GtkPerf

Intro

I decided to test how well different GTK+ themes perform. Does theme have a big impact on general GTK+ speed?

Setup

These results are with count set to '1000' using my main PC:

Hardware: AMD64 3500+, 1GB RAM, Geforce2 MX
Software: Ubuntu warty, GTK+ 2.4.10, Xserver XFree 4.3.0, using nvidia binary drivers
Themes: Using themes & versions available directly for Ubuntu Warty

Results

Table below lists the total times, for more detailed results see whole output from here.

Theme	Total time
Cleanice	128.73
Mist	129.02
GTK+ Default	129.11
Thinice	129.17
Simple	129.33
Redmond95	130.13
Xfce	131.14
MilkMint	131.78
Human	132.39
Industrial	132.82
Glider	132.89
Smooth-Retro	133.46
Crux	133.79
Smokey-Blue	161.94
Gonxical	180.92
Grand-Canyon	190.56
eXperience	389.69

Conclusion

Conclusion is that Smokey-Blue, Gonxical, Grand-Canyon or eXperience themes should not be used when performance and UI responsiveness is important.