Why is ubuntu being so system intensive!?

Hello everyone, i just got the latest ubuntu installed a few days ago and everything is working great..but one thing i have noticed is that just web browsing it is using an incredible amount of processing power! My system is an X2 4400+. 2gb of ram and (2x) 7800gtx's so i find it hard to believe that gnome is THAT system intensive? The only thing i can think of is it is having trouble with my 3-monitor desktop? But i am running the latest nvidia drivers and here is a link to my Xorg.conf file if anyone is interested: http://www.ocinek.com/diablo/monitors/xorg.conf.2.txt

Also, here is a screenshot with just firefox, xchat, gaim, and gimp running in the background on top of gnome:
Thank you for any help in advance!

Try and fine out what process(es) are causing the high CPU usage.

Open a terminal and run top. It will show you what the cpu usage is for each process.

Thanks for the replies. Running TOP shows that Xorg jumps up to 50-60% cpu usage with just system monitor displaying a graph, if i close system monitor it drops down to 5-10%.. it just seems strange that displaying something as simple as system monitor or moving a window around the screen could eat up so much cpu, but i have a feeling it has to do with my monitor setup as i think all the load is being transfered to the cpu for display and the gpu's are sitting there doing nothing.

I have no clear answers, but maybe a few things to look at.

1) the display config you have is pretty massive.
2) Ubuntu is a pretty easy distro to use in large part thanks to all the stuff that is loaded that you are most likely not using. This could be eating up a lot of cpu power too.
3) How efficient are the 7800s at 2d? Being a very high end gaming card, 3d should be fantastic, but 2d is likely to be done somewhat differently. I really have nothing but a barely educated guess on this score- my best card is a 6600gt-agp, and I have not researched the newer stuff since the cost is outlandish to me. But it might be a factor.

rogerdugans said:

I have no clear answers, but maybe a few things to look at.

1) the display config you have is pretty massive.
2) Ubuntu is a pretty easy distro to use in large part thanks to all the stuff that is loaded that you are most likely not using. This could be eating up a lot of cpu power too.
3) How efficient are the 7800s at 2d? Being a very high end gaming card, 3d should be fantastic, but 2d is likely to be done somewhat differently. I really have nothing but a barely educated guess on this score- my best card is a 6600gt-agp, and I have not researched the newer stuff since the cost is outlandish to me. But it might be a factor.

Click to expand...

From reading that, i guess that this could be a driver problem than anything...

Seriously- don't put too much stock in my questioning of the 2d performance, but if nothing else, it could be worth looking into just to rule it out.

Thanks for the replies, i am unsure of the 2d performqance of my cards, i am also unsure of how there would be a driver problem as i installed the latest nvidia drivers directly from their site. I know my xorg.conf file is huge, but i dont see any way to make it any smaller; and even if i did i dont see how that would positively effect performance.