Help with and questions regarding 2d performance / nvidia driver

[dagnasty]

Hello all!

I am here searching for help with configuring X properly. I have been using Debian for about a year and have gotten pretty far, but when it comes to configuring the video driver I am at a loss. My problem is dealing with extreamly choppy/sluggish window transitions. Put simply, I think everyting is configured they way most do so, but still needs aditional improvements because as of now it is pretty bad and I don't get a lot done without getting mad about why the transitions are very crisp in my Windows installation and not in Debian. I have done the research and it seems that the proprietry nvidia driver is not too hot with 2d. I have fixed some issues but I am still stuck with the poor window movement. I am most confused when it comes to figuring out what is the exact cause (be it nvidia driver, monitors/refresh rate, etc.)

I did try with the nv driver and there is no apparent difference so I am not tied to either one but am currently working with the proprietry one. Because It has been hard to find help here is some info on what I am working with:

Distro : Debain

WM - Xmonad

2 Identical 24 Inch monitors with combined resolution at 3840x1200

Nvidia 8800 series card

I am using twin view and use the other monitor as an extended work area. I often take window such as Iceweasel out of tiled mode and moving the GUI apps around on the screen is what looks so aweful.

I read that a custom modline could help but I wanted to consult someone before i messed with that.

xvidtune gives me this information

hsync range 0:  30.00 - 110.00
vsync range 0:  50.00 - 150.00

HDisplay : 3840 
VDisplay : 1200
HSyncStart : 1960
VSyncStart : 1204
HSyncEnd : 2000
VSyncEnd : 1209
HTotal : 2080
Vtotal 1235


Pixel Clock : 154.00
Horizontal Sync : 74.04
Vertical Sync : 59.95

here is my xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    RgbPath         "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
   Load           "freetype"
    
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 110.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 150.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option         "TwinView" "True"
    Option         "Orientation" "RightOf"
    Option	   "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"  
    Option         "NoLogo" "yes"
    Option	   "TripleBuffer"	      "True"
    Option	   "BackingStore"	      "True"
    Option         "PixmapCacheSize"	      "200000"
    Option         "AllowGLXWithComposite"    "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "1"
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1920x1200 +1920+0, DFP-1: 1920x1200 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

A lot of those options are suggestions from the nvidia forum from others having issues similar to mine. The big problem is everyone there seems to be using Compiz with Gnome or KDE so I don't know if anything is helping or hurting.
Does anyone have information and/or advice they could offer to help with the poor 2d support? I just doesn't make sense to me that the transitions are so poor. I run the same WM on my laptop with intel graphics and it looks better than this. If anyone is confused on what I am trying to describe i could possibly upload a short video demonstrating what i mean.

One last thing, this option has greatly improved the resizing of windows to normal expectations so if there are any other fixes like this i can pass into my .xinitrc please let me know

nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 -a GlyphCache=1

thanks to anyone for reading

[Grandebasta]

Hi
You could have a look at "Xinerama":

Xinerama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With two graphic cards you could attach three or four screens/monitors.
One graphic card would have to have two plug-outlets for monitor cables.

Furthermore, it is possible to add a few virtual desktops, which will give you quite a lot of space for applications/programms, for multitasking.

How would you like to work with your dual-monitor-setup?