Several things I can think of to try, in decreasing order of possible success:
1-Don't login to X. Instead, choose a player that can be run directly from a shell prompt login, e.g. vlc-noX. Overhead will be massively reduced.
2-Use a different video player instead of iTunes, e.g. VLC, SMplayer, Kodi, more.
3-Try a lightweight window manager instead of heavyweight Gnome. For this purpose I use IceWM, which should be selectable from the login screen. If it's not there, do:
Code:
sudo apt install icewm
and restart the server or reboot.
4-Inxi reports Gnome and X are using the Radeon DDX, (X driver, as distinguished from the Radeon kernel driver). A switch to the other FOSS DDX, named Modesetting, might produce an improvement. The only way to tell is to try. To try, the simplest way is:
Code:
sudo apt purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
This will remove all AMD drivers, resulting in use of the newer technology agnostic Modesetting FOSS DDX, which is provided by the xserver package.
5-Gnome might be using Wayland instead of Xorg. If it is, try switching. If it's already using Xorg, try switching to Wayland. This switching may or may not be selectable from the login screen (I don't use GDM). If not, you'll need to follow
these instructions.
6-GDM is more demanding than some other display managers. Try switching to LightDM. Instructions for this abound on the internet.
