A Clear Answer About 50Hz Compiz Issue Would be Appreciated Please

Please could an Nvidia representative clear this up as there is a great deal of confusion around this issue.

I am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS using Nvidia 331.38 drivers from nvidia-331-updates on a GTX 690. CompizConfig Settings Manager shows that the Composite plugin detects the refresh rate as 50Hz which is confirmed by the terminal command “dconf read /org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/composite/refresh-rate”.

Now, I know that my monitor is running at 60Hz and that nvidia-settings confirms that.
However, my question is about compiz: is Compiz running at 50fps/Hz or is the reported refresh rate cosmetic and has no effect on compiz or anything else?

The Ubuntu community is very confused about this issue and there are numerous bug reports about it where the “problem” is fixed and then there is a regression and it happens again, then is fixed again etc etc.

Also, people report that manually specifying a refresh rate of 60Hz for compiz in CCSM makes moving windows around the desktop much smoother where before it was stuttery. I haven’t noticed much difference myself, 60Hz may have been slightly smoother but that might be the placebo effect talking.

So, are these people experiencing a placebo effect and compiz is actually running at 60FPS/Hz or should everyone manually set compiz’s refresh rate to 60Hz using CCSM?

ASAP, the 50hz issue has been resolved long time ago, when proper support for xrandr was introduced.
what does the command “xrandr” returns in your terminal using the proprietary nvidia drivers?

Many thanks for the reply.

Here is the xrandr output:
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
1920x1200 60.0*+
1680x1050 60.0
1600x1200 60.0
1280x1024 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1280x720 60.0 59.9
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3
720x480 59.9
640x480 59.9 59.9
However, compiz still detects the refresh rate as being 50Hz according to CCSM and dconf(see output below). My question is: is compiz really operating at 50Hz/fps making moving windows stuttery or not and why is 50Hz being detected despite the problem supposedly being fixed?

CCSM image:
http://s1373.photobucket.com/user/ltron1/media/compizreports50hz_zps1794c83a.png.html

dconf output:
@*********:~$ dconf read /org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/composite/refresh-rate
50

It isn’t surprising that Canonical is confused about compiz. They’ve been struggling with it for years now. But I suspect that nobody (here) knows for sure what the deal is. And I’d bet Ubuntu devs don’t know either. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s yet-another-new-bug introduced to compiz.

FWIW, on Ubuntu 12.04 that field shows up as 60 Hz for me.