Not enough hardware?

[stimpyman77]

Hello all,

I was looking for some thoughts on a video issue I am having on my Suse box. The hardware is a PIII-1Ghz w/ 768mb of ram running Suse 9.1 w/ kernel 2.6.5-7.104. Video card is a Nvidia TNT 16mb (old school Viper 550). My general complaint is that X feels pretty slow as far as video response goes, not as smooth or as fluid as say the same hardware running Windows. I know the video in Windows gets a boost by being so tied in with the kernel but I didn't think that the difference would be this pronounced. I just started using Linux and can see why people like it.. I already have been spending most of my PC time on it.. but being my first distro maybe I did not know what to expect. Is X normally a little slower or am I expecting too much from the card?
I am running the card at 1152x864 16-bit color with NVIDIA's Linux driver version 1.0.5336 btw. I also tried to play a DVD today with Xine and found it to be a little choppy and CPU was up about 90% during video playback.Is that normal? DMA was verified via hdparam and Yast to be operational so I know that is not the case. Anyone have some tweaks for Xine that Idon't know about? Suggestions on how to attack this slideshow would be most welcome...


Thanks !

Stimpyman77

 

[stimpyman77]

After getting some sleep I realized I should have posted this in the Video forum or maybe even Sofware , it would have been more inline with my questions. Gotta stop hanging out on Anandtech till 3am... I am trying to fight that off topic lurking curse..

Stimpyman77

 

[imported_pak9rabid]

looks like your comp is not using video hardware acceleration for X. after you get the nvidia drivers installed, you have to modify the XF86Config file. search down to where it says `driver = "nv"' and replace the nv with nvidia. so it should say `driver = "nvidia"', also if you plan on using openGL apps, u have to uncomment `Load GLX' (take out the #). that should do ya.

 

[imported_pak9rabid]

if in doubt, check the nvidia's readme file for their Linux drivers, it's all in there, as are many other lil goodies you can enable/disable by sticking various Options in the config file under the device section for the vid card.

 

[stimpyman77]

Thanks Pak9rabid, I have verified that I am indeed using hardware acceleration for X and that the Nvidia drivers are installed correctly. I also checked the options listing that you talked about from the readme, but none of them seem to apply to this particular situation. I wonder if it is just too much for a 16mb card and maybe I should upgrade.

Stimpyman77

 

[imported_pak9rabid]

yeah, it's a possibility, although that hardware should be more than enough to not run bad. i tried searching for hte TNT1 drivers on nvidia's site and the only thing i came across were drivers for TNT2/Geforce-based cards, or the Riva128. Not specifically anything for the TNT1. hm...maybe the Riva128 drivers would work for it?