Hardware survey #132
Replies: 88 comments
-
Hi there, looks like I'm going to start. Note: I have two machines I use regularly, so I'm going to answer some of the questions twice. If there's only one answer, it applies to both machines Note2: I'm an on-off compton user. I switch between i3wm (Xorg) and Sway (Wayland). As I mostly care about tearing prevention, I also just use TearFree instead of a compositor on X. However, TearFree is unreliable on Intel, so I use compton more on the laptop. Hoever, I haven't kept up with your releases and barely maintain my config for quite some time, so please correct me if I'm wrong somewhere.
PS: Have you considered announcing this poll on other channels e.g. relevant subreddits, mailing lists, forums? For example, your fork is the officially packaged compton version for Arch and ~20% have it installed. Of course those stats are opt-in so don't take it for granted. I'm not sure how much of those users even know that they use a fork and even less would regularly check this GitHub page. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
r/linux post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/b0titl/compton_hardware_survey/ I will try to do more during the weekend. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
My system's relatively recent and decent (i7 6700k, 16GB RAM, RX 580, SSD) and I'm on Arch Linux with the very latest package versions of most things. The main reason I use Compton is because I consider the Xorg compositor of KWin as completely unusable in terms of performance (stuttering in applications) and also the lack of auto-unredirect for fullscreen windows drives me crazy. KWin on Wayland is a dream compared to the Xorg version, but I'm not happy yet with Wayland sessions for various reasons (xwayland only rendering with fixed 60fps fake-vsync for windowed programs, clipboard headaches etc.) I think the fading feature of Compton could use some love. I can't get it to look like a totally smooth animation which runs with full fps/refreshrate. Maybe it could be simplified to always look as smooth as possible and as a user, you could simply configure the duration of the "animation"? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
How old is your system?
What hardware (CPU, GPU, etc) does your system have? Intel UHD 620 + Quadro P600. I use the Intel most of the time with the Quadro disabled. Are you using up-to-date software on your system? Is your graphic driver the latest? Yes very up to date as I'm using openSUSE TumbleWeed which is a rolling distro. Does your system require a more "advanced" setup? For example, does it use NVIDIA Optimus? laptop is Optimus but since I almost only use the iGPU I rarely use optimus. Occasionally I use the NVIDIA proprietry driver to drive an external monitor. What version of compton are you using right now? And is it working well for you? v0.1.0 packaged by the distro, in conjunction with the xf86-video-intel driver, using its TearFree option. Does both backends (xrender and glx) work? How do they perform? I think I've seen some glitches with glx but it's been a long time I tried. What OpenGL versions does your system support? What OpenGL extensions are supported (glxinfo)? ///// Here's my main annoyances:
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
I wonder if that's just because the xrender backend is not performing very well? From my experience, the xrender backend can be quite slow on Intel cards.
If you have time, maybe give it a try again? Try build from this repo. If the glitch still exists, feel free to open a issue. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Thank you so much for your work! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Thanks for keeping compton alive! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
@slavmetal The video freeze problem might have already been fixed. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Anyways, thanks for keeping Compton alive! This software has done wonders for me ever since I've used it. It'd be sad to see it go away, so thank you once again for your work. ( : |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
yshui developed a (completely?) new, yet experimental xrender backend, which will be a great choice on Mesa drivers for great performance, fixing of tearing and low input latency at the same time. :) |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
I compiled compton from this repo. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
@bubbleguuum The old xrender backend has no vsync support, you'd have to rely on TearFree for it (unlike with GLX). |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
vsync is disabled by default. So if you pass no option on command line, and don't set vsync to true in config file, it's disabled. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
I have tried with the "modesetting" driver alongside "compton --backend glx --vsync" and it fixed the problem: Firefox scrolling is smooth as silk (perceived 60fps most of the time, layers.acceleration.force-enabled=true) and without tearing. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
@bubbleguuum That is very interesting. Could you run Thanks |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
2-3 years old, rather low-end laptop
Pretty much. I use Artix which is base on Arch.
Not really, everything just worked out of the box.
Never tried XRender, glx works fine
I only use
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Almost 10 years old. Yes, you read that correct.
CPU: Intel Pentium U5400 1.2GHz
Yes, I use Manjaro
Version
Both works fine, most of the time I use glx.
OpenGL 2.1 |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
How old is your system? What hardware (CPU, GPU, etc) does your system have? Are you using up-to-date software on your system? Is your graphic driver the latest? Does your system require a more "advanced" setup? For example, does it use NVIDIA Optimus? What version of compton are you using right now? And is it working well for you? Does both backends (xrender and glx) work? How do they perform? What options do you have to use, because compton won't work correctly otherwise? What OpenGL versions does your system support? What OpenGL extensions are supported (glxinfo)? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
5 years old?
7700k @ 4.8Ghz and MSI RTX 2080ti Ventus
Yes. Nvidia Driver 440.82.
No.
They perform very good but there are issues (black areas where chrome displays tabs, artifacts when closing/destroying windows, barely visible but present)
Don't know...
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
How old is your system?: Originally built in 2013, upgraded graphics card in 2016.
extensions:
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Hi Dell XPS 15.6 2018This laptop is now being used by other person and I do not have my linux setup on it, try to answer from memory / saved configs. How old is your system?1.5 years form purchase. What hardware (CPU, GPU, etc) does your system have?intel i7-8750h Are you using up-to-date software on your system? Is your graphic driver the latest?Arch linux that is updated 1-2 times per week, so mostly up to date. Does your system require a more "advanced" setup? For example, does it use NVIDIA Optimus?I tried prime rendering offload with official drivers, but it consumed slightly more power (in comparison to hd graphics and disabled nvidia), so I decided not to use it - do not need GPU for anything except basic X11+i3wm on laptop. What version of compton are you using right now? And is it working well for you?Latest available version of picom in arch repos at that moment. Yes. Does both backends (xrender and glx) work? How do they perform?Used only What options do you have to use, because compton won't work correctly otherwise?Do not remember something specific about it. What OpenGL versions does your system support? What OpenGL extensions are supported (glxinfo)?OpenGL 4.4 based on intel docs. Can't run glxinfo, do not have linux on that machine anymore. Home workstation (desktop)How old is your system?less than a month What hardware (CPU, GPU, etc) does your system have?AMD Ryzen 3700x Are you using up-to-date software on your system? Is your graphic driver the latest?Arch linux that is updated 1-2 times per week, so mostly up to date. Does your system require a more "advanced" setup? For example, does it use NVIDIA Optimus?No advanced setup at all. Bare X11 with i3wm on top of it. What version of compton are you using right now? And is it working well for you?
Sadly it works really slow, with different configs and toggles. So decided not to use it at the moment. Does both backends (xrender and glx) work? How do they perform?When I tried to run xrender I've got black screen and can't do anything (killed shell with launched picom via hotkey). What options do you have to use, because compton won't work correctly otherwise?Well it wasn't able to start with default xrender, so I was needed to use glx. What OpenGL versions does your system support? What OpenGL extensions are supported (glxinfo)?OpenGL 4.6. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
How old is your system? A few months old (with some inheritance). What hardware (CPU, GPU, etc) does your system have? GTX 1070, 3900X, 16GB RAM, NVMe SSD. I'm planning on upgrading to an AMD video card later this year. Are you using up-to-date software on your system? Is your graphic driver the latest? Yes (Arch). Does both backends (xrender and glx) work? How do they perform?
What OpenGL versions does your system support? What OpenGL extensions are supported (glxinfo)? No idea, I don't have that command on my system. Fairly modern card though. Edit: Six months later I'm now using an RX6800. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
2 years
Intel i5-7200U CPU, Intel HD Graphics 620 (GPU), 8GB RAM
Yes, Mesa 20.1.7 (Fedora 32)
No
v8 (Fedora 32). It is working fine.
Yes, but I didn't test xrender for too long |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Spoiler
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
My Desktop is about 2 years old
Desktop:
The latest for the Distros used (Manjaro on Desktop, Void on Laptop)
no
always current, is working as expected
i use hybrid on both, both work (although i sometimes have weird issues on my Desktop, i think thats mostly with the force override thing i used to play around)
I don't remember anything, it worked out of the box but i played around with some stuff and eventually broke something here and there but it works rn
GLX_ARB_context_flush_control, GLX_ARB_create_context, |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
~5 years with occasional upgrades
Intel Core i5-4690K @ 3.5GHz
Yes, rolling updates from Manjaro community, AUR, Snap, and Flatpack. Yes, nonfree: video-nvidia-455xx
picom 8.2-1 community (manjaro) is working reasonably well. Details below.
xrender and glx both work. xrender causes screen tearing. glx occasionally tears on rapid text scrolling but I'm still experimenting with some of the options (deferred until later at this point though).
I don't know if picom won't work correctly otherwise but these are my general settings: Spoilerbackend = "glx"Enable/disable VSync.vsync = 1 Enable remote control via D-Bus. See the D-BUS API section below for more details.dbus = falseTry to detect WM windows (a non-override-redirect window with nochild that has 'WM_STATE') and mark them as active.mark-wmwin-focused = falsemark-wmwin-focused = true Mark override-redirect windows that doesn't have a child window with 'WM_STATE' focused.mark-ovredir-focused = falsemark-ovredir-focused = true Try to detect windows with rounded corners and don't consider themshaped windows. The accuracy is not very high, unfortunately.detect-rounded-corners = falsedetect-rounded-corners = true Detect '_NET_WM_OPACITY' on client windows, useful for window managersnot passing '_NET_WM_OPACITY' of client windows to frame windows.detect-client-opacity = falsedetect-client-opacity = true Specify refresh rate of the screen. If not specified or 0, picom willtry detecting this with X RandR extension.refresh-rate = 60refresh-rate = 0 Limit picom to repaint at most once every 1 / 'refresh_rate' second toboost performance. This should not be used withvsync drm/opengl/opengl-omlas they essentially does sw-opti's job already,unless you wish to specify a lower refresh rate than the actual value.sw-opti =Use EWMH '_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW' to determine currently focused window,rather than listening to 'FocusIn'/'FocusOut' event. Might have more accuracy,provided that the WM supports it.use-ewmh-active-win = falseUnredirect all windows if a full-screen opaque window is detected,to maximize performance for full-screen windows. Known to cause flickeringwhen redirecting/unredirecting windows.unredir-if-possible = falseDelay before unredirecting the window, in milliseconds. Defaults to 0.unredir-if-possible-delay = 0Conditions of windows that shouldn't be considered full-screen for unredirecting screen.unredir-if-possible-exclude = []Use 'WM_TRANSIENT_FOR' to group windows, and consider windowsin the same group focused at the same time.detect-transient = falsedetect-transient = true Use 'WM_CLIENT_LEADER' to group windows, and consider windows in the samegroup focused at the same time. 'WM_TRANSIENT_FOR' has higher priority ifdetect-transient is enabled, too.detect-client-leader = falsedetect-client-leader = true Resize damaged region by a specific number of pixels.A positive value enlarges it while a negative one shrinks it.If the value is positive, those additional pixels will not be actually paintedto screen, only used in blur calculation, and such. (Due to technical limitations,with use-damage, those pixels will still be incorrectly painted to screen.)Primarily used to fix the line corruption issues of blur,in which case you should use the blur radius value here(e.g. with a 3x3 kernel, you should use
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Hello. My distro just added picom and so far so good, so figured I'd share my hardware. How old is your system? 10 Years. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
First of all, thank you for picom! I can't remember when I switched from compton to picom but I'm loving it so far and it is working great on most of my machines. Much love! How old is your system? What hardware (CPU, GPU, etc) does your system have? Are you using up-to-date software on your system? Is your graphic driver the latest? Does your system require a more "advanced" setup? For example, does it use NVIDIA Optimus? What version of picom are you using right now? And is it working well for you? Does both backends ( and glx) work? How do they perform? What options do you have to use, because picom won't work correctly otherwise? What OpenGL versions does your system support? What OpenGL extensions are supported (glxinfo)?**
Drivers
All video driver packages came from the Manjaro-Architect (i3 minimal) installation process with non-free drivers selected. Extra
Here it looks like picom is succesfully offloaded to the NVIDIA card, but it ends up with a black screen and just a mouse cursor. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
Would not a spreadsheet or any template document better to collect such inputs? this thread is a mess :/ I don't know how you could extract useful information. You are brave. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
A little bit background for people who are seeing this repo for the first time: this is my little fork of the compton compositor. Since the original compton repo (chjj/compton) is mostly abandoned, I decided to take on the task of keeping compton alive. In fact, I've been doing this for about 8 months now. Some distros have picked up this repo, but most haven't, so you probably are not currently using this compton fork. But I still want to hear your voice anyways :)
Motivation
compton has accumulated a lot of cruft over the years: useless options, workarounds for old bugs, support for old hardwares, etc. But I cannot remove them with confidence, because I have no idea what kind of hardware compton users use.
Basically, I want to collect information from the users of compton to help me make decisions. Such as, what I could remove from picom, what kind of hardware should I optimize for, what kind of hardware requirements could picom reasonably have, etc.
Questions
Here are some general questions I would like answers for:
glxinfo
)?Of course, you don't have to stick to those questions. You don't have to answer all of them. If you have other information, you are welcomed to send them as well.
The End
Thanks for your participation!
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
All reactions