under impression I'm upgrading now downgrading.

On another of my box I have ATI Radeon HD 3300 and scrolling text on this card is OK.Last edited by Joseph_sys on Wed Dec 28, 2011 12:37 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## Hu

Do you have all the same software versions on each?  Are their kernels both using the same video card driver?

----------

## Joseph_sys

Almost all the same software but the video drivers are different as they are different cards.

Though, installed software shouldn't make the difference, I'm just comparing Firefox browser (on both ends) with text loaded/downloaded; so it is just redrawing images on the screen.

----------

## xming

paste the output of

```
glxinfo |grep Open
```

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *xming wrote:*   

> paste the output of
> 
> ```
> glxinfo |grep Open
> ```
> ...

 

I'm using open source driver, so there is no output.

I'm speculating the card I have is defective as DVI and HDMI ports don't work with two cables I have and my monitor BenQ V2400W

I've tested the cables and monitor with two other computers and HDMI port is working on my monitor but not with this new card.

----------

## Gusar

 *Joseph_sys wrote:*   

> I'm using open source driver, so there is no output.

 

This makes no sense. There is *always* output from that command. With *any* driver. If you don't get output, something is seriously not right on your machine.

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *Gusar wrote:*   

>  *Joseph_sys wrote:*   I'm using open source driver, so there is no output. 
> 
> This makes no sense. There is *always* output from that command. With *any* driver. If you don't get output, something is seriously not right on your machine.

 

Which package "glxinfo" is part of; I can not find it in portage nor on my other working systems.

----------

## Gusar

x11-apps/mesa-progs

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *Gusar wrote:*   

> x11-apps/mesa-progs

 

Thanks,  here we go: *Quote:*   

>  glxinfo |grep Open
> 
> OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
> 
> OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD JUNIPER
> ...

 

----------

## xming

let's see the output of 

```
grep DRI /var/log/Xorg.0.log
```

```
eselect meas list
```

```
dmesg |grep radeon
```

```
emerge -pv mesa xf86-video-ati libdrm
```

```
uname -a
```

----------

## Joseph_sys

Here it is:

```
grep DRI /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[    32.253] (II) Loading extension XFree86-DRI

[    32.261] (II) Loading extension DRI2

[    32.567] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2] Setup complete

[    32.567] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2]   DRI driver: r600

[    32.567] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2]   VDPAU driver: r600

[    32.795] (II) GLX: Initialized DRI2 GL provider for screen 0
```

```
eselect mesa list

i915 (Intel 915, 945)

i965 (Intel 965, G/Q3x, G/Q4x)

r300 (Radeon R300-R500)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

r600 (Radeon R600-R700, Evergreen, Northern Islands)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

sw (Software renderer)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *
```

```
dmesg |grep radeon

[    1.290784] [drm] radeon defaulting to kernel modesetting.

[    1.290831] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.

[    1.290924] radeon 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18

[    1.290973] radeon 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

[    1.291746] radeon 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 1024M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000003FFFFFFF (1024M used)

[    1.291811] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 512M 0x0000000040000000 - 0x000000005FFFFFFF

[    1.298089] [drm] radeon: 1024M of VRAM memory ready

[    1.298135] [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.

[    1.298315] radeon 0000:01:00.0: irq 41 for MSI/MSI-X

[    1.298319] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: using MSI.

[    1.298386] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.

[    1.300695] radeon 0000:01:00.0: WB enabled

[    1.317124] [drm] radeon: ib pool ready.

[    1.442839] [drm] radeon: power management initialized

[    1.569539] fbcon: radeondrmfb (fb0) is primary device

[    1.783098] fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device

[    1.783102] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.11.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0
```

```
emerge -pv mesa xf86-video-ati libdrm

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild   R    ] x11-libs/libdrm-2.4.27  USE="-libkms -static-libs" VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau radeon -intel -vmware" 0 kB

[ebuild   R    ] media-libs/mesa-7.11.2  USE="classic egl gallium llvm nptl shared-glapi -bindist -debug -gbm -gles -motif -openvg -osmesa -pax_kernel -pic (-selinux) -shared-dricore" VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau radeon -intel -mach64 -mga -r128 -savage -sis -tdfx -via -vmware" 0 kB

[ebuild   R    ] x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.14.3  0 kB

Total: 3 packages (3 reinstalls), Size of downloads: 0 kB
```

```
uname -a

Linux syscon7 3.1.5-gentoo #7 SMP Tue Dec 27 00:19:22 MST 2011 x86_64 AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
```

----------

## xming

Everything looks fine to me. Do you have smooth scrolling disabled in FF? An please define slow  :Very Happy:  Is it just slow in firefox? Is it slow in 2D or also in 3D?

----------

## Hu

Is syscon7 the system with the fast RadeonHD card or the system with the poor performing Ausus card?  Could you provide the same output that xming requested for whichever system we have not yet seen?  What did you mean when you wrote "the video drivers are different as they are different cards"?  As far as I know, there is only one currently supported open driver package for all Radeon cards: x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati.

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *xming wrote:*   

> Everything looks fine to me. Do you have smooth scrolling disabled in FF? An please define slow  Is it just slow in firefox? Is it slow in 2D or also in 3D?

 

I don't know how to describe "slow"; I know it is much, much slower then my older system.  Yes, FF has smooth scrolling enabled.

When disabled it it was a bit of improvement. 

On some pages when I type something I have to wait for a fraction of a second before the letters appear on the screen, eg. on Gentoo bug forum.

The difference is noticeable.  I'm not suing any 3D just 2D.

----------

## Joseph_sys

How to install close source driver for this card?

I usually build IN open source drivers into the kernel as I'm not so confident with close source drivers. 

What will happen if it will not load?

----------

## Gusar

 *Joseph_sys wrote:*   

> I usually build IN open source drivers into the kernel as I'm not so confident with close source drivers.

 

Did you also compile the necessary firmware into the kernel? I assume yes, I'm just checking. But, if you want to try the closed driver, you'll have to compile a kernel without the open source radeon stuff in it. If you had compiled it as module, you wouldn't need a new kernel, only blacklist the module.

 *Joseph_sys wrote:*   

> What will happen if it will not load?

 

What do you think can happen, are you afraid that your machine will blow up?  :Smile: 

----------

## Joseph_sys

SOLVED!

The fix was to use "close source driver" either the radeon open source driver are crap or ATI is hiding something in close source drivers.

I'm not talking about 3D acceleration but simple 2D, text scrolling on firefox was painfully slow with close source.

The speed of this close ATI driver I would compare on pair to Nvidia open source drivers on my old computer.

NO more RADEON stuff for me; lesson learned :-/

Yes, the scrolling much faster I would say normal what I'm used to but another problem popped up.

Whenever I start the mpg4 movie with "xine" or "vlc" my computer kicks me out to log-in screen.

To install ATI driver I've follow simple instructions from Gussar

```
To use the closed driver, remove anything radeon from your kernel, unmerge xf86-video-ati, change VIDEO_CARDS to VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx", emerge xorg-drivers (this should now pull in ati-drivers), then write an xorg.conf containing this and only this:

Code:

Section "Device"

    Identifier "ati card"

    Driver     "fglrx"

EndSection

then run "eselect opengl set ati"
```

Did I miss anything?

----------

## Hu

 *Joseph_sys wrote:*   

> The fix was to use "close source driver" either the radeon open source driver are crap or ATI is hiding something in close source drivers.

 That is not a fix.  That is a workaround, and one that I think will eventually come back to bite you.  Both ATI and nVidia have a history of removing support for cards before you could reasonably expect the card to die of old age.

In the meantime, the open Radeon driver works fine here with =x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.14.2.  I see that a newer version is now marked stable, but I have not yet had time to try it.

The playback problem you mention could be x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.11 - segmentation fault with Xv video, assuming you mean that you ran into problems after switching to the closed driver.

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *Hu wrote:*   

>  *Joseph_sys wrote:*   The fix was to use "close source driver" either the radeon open source driver are crap or ATI is hiding something in close source drivers. That is not a fix.  That is a workaround, and one that I think will eventually come back to bite you.  Both ATI and nVidia have a history of removing support for cards before you could reasonably expect the card to die of old age.
> 
> In the meantime, the open Radeon driver works fine here with =x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.14.2.  I see that a newer version is now marked stable, but I have not yet had time to try it.
> 
> The playback problem you mention could be x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.11 - segmentation fault with Xv video, assuming you mean that you ran into problems after switching to the closed driver.

 

You might be correct.  Yes, open source driver works fine but I have an impression I have downgraded the computer.

Loading gnucash:

On my old Intel (GeForce 8600 GT video card:nv) 13sec

Radeon (open source) 23sec.

ATI driver (closed source) 6sec

I would like to stay with open source and ATI is crashing (not acceptable) and as you pointed out the close source might come to "hunt me" sooner or later.

I can not stand the slowness of Radeon (open source, driver) so I'll replace this card with (nvidia one):

Ausus:  ENGTS450 DC SL/DI/1GD3

I hope I'm not making mistake, as long as it is not slower than the one I currently have: GeForce 8600 GT

----------

## Hu

Joseph, could you address the questions I posted immediately below the most recent post from xming?  We still do not have enough information to understand whether you are doing a fair comparison between the two machines, because we only have the software information about one of them.  Additionally, though I could guess that you posted the data for the machine with the slowness, we do not have a definitive statement about whether the machine you described is the good machine or the bad machine.

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *Hu wrote:*   

> Is syscon7 the system with the fast RadeonHD card or the system with the poor performing Ausus card?  Could you provide the same output that xming requested for whichever system we have not yet seen?  What did you mean when you wrote "the video drivers are different as they are different cards"?  As far as I know, there is only one currently supported open driver package for all Radeon cards: x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati.

 

What I mean to say by: "the video drivers are different as they are different cards"

as one card is Nvidia based GeForce 8600 GT so it is using "nv" diriver

The current one is Radeon: Ausus EAH6770 DC SL 2DI1GD5 so it is using "radeon" driver

Sorry for the confusion. 

I think they are just two different driver and is seems to me the "radeon" (the current one is VERY SLOW) to the point that I'm planning ditching this card.

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *Hu wrote:*   

> Joseph, could you address the questions I posted immediately below the most recent post from xming?  We still do not have enough information to understand whether you are doing a fair comparison between the two machines, because we only have the software information about one of them.  Additionally, though I could guess that you posted the data for the machine with the slowness, we do not have a definitive statement about whether the machine you described is the good machine or the bad machine.

 

The new machine is AMD 8-core CPU 8GB RAM with Ausus: ENGTS450 DC SL/DI/1GD3 video Card (radeon - driver)

The old machine is Intel 4-core CPU 4GB RAM with GeForce 8600 GT video card (nv - driver)

Both drivers are open source but the "nv" seems to me 50% faster when scrolling standard text 2D on computer screen.  

And the reason is poor quality "radeon" driver.  When I loaded (as mentioned before) close source ATI driver this card was very fast (very impressive) - but again this is close source driver which as you have mentioned already can be problematic in a long run (and my preference is Open Source Drivers).  

I've always run Nvidia based card with (nv) drivers and the speed was acceptable (I'm not picky) but if you get a new machine and notice the scrolling speed is 50% slower, it is not acceptable.

----------

## Hu

I see the confusion.  Since you specified in your opening post that you had a Radeon HD that worked acceptably, and that your new Ausus was not working well, I began comparing those two cards, rather than comparing your new Ausus to your nVidia-based GeForce.

Would you mind trying the open Radeon X11 driver version 6.14.2, the one that I am currently using?

Separately, you may find the Nouveau driver interesting for your nVidia cards.  It has matured enough that it is now quite easy to get working, and seems to drive my nVidia-based systems at least as well as nv did.

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *Hu wrote:*   

> I see the confusion.  Since you specified in your opening post that you had a Radeon HD that worked acceptably, and that your new Ausus was not working well, I began comparing those two cards, rather than comparing your new Ausus to your nVidia-based GeForce.
> 
> Would you mind trying the open Radeon X11 driver version 6.14.2, the one that I am currently using?
> 
> Separately, you may find the Nouveau driver interesting for your nVidia cards.  It has matured enough that it is now quite easy to get working, and seems to drive my nVidia-based systems at least as well as nv did.

 

I just downgraded one notch to 6.14.2 and it makes no difference, as slow as before.

Do you have the same video card?  The one I have is using JUNIPER binaries.

I hope others will not make a mistake as I did selecting this ATI video card.

I just noticed that this card is using CPU to process not its internal engine with "radeon" driver, that is why it is so slow.

----------

## xming

One last thing I can think of

```
grep EXA /var/log/Xorg.0.log
```

the open source radeon driver has been working pretty well here (both 2D and 3D) with 3850AGP, support for 6xxx should be mature enough (certainly 2D), there must be something that we haven't found yet.

----------

## Joseph_sys

 *xming wrote:*   

> One last thing I can think of
> 
> ```
> grep EXA /var/log/Xorg.0.log
> ```
> ...

 

I have this one IN:

```
grep EXA /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[    25.854] (II) RADEON(0): EXA: Driver will allow EXA pixmaps in VRAM

[    25.862] (II) RADEON(0): Setting EXA maxPitchBytes

[    25.862] (II) EXA(0): Driver allocated offscreen pixmaps

[    25.862] (II) EXA(0): Driver registered support for the following operations:
```

----------

## Hu

 *Joseph_sys wrote:*   

> Do you have the same video card?

 No.  I have an rv730 based card.

----------

## xming

The last thing that I can think of is to try mesag-9999 libdrm-9999 and x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-9999 from the x11-overlay, that is what I am using.

----------

## DJm00n

have same problem here too

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ sudo lspci | grep VGA

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Madison [Radeon HD 5000M Series]

```

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ grep DRI /var/log/Xorg.0.log 

[    19.862] (II) Loading extension XFree86-DRI

[    19.871] (II) Loading extension DRI2

[    20.560] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2] Setup complete

[    20.560] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2]   DRI driver: r600

[    20.560] (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2]   VDPAU driver: r600

[    21.097] (II) GLX: Initialized DRI2 GL provider for screen 0

```

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ eselect mesa list 

64bit i915 (Intel 915, 945)

64bit i965 (Intel 965, G/Q3x, G/Q4x)

64bit r300 (Radeon R300-R500)

  [1]   gallium *

64bit r600 (Radeon R600-R700, Evergreen, Northern Islands)

  [1]   gallium *

64bit sw (Software renderer)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

32bit i915 (Intel 915, 945)

  [1]   classic *

  [2]   gallium

32bit i965 (Intel 965, G/Q3x, G/Q4x)

  [1]   classic *

  [2]   gallium

32bit r300 (Radeon R300-R500)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

32bit r600 (Radeon R600-R700, Evergreen, Northern Islands)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

32bit sw (Software renderer)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

```

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ dmesg |grep radeon 

[    3.326800] [drm] radeon defaulting to kernel modesetting.

[    3.326802] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.

[    3.326835] radeon 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0

[    3.326839] radeon 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0

[    3.326847] radeon 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

[    3.326852] radeon 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

[    3.327252] radeon 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 1024M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000003FFFFFFF (1024M used)

[    3.327255] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 512M 0x0000000040000000 - 0x000000005FFFFFFF

[    3.329536] [drm] radeon: 1024M of VRAM memory ready

[    3.329538] [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.

[    3.329586] radeon 0000:01:00.0: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X

[    3.329592] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: using MSI.

[    3.329641] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.

[    3.332926] radeon 0000:01:00.0: WB enabled

[    3.349844] [drm] radeon: ib pool ready.

[    3.492407] [drm] radeon: power management initialized

[    4.121733] fbcon: radeondrmfb (fb0) is primary device

[    4.712260] fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device

[    4.712267] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.11.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

```

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ emerge -pv mesa xf86-video-ati libdrm 

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild   R   #] x11-libs/libdrm-9999  USE="-libkms -static-libs" VIDEO_CARDS="radeon -intel -nouveau -vmware" 0 kB [1]

[ebuild   R   #] media-libs/mesa-9999  USE="bindist classic egl gallium llvm nptl shared-glapi -d3d -debug -g3dvl -gbm -gles1 -gles2 -openvg -osmesa -pax_kernel -pic (-selinux) -shared-dricore -vdpau -wayland -xvmc" VIDEO_CARDS="radeon -i915 -i965 -intel -nouveau -r100 -r200 -r300 -r600 -vmware" 0 kB [1]

[ebuild   R   #] x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-9999  0 kB [1]

Total: 3 packages (3 reinstalls), Size of downloads: 0 kB

Portage tree and overlays:

 [0] /usr/portage

 [1] /var/lib/layman/x11

```

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ grep EXA /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[    20.535] (II) RADEON(0): EXA: Driver will allow EXA pixmaps in VRAM

[    20.562] (II) RADEON(0): Setting EXA maxPitchBytes

[    20.562] (II) EXA(0): Driver allocated offscreen pixmaps

[    20.562] (II) EXA(0): Driver registered support for the following operations:

```

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ uname -a 

Linux pavilion3124er 3.1.6-gentoo #4 SMP Sat Dec 31 01:46:00 EET 2011 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

```

with software gallium llvm rendering it is much faster gui rendering (but there is some cpu load of course)

----------

## xming

This is just insane :/

do you have any errors/warnings in logs?

```
egrep "EE|WW" /var/log/Xorg.0.log 
```

----------

## teika

Do "cat /proc/interrupts" intermittently, and watch the field with "radeon". If the count doesn't increase, it's the cause, though it's not so much likely. Good luck.

# Yes, I remember the proprietary driver deserted my card years ago. It supported mine only 14 months since I bought this pc.

[edit]Seems it's not solved. You can drop that word from the thread title. ;)[/edit]

----------

## DJm00n

Have no any  warnings in Xorg about video

```
djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ egrep "EE|WW" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[    27.744] Current Operating System: Linux pavilion3124er 3.1.6-gentoo #4 SMP Sat Dec 31 01:46:00 EET 2011 x86_64

        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.

[    27.891] (WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)

[    27.965] (II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER

```

```

djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ cat /proc/interrupts | grep radeon

 46:     103134          0          0          0          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      radeon

djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ cat /proc/interrupts | grep radeon

 46:     104893          0          0          0          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      radeon

djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ cat /proc/interrupts | grep radeon

 46:     104900          0          0          0          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      radeon

djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ cat /proc/interrupts | grep radeon

 46:     104900          0          0          0          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      radeon

djm00n@pavilion3124er ~ $ cat /proc/interrupts | grep radeon

 46:     104903          0          0          0          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      radeon

```

I disabled kwin effects it's better now, but anyway scrolling, resizing and amarok is very slow.

----------

## Ant P.

You're probably missing the firmware required to enable any acceleration. emerge radeon-ucode

----------

