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Is there any way to make kde faster on older PCs

I really like KDE but it is really slow on my old PC. Is there any way to make it fast?

What are your hardware specs? Which KDE distro are you running on it?

I am running mepis on amacbook with core 2 duo and 1gb ram. Intel integrated graphics. Quite slow and eats battery life.

I am no expert on Apple hardware, sorry. Maybe try a lightweight DE like Xfce or Fluxbox?

I would say no. KDE is a power hungry, eyecandy based DE and a Mac is only suitable for, well, I cant think of anything its suitable for ;)

I have an old laptop that fits that spec, and to speed it up I went with Arch + Openbox. Its pretty zippy now.

Disable desktop effects, and nepomuk and akonadi. Also disable any unneeded services.

it flies on this ancient Thinkpad R40.

Code:

System:    Host: debian Kernel: 3.5-trunk-486 i686 (32 bit) Desktop: KDE 4.8.4 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux wheezy/sid

Machine:  Mobo: IBM model: 27223YU Bios: IBM version: 1PET41WW (1.09 ) date: 03/03/2003

CPU:      Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB clocked at 1300.00 MHz 

          CPU Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse 

          sse2 tm pbe bts est tm2 

Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV200 [Mobility Radeon 7500] 

          X.Org: 1.12.3.902 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz 

          GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x209) GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4

Audio:    Card: Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller driver: snd_intel8x0

          Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: 1.0.25

Network:  Card-1: Intel 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller driver: e100 

          IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:06:1b:cd:f5:82

          Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter driver: ipw2100 

          IF: eth1 state: up mac: 00:04:23:5b:b5:88

Drives:    HDD Total Size: 17.2GB (57.3% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: IC25N020ATCS04 size: 17.2GB 

Partition: ID: / size: 16G used: 9.2G (64%) fs: ext3 ID: /boot size: 228M used: 39M (18%) fs: ext2 

          ID: swap-1 size: 0.51GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 

Sensors:  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0C mobo: 44.0C 

          Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A fan-1: 0 

Info:      Processes: 97 Uptime: 5:05 Memory: 364.4/2025.7MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.17

People hate Gentoo users for always talking about compiler optimizations, but I have to say this here: compile it with -O3 -march=native -mtune=native.
I have almost the same configuration as your's- dual core 2 ghz, initially 1 gb ram; but now 3 gb (got it for virtualization). There only two significant differences here: I use pf-kernel, and as much as possible, everything is compiled with those C{,XX}FLAGS (managed by portage).

I have run Knoppix for a while and some of the very first versions were kde I think. It ran pretty good so I'd think maybe an older version of kde.

I think I will try to use archbang.... Seems pretty light.

I've found that one thing that makes a big difference is compositing. kde without direct graphics support is dog-slow, even with most of the effects disabled. It performs much better when the gpu can take over the rendering work.

If you don't already have compositing enabled, look into whether your card and driver support it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by David the H. (Post 4787080)

I have composting disabled and it runs just fine. never noticed any slowness. But I have desktop effects disabled.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ylang (Post 4785117)

I really like KDE but it is really slow on my old PC. Is there any way to make it fast?

you should do :

apt-get install -f -y openbox kicker kate ... <--- what u need

you should use openbox as wm with kde apps.

Believe me : nothing faster than openbox !!