[lug] Better X Server?

[Tkil]

>>>>> "Dhruva" == Dhruva B Reddy <bdhruva at gmx.net> writes:

Dhruva> This has me wondering what I can do to have better X
Dhruva> performance on my Debian box.

Dhruva> Is there anything I can do to tune it?

Make sure you're using the correct driver modules for the card you
have.  It is possible (but unlikely, I hope!) that it defaults to
using a simple framebuffer for X.  Make sure you are using a "native"
X Window System driver module.

If you have a current nVidia or ATI card, try using the binary drivers
to see if you get better performance.  (I'm sure that the PowerBook is
using very well-tuned drivers...)

If you don't need 24-bit color, consider switching down to 16bpp;
that's less memory for the drivers to move around in the first place,
and on my linux box at home, the acceleration (and even stability) is
sorely lacking in 24bpp compared to 16bpp (radeon 7500).

Finally, try experimenting with different window managers / desktop
environments.  I'm told KDE 3.2 is much improved in this regard, but I
find both KDE and GNOME to be hideous pigs.  I use them for the eye
candy and ease of installation, but if you want to see what the actual
X performance is, try using something like tvtwm or fvwm2.

(Don't forget the standard linux performance tuning tools: 'top',
'vmstat', etc)

Dhruva> Is there another X server (commercial is fine, within reason)
Dhruva> I can use?

Before you go blaming the software itself, remember that PowerBooks
have *very* good hardware in them.  The difference you see in
performance could be caused simply by the PowerBook having better
hardware than whatever you're comparing it to.

This is especially true if you are comparing it to a system using the
video controller built onto the motherboard and sharing main memory
with the CPU.

You might also want to look at the rest of the specs, too, to make
sure you're not just trying to compare (ahem) apples to penguins.

t.

p.s. I have a GHz TiBook that I use quite a bit, as well as a newish
     3GHz p4 machine.  They both perform acceptably.  :)