Benchmark Tools for Compton Performance Testing in Debian
glxgears in the terminal to display a rotating 3D gear; higher frames per second (FPS) indicate better graphics handling. This tool is particularly useful for evaluating Compton’s impact on OpenGL-based window effects (e.g., shadows, transparency).System Monitoring Tools for Resource Usage Analysis
htop (or top) to identify if Compton is consuming excessive resources (e.g., high CPU% during idle), which could indicate configuration issues (e.g., unnecessary effects like blur).vmstat 1 to sample every second; focus on “idle” CPU% (lower values may suggest Compton is overloading the CPU) and “swap” usage (high values indicate memory pressure).iostat -x 1 to monitor disk read/write speeds and latency; increased latency during Compton usage may point to disk bottlenecks (e.g., from excessive logging or caching).sudo iotop to see if Compton or related components (e.g., window managers) are causing excessive disk activity—useful for diagnosing slow performance on HDDs.nvidia-smi to check if Compton is offloading rendering to the GPU (high GPU usage is expected for smooth performance); critical for NVIDIA users to ensure proper GPU acceleration.Complementary Tools for Comprehensive Evaluation
glances for a holistic view of system performance during Compton testing—helpful for correlating Compton’s impact across all subsystems.