What exactly is HWCursor?

[Agent-X]

I know it's an option in xorg.conf, but what is the point of it? Do we really even need it? Because it's never done me any good. I always turn it off. If it's not important (I find it hurtful), why don't most Linux distributions simply turn it off?

[oz]

For a full explanation, see #5.11. Option ``HWCursor'' and Option ``SWCursor''

[Agent-X]

5.11. Option ``HWCursor'' and Option ``SWCursor''

Option ``HWCursor'', which is the default, specifies that hardware facilities are to be used to paint the mouse pointer on the screen. Option ``SWCursor'' specifies that the mouse pointer is to be drawn by software, which is much slower. If both options are specified, option ``SWCursor'' prevails. Currently, these options are only acted upon for 256-colour or higher depth modes, if a Mach64 accelerator CRTC, or a Mach64 integrated controller is being used. In all other situations, a software cursor will be used, regardless of what these options specify.

Ok, so what does this part exactly mean?

Option ``HWCursor'', which is the default, specifies that hardware facilities are to be used to paint the mouse pointer on the screen.

Is it referring to RAM, the video card, cpu, gpu? What is it referring to?
And, being that I often have to turn of HWCursor on some newer computers, would turning it off really slow things down that much?

The reason I find HWCursor an annoyance is because on Debian and RPM systems, the xorg.conf file is never adequate enough; after logging in and logging out, the cursor disappears upon logging back in: The solution is to turn off HWCursor.

I'm not the only one to have had this problem. But I'm wondering what kind of difference in performance would occur in various types of computers if it were simply turned off. How would it effect the GUI and visual cursor?