Desktop Effects makes mouse jerky

[Brian C. Huffman]

Frank Cox <theatre at sasktel.net> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:54:42 -0400
> "Brian C. Huffman" <bhuffman at graze.net> wrote:
> 
> > Whenever
> > I use desktop-effects and the CPU / hard drive are under load, the
> > mouse gets jerky and intermittently unresponsive.  Does anyone have any
> > suggestions?
> 
> How much load is your CPU under when the machine is "just sitting there" and
> you start moving the mouse around?  (You can use top to find out.)
> 

Just sitting there, with Desktop Effects enabled, and gnome-terminal open with top running:
Load: .50 -.65
Xorg (top process most of the time): CPU 1%, Mem: 2.4%

If I move the mouse around, depending on which things I hit - icons, menu, etc:
Load: .50 - .90
Xorg: CPU 3% - 7%

I run multiple CPU intensive things: VMWare with Windows XP guest, Firefox with a java application (groupware mail reader) and it appears that the mouse freeze occurs whenever something spikes the CPU.  As soon as the initial spike is over, the mouse resumes smooth behavior.

Brian