Ubuntu: nVidia card slow? Monitor flickers? Try this fix and boost graphic card performance!

Posted on 22. Nov, 2009 by Dragos in Operating Systems, Ubuntu

Switching from an ATI card to an nVidia one was not so simple, as X was configured to work with an ATI card. What I had to do was to boot in Safe Gnome, download the nVidia drivers to my desktop, then enter the command line screen (pressing CTRL+ALT+F1), delete and reinstall X, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to use vesa drivers, install the nVidia drivers from my desktop, and then enjoy full video performance. If you fail to do these steps, then you will run into a blank screen right after you log into your account.

But even with the latest official nVidia drivers installed, the GUI inside Ubuntu will not be as smooth as expected. To fix this, you’ll need to install compizconfig-settings-manager from synaptic.

After you install compizconfig-settings-manager, open it from System->Preferences->Compizconfig settings manager:

Open Compizconfig-settings manager

Then select the “All” category and go to “General options“:

Open Compizconfig-settings manager General Options

Then make sure that Detect Refresh Rate is unticked, Sync to VBlank is ticked and that the Refresh Rate is set to a slightly more number than your monitors refresh rate (if unsure, set it to 100):

Ubuntu Compiz Display Settings

You should now see no more window flickering and dragging a window on the screen should be smooth and fast. If you see no results, try to restart Compiz (ALT+F2 and run Compiz).

                    
                    

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