[bob_harris]

System:
Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (under-clocked to 1800mhz)
HD5450 (Catalyst 10.9)
2GB DDR2 RAM
Samsung hm500ji 5,400RPM HDD
Windows 7 64bit

XBMC versions:
xbmc-r33778-Dharma_beta2
XBMC 9.11

Skins:
Confluence
PM3

Log:
http://pastebin.com/TxYpfMYk

I have tried a few different versions of XBMC, with various skins but all result in the same sluggish interface (without any video playing in the background).

An example would be the Movies folder viewed in "Media Info" view. When I hold the down button to scroll down the list of movies, it gets extremely sluggish.

I have debugging turned on so I can see the FPS drop to around 11fps and the CPU usage jumps to 100%. Even when I let the CPU go full throttle (2800mhz) it does not make it any smoother, and CPU usage still jumps to 100%.

It's not only Media Info view which is slow. Overall I will see slowdowns in animations, slow scrolling of lists etc.

Is the HD5450 capable of delivering flawless animations and browsing of the interface?

[Linus82]

Thats really odd, i got the cheapest 5450 512 ddr2 ram.
I use Aeon65 and i got no problems with anything.

[mitul103]

I have the same problem with a Nvidia 9400GT and a dual core E8500 where the slowdown only really manifests itself when trying to scroll at max speed though your library. This is smooth on my desktop with a quad core Q6600 and 8600GT which points more to a CPU issue. I've discovered that if you can make your own builds, you can make this very smooth if you change path-to-xbmc\xbmc\utils\JobManager.cpp. Near the end of the file you'll see that the max workers is set to 5. If you lower that to 4 or 3, it will be smooth again.

I don't claim to be intimately familiar with XBMC workings to know if this is harmful in some way, but I've been doing this for over a year now without any problems.

If you have a recent version of XBMC installed, here is a .exe I built today that you can test this out with:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50856/XBMC.exe
Backup the XBMC.exe in your install folder and throw this one in there.

[bob_harris]

Thanks for that, really smooths out the list scrolling.

Still a bit of sluggishness and drop in FPS on the interface overall. I installed a fresh Win 7 32bit to test XBMC on that but no improvement in performance.

[mitul103]

Thanks for that, really smooths out the list scrolling.

Still a bit of sluggishness and drop in FPS on the interface overall. I installed a fresh Win 7 32bit to test XBMC on that but no improvement in performance.

Try this .exe. I set the thread priority lower in this one:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50856/XBMC.exe

Also try with your CPU back at its normal speed. The UI is fine for me on my HTPC with this using Aeon. I would think your 5450 would be fine just for the UI.

[Mrfingers]

I see the same thing with the setup below. It was fine when I was using on-board graphics. Once I put new HD5450 in I started seeing this. Doesn't seem to matter which skin I use.

Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (stock)
HD5450 (Catalyst 10.9)
4GB DDR2 RAM
Windows 7 64bit

XBMC versions:
xbmc-r33776-Dharma_beta2

Skins:
Confluence
Aeon65

http://pastebin.com/YbV6KjEa

[bob_harris]

If you have a recent version of XBMC installed, here is a .exe I built today that you can test this out with:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50856/XBMC.exe
Backup the XBMC.exe in your install folder and throw this one in there.

Any chance you have an EXE with the modification for XBMC 10?

I've attempted to build from source but do not know what I'm doing.

[Mallet21]

Have you tried toggling the fullscreen window v fake fullscreen button in the settings? Seems to always fix my lagging GUI.

[mitul103]

Any chance you have an EXE with the modification for XBMC 10?

I've attempted to build from source but do not know what I'm doing.

Sure, here you go:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50856/XBMC.exe
Same as before, install XBMC 10.0 before replacing the .exe with this one.

Also, just so you know, a change was made in trunk (35576) but not in dharma to lower thread priority to idle which is all I am doing, so if you move to nightly builds from trunk in the future, you won't need to compile XBMC yourself to fix this.

[bob_harris]

Thanks, you're a gentleman.

[Livin]

I don't have any issues with this on any build over the past 4 months since I've had my 5450.

Why would you change the EXEs thread priority to idle?

[mitul103]

I don't have any issues with this on any build over the past 4 months since I've had my 5450.

Why would you change the EXEs thread priority to idle?

Because scrolling through your library very fast (think holding down an arrow key) is very CPU intensive and gets incredibly choppy on just about every skin when using a dual core or lesser CPU. I'm on a 3.4Ghz C2D and this happens which isn't good. Loading thumbs and fanart in delegated to the background loader thread which XBMC treats as a non-urgent task. What I did in this .exe is drop thread priority for non-urgent tasks to idle priority instead of just low priority. I'm not changing the priority for the XBMC .exe, just the priority for the non-urgent worker threads it spawns. For whatever reason, Windows gives too much time to the background loader when it is set to low priority which leads to choppy scolling, so this fixes that problem. It has nothing to do with the graphics card and the .exe I built will only help in the very specific case of scrolling very fast through your library if it is large enough.

Like I said earlier though, this is in trunk now so there is no need to build your own .exe to solve this problem anymore past dharma.

[Livin]

I tried your EXE and have been using it for a while... I still have a slow/choppy GUI even on the home screen. Even using BIG Alaska which has very little on the screen.

[mitul103]

You've got an entirely different issue there. I've never had problems with choppy homescreens with or without this fix. The .exe I compiled only helps with scrolling in the library and only if the the cause of the choppiness is cpu scheduling.

[poofyhairguy]

Its not the GPU. Its that terribly slow OS drive. Everytime you need the database or fanart it is asking the info from that low RPM drive which makes the interface slow.

Solution? Why that is why SSDs where invented, and why I push them like the cure for cancer on the hardware forum. No new computer product in the last five years benefits HTPCers as much as SSDs...