Cpu usage by X (with more info) -even more

[suvayu ali]

On 4 May 2010 14:38, Kwan Lowe <kwan at digitalhermit.com> wrote:
> On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 4:19 PM, DB <Freddog_de at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> 2) Running top itself outputs lots of data to the display. You may get
> different results if you SSH'ed into the system and ran top remotely.
>

Even opening a terminal emulator with transparency effects can be
costly at times.

> 3) You're running a graphics intensive desktop (plasma). If you don't
> have proper hardware support then the CPU will have to do all the
> heavy lifting. Even something as innocuous as scrolling text on a
> transparent window will chew up CPU cycles.

Could sometimes be buggy drivers. I have seen both OS or proprietary
drivers (mostly proprietary though :-p ) struggle with a regular
desktop with compositing turned on, whereas having not much trouble
playing an HD video, or a 3D game.

It would be good to know what graphics hardware you are running and
what drivers you are using.

Try these,

$ glxinfo | grep direct
$ lspci | grep VGA
$ lsmod | grep <driver_name>

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.