Question about speed

[Mike old]

I have two machines (home/work) both running FC4

machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2

The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).

Anyone any ideas how this could be?

[Klaasjan Brand]

On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 11:48 +0100, Mike old wrote:
>  I have two machines (home/work) both running FC4
>  
>  machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
>  machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
>  
>  The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
>  
>  Anyone any ideas how this could be?
>   
Did you install the binary nvidia drivers on one of them? X performance
looks a lot snappier using these drivers instead of the nv driver from
xorg.

You can also check with hdparm if ultradma is enabled for the disk in
the celeron. If it's not the machine will react a lot slower since the
cpu is tied up by the disk i/o...

Klaasjan

[mike]

On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 14:06 +0200, Klaasjan Brand wrote:
>  On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 11:48 +0100, Mike old wrote:
>  > I have two machines (home/work) both running FC4
>  > 
>  > machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
>  > machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
>  > 
>  > The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
>  > 
>  > Anyone any ideas how this could be?
>  > 
>  
>  Did you install the binary nvidia drivers on one of them? X performance
>  looks a lot snappier using these drivers instead of the nv driver from
>  xorg.
>   
not installed on either

>  You can also check with hdparm if ultradma is enabled for the disk
> in
>  the celeron. If it's not the machine will react a lot slower since the
>  cpu is tied up by the disk i/o...
>   
yep working on "slower" machine, ie: the higher specced one

>  Klaasjan
>  
>

[Janina Sajka]

Klaasjan Brand writes:
>  On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 11:48 +0100, Mike old wrote:
>  > I have two machines (home/work) both running FC4
>  > 
>  > machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
>  > machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
>  > 
>  > The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
>  >  
I'm also wondering the same thing.

My fast machine is a Pentium 2 clocking at 348 Mhz with 192 Mb RAM

The Celeron slowpoke clocks at 701 and sports 512 Mb RAM

DMA is on on both.

>  > Anyone any ideas how this could be?
>  > 
>  
>  Did you install the binary nvidia drivers on one of them? X performance
>  looks a lot snappier using these drivers instead of the nv driver from
>  xorg.
>  
>  You can also check with hdparm if ultradma is enabled for the disk in
>  the celeron. If it's not the machine will react a lot slower since the
>  cpu is tied up by the disk i/o...
>  
>  Klaasjan
>  
>  
>  -- 
>  fedora-test-list mailing list
>  fedora-test-list(a)redhat.com
>  To unsubscribe: 
>  http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list 
-- 

Janina Sajka				Phone: [phone]
Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC	http://www.CapitalAccessibility.Com

Bringing the Owasys 22C screenless cell phone to the U.S. and Canada. Go to
http://www.ScreenlessPhone.Com to learn more.

Chair, Accessibility Workgroup		Free Standards Group (FSG)
janina(a)freestandards.org		http://a11y.org

[Matthew Miller]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2005 at 09:16:35AM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
>  > > machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
>  > > machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
>  > > The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
>  I'm also wondering the same thing.
>  My fast machine is a Pentium 2 clocking at 348 Mhz with 192 Mb RAM
>  The Celeron slowpoke clocks at 701 and sports 512 Mb RAM 
How are you measuring fast? For some workloads, that's completely to be
expected.

(I'm still wondering which the original poster thinks is a "higher speced"
machine....)



-- 
Matthew Miller           mattdm(a)mattdm.org        <http://www.mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux      ------>                <http://linux.bu.edu/>
Current office temperature: 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Janina Sajka]

Matthew Miller writes:
>  On Mon, Jun 27, 2005 at 09:16:35AM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
>  > > > machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
>  > > > machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
>  > > > The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
>  > I'm also wondering the same thing.
>  > My fast machine is a Pentium 2 clocking at 348 Mhz with 192 Mb RAM
>  > The Celeron slowpoke clocks at 701 and sports 512 Mb RAM
>  
>  How are you measuring fast? For some workloads, that's completely to be
>  expected. 
Latency of keystrokes. I press the key and the feedback is oo so slow.

In my case it's TTS feedback, not on screen, but same principle. Both
machines have the exact same TTS board (ISA) and software drivers, both
running FC4, but this was also true FC 3.

The 348Mb box is snappy. I press [char], I hear [char] echoed out the
TTS. On the slow machine, I would warrant there's a delay of hundreds of
ms. Not measured, but I'd warrant on the order of 400-700 ms.

>  
>  (I'm still wondering which the original poster thinks is a "higher speced"
>  machine....)
>  
>  
>  
>  -- 
>  Matthew Miller           mattdm(a)mattdm.org        <http://www.mattdm.org/>
>  Boston University Linux      ------>                <http://linux.bu.edu/>
>  Current office temperature: 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
>  
>  -- 
>  fedora-test-list mailing list
>  fedora-test-list(a)redhat.com
>  To unsubscribe: 
>  http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list 
-- 

Janina Sajka				Phone: [phone]
Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC	http://www.CapitalAccessibility.Com

Bringing the Owasys 22C screenless cell phone to the U.S. and Canada. Go to
http://www.ScreenlessPhone.Com to learn more.

Chair, Accessibility Workgroup		Free Standards Group (FSG)
janina(a)freestandards.org		http://a11y.org

[Matthew Miller]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2005 at 09:51:51AM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
>  > > My fast machine is a Pentium 2 clocking at 348 Mhz with 192
> Mb RAM
>  > > The Celeron slowpoke clocks at 701 and sports 512 Mb RAM
>  > How are you measuring fast? For some workloads, that's completely to be
>  > expected.
>  Latency of keystrokes. I press the key and the feedback is oo so slow.
>  In my case it's TTS feedback, not on screen, but same principle. Both
>  machines have the exact same TTS board (ISA) and software drivers, both
>  running FC4, but this was also true FC 3. 
Hmmm. That should be next to instant on either system. I wonder if something
is simply configured badly and introducing a delay.

I'm going to make the assumption that you're not running a heavyweight GUI
environment such as GNOME or KDE. In that case, the greater RAM is probably
not usually a factor at all. And the Celeron 700 is a very low-end chip with
pretty low overall performance.

>  The 348Mb box is snappy. I press [char], I hear [char] echoed out
> the
>  TTS. On the slow machine, I would warrant there's a delay of hundreds of
>  ms. Not measured, but I'd warrant on the order of 400-700 ms. 
On the other hand, either machine ought to be able to do better than that.
-- 
Matthew Miller           mattdm(a)mattdm.org        <http://www.mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux      ------>                <http://linux.bu.edu/>
Current office temperature: 89 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Janina Sajka]

Matthew Miller writes:
>  On Mon, Jun 27, 2005 at 09:51:51AM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
>  > > > My fast machine is a Pentium 2 clocking at 348 Mhz with 192 Mb RAM
>  > > > The Celeron slowpoke clocks at 701 and sports 512 Mb RAM
>  > > How are you measuring fast? For some workloads, that's completely to be
>  > > expected.
>  > Latency of keystrokes. I press the key and the feedback is oo so slow.
>  > In my case it's TTS feedback, not on screen, but same principle. Both
>  > machines have the exact same TTS board (ISA) and software drivers, both
>  > running FC4, but this was also true FC 3.
>  
>  Hmmm. That should be next to instant on either system. I wonder if something
>  is simply configured badly and introducing a delay.
>  
>  I'm going to make the assumption that you're not running a heavyweight GUI
>  environment such as GNOME or KDE. In that case, the greater RAM is probably
>  not usually a factor at all. And the Celeron 700 is a very low-end chip with
>  pretty low overall performance.
>  
>  > The 348Mb box is snappy. I press [char], I hear [char] echoed out the
>  > TTS. On the slow machine, I would warrant there's a delay of hundreds of
>  > ms. Not measured, but I'd warrant on the order of 400-700 ms.
>  
>  On the other hand, either machine ought to be able to do better than that.
>  --  
Yes, I think so.

The 348 box is runlevel 3 by default and is very snappy.

The 700 Mhz Celeron slowpoke is runlevel 5 by default, but I'm talking
console in the above, and it's the same slowness regardless.

On the other hand, the slow poke responds very snappy over console ssh.
It's only on its own consoles that it's bad. I can't test at the moment
because it is setup as my pristine FC4 box as we try to put the Speakup
Modified for FC4 together. So no speech there right now. I will try re
display response when someone sighted shows up here.


>  Matthew Miller           mattdm(a)mattdm.org       
> <http://www.mattdm.org/>
>  Boston University Linux      ------>                <http://linux.bu.edu/>
>  Current office temperature: 89 degrees Fahrenheit.
>  
>  -- 
>  fedora-test-list mailing list
>  fedora-test-list(a)redhat.com
>  To unsubscribe: 
>  http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list 
-- 

Janina Sajka				Phone: [phone]
Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC	http://www.CapitalAccessibility.Com

Bringing the Owasys 22C screenless cell phone to the U.S. and Canada. Go to
http://www.ScreenlessPhone.Com to learn more.

Chair, Accessibility Workgroup		Free Standards Group (FSG)
janina(a)freestandards.org		http://a11y.org

[Horst H. von Brand]

Janina Sajka <janina(a)rednote.net&gt; wrote:
>  Matthew Miller writes:
>  > On Mon, Jun 27, 2005 at 09:51:51AM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
>  > > > > My fast machine is a Pentium 2 clocking at 348 Mhz with 192 Mb RAM
>  > > > > The Celeron slowpoke clocks at 701 and sports 512 Mb RAM 
>  > > > How are you measuring fast? For some workloads,
> that's completely to be
>  > > > expected. 
>  > > Latency of keystrokes. I press the key and the feedback is
> oo so slow.
>  > > In my case it's TTS feedback, not on screen, but same principle. Both
>  > > machines have the exact same TTS board (ISA) and software drivers, both
>  > > running FC4, but this was also true FC 3. 
>  > Hmmm. That should be next to instant on either system. I wonder
> if
>  > something is simply configured badly and introducing a delay. 
Note that in my experience a good or bad motherboard can make worlds of
difference between machines. I.e., an i386/25 being quite a bit faster than
an i486dx4/100 when compiling kernels... one a Novell certified mobo (quite
expensive in its time), the other a el-cheapo mobo from the PC store at the
next corner.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                     Fono: [phone]
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria              [phone]
Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile                Fax:  [phone]

[Robin Laing]

Matthew Miller wrote:
>  On Mon, Jun 27, 2005 at 09:16:35AM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
>  
> >>>machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
> >>>machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
> >>>The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
> >
> >I'm also wondering the same thing.
> >My fast machine is a Pentium 2 clocking at 348 Mhz with 192 Mb RAM
> >The Celeron slowpoke clocks at 701 and sports 512 Mb RAM
>  
>  
>  How are you measuring fast? For some workloads, that's completely to be
>  expected.
>  
>  (I'm still wondering which the original poster thinks is a "higher speced"
>  machine....)
>  
>  
>   
To add to this thread.

On another list, there is discussion about FC4 being slower than 
Windows on the same hardware.  Default installation and text entry 
being to slow to refresh the screen when typing in OOo.

Slow enough to be a show stopper.

-- 
Robin Laing

[Matthew Miller]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2005 at 11:48:54AM +0100, Mike old wrote:
>  I have two machines (home/work) both running FC4
>  machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
>  machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
>  The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
>  Anyone any ideas how this could be? 
Which of these machines is the "lower speced" one? And how are you measuring
quicker? Startup time, "responsiveness", something else?

-- 
Matthew Miller           mattdm(a)mattdm.org        <http://www.mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux      ------>                <http://linux.bu.edu/>
Current office temperature: 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Dan A. Dickey]

On Friday 24 June 2005 05:48, Mike old wrote:
>  I have two machines (home/work) both running FC4
>  
>  machine 1 k6/2 500mhz 256Mb geforce4
>  machine 1 celeron 933mhz 256Mb geforce2
>  
>  The lower speced machine is far,far,far quicker (gnome etc).
>  
>  Anyone any ideas how this could be? 
If you are building your own kernels, make sure that you don't
accidentally turn on CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC in your .config.
You can check this by doing a 'grep CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC
/usr/src/linux/.config'.
It should not be set.

I speak from recent experience with this matter; I enabled debug in my config so that I
could use the sysrq key.  Unknowingly, I turned on pagealloc debug also (the default if
debug is enabled) - and it took me a little while and some effort to track the problem
down.  I checked the stock FC4 kernel, and it of course does not have this config set.
But be wary if building your own kernel.
	-Dan

-- 
Dan A. Dickey
dan.dickey(a)savvis.net
skype: hydraatworkmain

SAVVIS
Transforming Information Technology