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I have two identical video cards (Nvidia GTX 560) and four identical monitors (LG model E2240TI), all four arranged horizontally. I have gnome-session-flashback installed and am using the Gnome-flashback (Metacity) choice at login, though I don't think that matters, as using Gnome-flashback (Compiz) is almost as bad (though in slightly different ways).

Every 10 or 20 s (but not consistent), my mouse pointer freezes for 1 or 2 s. The mouse is the most noticeable but in fact all screen updates are frozen during these times (based on a "top -d 0.5" I have running).

Also (100% consistent) when moving mouse from screen 1 to 2, and from 4 to 3, the mouse disappears for about 3 to 4 s, (but never (!) when going the reverse direction 2 to 1, nor 3 to 4, nor either direction between 2 and 3). Also mouse "tracking" is still live during this time, just not shown (if I start this near the top of the screens, and during the "disappeared" time I move my mouse significantly downward, then when the mouse reappears, it is downward of the starting position by the expected amount).

Also when dragging a window, the mouse and window freeze almost immediately for about 4 s, then the window only moves jumpily and with 2 to 5 s gaps in updates (though the mouse itself moves smoothly during this time), and CPU usage of Xorg process goes to 99% during this time.

Also just wiggling the mouse rapidly in a circle over a terminal window (in which top is running), the CPU usage of Xorg also goes to 99% (yet doing the same over blank desktop area I cannot get it over 8%).

Also when clicking to change windows, the newly selected window will come to the front immediately but will not get focus for about 4 s ("focus" based on colour change of title bar, terminal cursor change from outline to solid, accept typed characters, etc).

I have two identical video cards

# lspci |grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF114 [GeForce GTX 560 Ti] (rev a1)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF114 [GeForce GTX 560 Ti] (rev a1)

I am using the nouveau driver:

# lsmod |grep -i nouveau
nouveau              1388544  4
video                  36864  2 nouveau,asus_wmi
i2c_algo_bit           16384  1 nouveau
ttm                    94208  1 nouveau
drm_kms_helper        126976  1 nouveau
mxm_wmi                16384  1 nouveau
drm                   356352  7 ttm,drm_kms_helper,nouveau
wmi                    20480  3 mxm_wmi,nouveau,asus_wmi

My xrandr output is as follows. I don't understand much about providers, or source versus sink, but I suspect that may be the way to make sure rendering load is actually spread across the video cards. Again I haven't been able to find the nitty gritty of xrandr, although I did used to play with xrandr precise timings (mode lines) back in the ubuntu 10.04 and 12.04 days when it wouldn't by default see my projector (different box).

$ xrandr --listproviders 
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x97 cap: 0x1, Source Output crtcs: 2 outputs: 4 associated providers: 1 name:nouveau
Provider 1: id: 0x45 cap: 0x6, Sink Output, Source Offload crtcs: 2 outputs: 4 associated providers: 1 name:nouveau
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 7680 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-I-1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.08    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    60.00  
   720x400       70.08  
DVI-I-2 connected 1920x1080+5760+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.08    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    60.00  
   720x400       70.08  
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1-3 connected 1920x1080+1920+0 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.08    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    60.00  
   720x400       70.08  
DVI-I-1-4 connected 1920x1080+3840+0 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.08    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    60.00  
   720x400       70.08  
HDMI-1-2 disconnected
DP-1-2 disconnected
  1920x1080 (0x46) 148.500MHz
        h: width  1920 start 2008 end 2052 total 2200 skew    0 clock  67.50KHz
        v: height 1080 start 1084 end 1089 total 1125           clock  60.00Hz
  1680x1050 (0x47) 119.000MHz
        h: width  1680 start 1728 end 1760 total 1840 skew    0 clock  64.67KHz
        v: height 1050 start 1053 end 1059 total 1080           clock  59.88Hz
  1280x1024 (0x48) 135.000MHz
        h: width  1280 start 1296 end 1440 total 1688 skew    0 clock  79.98KHz
        v: height 1024 start 1025 end 1028 total 1066           clock  75.02Hz
  1280x1024 (0x49) 108.000MHz
        h: width  1280 start 1328 end 1440 total 1688 skew    0 clock  63.98KHz
        v: height 1024 start 1025 end 1028 total 1066           clock  60.02Hz
  1152x864 (0x4a) 108.000MHz
        h: width  1152 start 1216 end 1344 total 1600 skew    0 clock  67.50KHz
        v: height  864 start  865 end  868 total  900           clock  75.00Hz
  1024x768 (0x4b) 78.800MHz
        h: width  1024 start 1040 end 1136 total 1312 skew    0 clock  60.06KHz
        v: height  768 start  769 end  772 total  800           clock  75.08Hz
  1024x768 (0x4c) 65.000MHz
        h: width  1024 start 1048 end 1184 total 1344 skew    0 clock  48.36KHz
        v: height  768 start  771 end  777 total  806           clock  60.00Hz
  800x600 (0x4d) 49.500MHz
        h: width   800 start  816 end  896 total 1056 skew    0 clock  46.88KHz
        v: height  600 start  601 end  604 total  625           clock  75.00Hz
  800x600 (0x4e) 40.000MHz
        h: width   800 start  840 end  968 total 1056 skew    0 clock  37.88KHz
        v: height  600 start  601 end  605 total  628           clock  60.32Hz
  640x480 (0x4f) 31.500MHz
        h: width   640 start  656 end  720 total  840 skew    0 clock  37.50KHz
        v: height  480 start  481 end  484 total  500           clock  75.00Hz
  640x480 (0x50) 25.200MHz
        h: width   640 start  656 end  752 total  800 skew    0 clock  31.50KHz
        v: height  480 start  490 end  492 total  525           clock  60.00Hz
  720x400 (0x51) 28.320MHz
        h: width   720 start  738 end  846 total  900 skew    0 clock  31.47KHz
        v: height  400 start  412 end  414 total  449           clock  70.08Hz

I don't think this is a duplicate of Ubuntu 15.04 freezes for a second every 6-10 seconds, PCI/Radeon related messages in kern.log since there is nothing in my /var/log/kern.log (nor any other logs) when this happens. Also this Four monitor setup with two Nvidia graphics cards doesn't seem relevant as it is from 3 years ago (and ubuntu 12.04), and is for the proprietary nvidia driver.

Any tips on getting this to work somewhat reasonably? Mahjongg is completely unusable in this state.

p.s. logging in with Gnome flashback (Compiz) instead of ...(Metacity), is just as bad but different. CPU use by Xorg doesn't go much above 10% regardless of whether wiggling the mouse over blank desktop area, over a terminal window, or while dragging a window. However stuff freezes up even more often, every 1 or 2 s, and lasts 1 or 2 s, on screens 1 and 4, and not at all (!) on screens 2 and 3. Logging in with Gnome default (which is Compiz and the Unity interface) is also just as bad but in slightly different ways. Also in all three session types, the problems go away if I use the System Settings > Displays to disable all but the first screen.

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  • Similar problem with nVidia GTX980 Ti and single monitor on 15.10. And on 16.04 I have the strangest network problems, too. Bought into nVidia because "closed-source but better-performing drivers". Not sure what else could be there.
    – Zlatko
    Jul 12, 2016 at 14:36
  • I'm having similar issues on 17.04 (also strange network problems, like loosing some random packets). @Zlatko did you manage to resolve the issue?
    – Tombart
    Aug 8, 2017 at 15:19
  • @Tombart I think it was sometihng about restarting compiz ("compiz --replace" somewhere in the bash scripts or something). Not sure now, and out on vacation so no access to my comp, you're out of luck :/
    – Zlatko
    Aug 9, 2017 at 13:32

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