Intel Graphics Performance Guide for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) Users

Sponsored Link

Overview

Some users are experiencing performance issues with Intel integrated graphics chips in Jaunty, for several reasons:

• The current driver in our repository has some performance issues with the EXA acceleration method. Users will notice 2D performance is poor due to the default "migration heuristic" employed by EXA (to "always" migrate pixmaps), but this causes performance issues for many users. Setting the heuristic to "greedy" alleviates this problem somewhat. See "man exa".

• The new and faster acceleration method (UXA) is not enabled by default, due to issues reported by many users. This code is being actively developed, and many stability and performance issues have been resolved in the latest drivers (specifically within the intel driver, libdrm,mesa and the latest kernel 2.6.29.4). Unfortunately, Jaunty will not include the latest versions necessary to improve performance.

• 3D performance has regressed compared to the Intrepid release, possibly due to major code changes that have resulted from the introduction to the new acceleration and memory management code (UXA, GEM, DRI2). Due to these changes, there seems to be some regressions in the "legacy" DRI acceleration.

• Either Xorg or the "intel" driver seems to be suffering from a bug, in which the memory region allocated for the graphics card is not set up with the proper type of caching. This results in jerky video playback of almost any content (from 720p media, all the way down to simple 320×240 mpeg content), and a potential loss of performance for other 2D and 3D operations.

There are three possible configuration that this guide will present:

Safe Configuration

• For this configuration, you will upgrade to the latest stable Xorg drivers (via the X-Updates PPA), enable UXA acceleration and create a workaround for the MTRR bug. This is the solution recommended for users who possess hardware devices that depend on a restricted driver. If you don't know what this means, then this is the solution you should use.

Optimal* Configuration

• This configuration is identical to "Safe", but includes the 2.6.30 kernel. Using this kernel will improve 3D performance for many users, but you will lose access to restricted kernel drivers. This configuration yields the best results for my system (an 855GM chipset), but of course, your experience may differ.

Bleeding-Edge* ConfigurationThis configuration is the most risky. This will enable repository which contains bleeding-edge mesa & Xorg drivers which are continually updated (via the xorg-edgers PPA), enable UXA acceleration, create a workaround for the MTRR bug and install kernel 2.6.30. This configuration is not necessarily the fastest (in fact, the Optimal configuration is fastest for my hardware), and is recommended only for users who want to test the latest Xorg code.
Note: As per the PPA maintainer's wish, you are instructed to read the instructions here, since the Bleeding-Edge repository is prone to breakage and important instructions may be added. Don't request support for these packages (and don't be surprised if questions are left unanswered).

The solution

More Updated instructions and support check here

Method 2

Using default Jaunty packages and kernel

The following procedure confirmed working on following Intel graphic cards

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 03)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)

1)Discovering the memory of your card; do this command:

lspci -vv

and search in the output for the block regarding VGA; in my case:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
Subsystem: Fujitsu Siemens Computers Device 106a
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx+
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Region 1: Memory at e0380000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Region 2: I/O ports at ec00 [size=8]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: intelfb

In red you can see the amount of the memory that your card can manage and in blue the non-prefetchable memory. In order to use the video card memory in the correct way, you can use Videoram option in xorg.conf; but we must calculate the ram from MB to KB in order to use it in Videoram option; here the table:

16 -> 16384
32 -> 32768
64 -> 65536
128 -> 131072
256 -> 262144

Now we have to subtract the value of non-prefetchable to our amount of ram; in my case:

131072 -- 512 = 130560

2)As soon as you calculate your video ram minus the non-prefetchable memory, you can modify your xorg.conf in the device section:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

In my case the device section is configured like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "UXA"
VideoRam 130560
EndSection

Please be sure that VideoRam matching the ram of Video card based on what you calculate above. Of course the option UXA is mandatory too.
Save xorg.conf

3)If you are using Compiz, please modify these settings using Compiz manager:

ccsm

Choose General options -> General -> remove the flag on Unredirect Fullscreen Windows

Choose General options -> Display Settings -> remove the flag Sync To VBlank

Close ccsm

4)Reboot your system

Sponsored Link