My PC has multiple cores, lots of ram, and it can run Skyrim on high settings. It's not ancient but not new at all. It's always been stable so I took time to resolve my issues before I posted them here.
I'm currently using the 390 Nvidia driver available with the driver manager.
I recommend making a TimeShift save before making these changes.
I also recommend applying these tweaks one at a time. Check if things improve after each tweak. Avoid applying all these tweaks at once.
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Disable Vsync for the Clutter Compositor ........ If you update to Mint 19.1 you can remove the "CLUTTER_VBLANK=none" tweak.
Cinnamon 19.1
Disable:
Enable Vblank
Mint Start Menu > System Settings > Preferences > General > Compositor Options
Code: Select all
NOTES
Fixes: Screen tearing when browsing in Firefox
This seems to make the Cinnamon desktop environment lighter thus making apps lighter.
You can log out and back in for an easy way to reset Cinnamon.
Cinnamon 19
Add this line:
CLUTTER_VBLANK=none
To:
/etc/environment
Code: Select all
NOTES
Fixes: Screen tearing when browsing in Firefox
This seems to make the Cinnamon desktop environment lighter thus making apps lighter.
Firefox GPU Acceleration ........ This improves performance on certain hardware. On others it degrades it.
Type in the address bar:
about:config
Press enter, accept by pressing enter again
Copy and paste in search one by one, double click to enable:
TRUE
layers.acceleration.force-enabled
<----------*Most Important*layers.omtp.enabled
<----------*Default ON*layout.display-list.retain
<----------*Default ON*Code: Select all
NOTES
Fixes: Youtube videos dropping / skipping frames randomly.
Fixes: Unstable Firefox performance lag
This also resolved an issue where browsing the IRL page on Twitch would lag while scrolling up and down.
Firefox would not run smoothly without this change, this is the main fix for Firefox performance issues.
Increase Firefox Mouse Scroll Speed
Type in the address bar:
about:config
Press enter, accept by pressing enter again
Copy and paste in search:
mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount
Double click and set to:
35
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NOTES
Fixes: Slow mouse scrolling
This can be too fast on some touchpads
Save Nvidia X Server Settings
Assuming the Nvidia 390 driver is already installed from the driver manager follow these steps.
Open the Nvidia X Server Settings:
Mint Start menu
> Administration
Go to:
X Server Display Configuration
Mine is set to 60 hz for my monitor
Click the tab:
Advanced
Click only on:
Force Composition Pipeline
Click:
Apply
Click:
Save to X Configuration file
Copy and paste this:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
Click:
Save
Enter your Admin password
If you make changes and SAVE be sure to click 'Merge with existing file'.
Code: Select all
NOTES
Fixes: Screen tearing while watching Youtube videos.
Your Nvidia settings should now be saved.
Hopefully you have similar hardware to mine and these tweaks help.
Note this won't save your settings on the PowerMizer page.
I don't recommend adding tweaks to the Xorg.conf file because it can cause instability and strange issues like 1080p Twitch videos getting stuck loading on an endless loop and not playing, Yes this happened to me. I found it was best not adding tweaks to Xorg.conf at all.
You might see a brief stutter from Firefox rarely and it's likely the Nvidia card going from idle to full performance.
Hopefully I can continue to edit and refine this info. Good luck.
EDIT: Formatted with tags.