Motherboard Gigabyte GA-880GMA-USB3: Frequency scaling causes whole-system micro-freezes / Lags / stutters with AMD Zambezi (Bulldozer) CPU

##### SOLUTION #######

This can be solved by flashing the latest BIOS from the vendor, version "F4c".
This can be obtained here:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3817&dl=1#bios
By the way, once extracted, the BIOS can be flashed using flashrom, which is available in the Ubuntu repositories.

######################

##### WORKAROUND #####
To work around this issue, I change the governor of all the cpu's to 'performance'. You can put the following lines in a script and run it as root after boot. This will make all cores run at maximum rate, causing more power consumption. Note that I have four cpu's. You might have 6 or 8 if this occurs with other FX series processors.

#!/bin/bash
echo performance > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo performance > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo performance > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo performance > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/scaling_governor
######################

Dear Ones,

When frequency scaling is activated (more details below) the system has short freezes, short lags, short "time-outs". They vary in length and can be as long as about 1 second. Here's a video(1).

I've received help from the fantastic folks at the xorg-driver-ati mailing list. Here's the thread(2).

It doesn't matter whether it is Unity or Unity 2D.

Windows 7 runs smooth, without the stuttering / framedrop problem in my LCD's Maximum resolution of 1280x1024.

Testing with a dedicated PCI Express GPU (Radeon R300 if I remember correctly), the stuttering persisted.

Here's some testing with different governors:
performance: smoothness goodness
ondemand: the stuttering as demonstrated in the video
conservative: stuttering reduced to seemingly about 10% compared to ondemand
powersave: stuttering increase seemingly to about five times more than with ondemand

When using ondemand, raising minimum frequencies results in less stuttering. Raising the minimum frequency of all four cores to the second step, 1.7GHz, helps a lot and and raising it to 2.5GHz results no stuttering. This is under the limited strain of dragging windows around in 1280x1024 in compiz, Ubuntu 11.10.

I've also tested 2012-02-06 image of precise. Still occurs.

As per Joseph's request on comment #5, I've also tested with upstream kernel from Mainline Kernels Archive on Oneiric. Here's the basic info:

shahar@shahar-desktop:~$ uname -a
Linux shahar-desktop 3.3.0-030300rc4-generic #201202181935 SMP Sun Feb 19 00:36:30 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
shahar@shahar-desktop:~$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version: core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric

As per Joseph's request on comment #6, I've tested Gnome Classic (No Effects).

It didn't happen when my CPU was an AMD Sempron 140. As soon as I switched to the AMD FX-4100 CPU this started.

As per Gigabyte's instructions(3), in order to have support for this CPU, I upgraded the BIOS from the "F2" version to the "F3" version before replacing the CPU (flashrom FTW!) If it is necessary, I can still put in the old Sempron 140 CPU for testing.

More stuff I tried since replacing the CPU: I have played with BIOS settings - trying different configurations. I also replaced to a new, more adequate PSU. I also tried different RAM sticks and different amounts of them (1, 2 and 4 sticks).

Thanks and blessings,
Shahar

Links:
1. http://bit.ly/xDOZF3 (on Google Docs)
2. http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-driver-ati/2012-February/022223.html
3. http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3817

ProblemType: BugDistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-15.26-generic 3.0.13
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-15-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Mon Feb 6 23:38:39 2012
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-10-16 02:49:10.693391
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, whatever it takes to get this fixed in Ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 ATI Technologies Inc RS880 [Radeon HD 4250] [1002:9715] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device [1458:d000]InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-880GMA-USB3
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-15-generic root=UUID=57641e34-8b71-4e2e-9324-ff40ca1bc82a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-16 (113 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/20/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F3
dmi.board.name: GA-880GMA-USB3
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF3:bd10/20/2011:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnGA-880GMA-USB3:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnGA-880GMA-USB3:rvr:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: GA-880GMA-USB3
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu6
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu26
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1