Info Request -- performance

[planetf1]

Hi,
  I'm running Fedora rawhide with
xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.11.0-3.fc11.i586
kernel-PAE-2.6.29-0.197.rc7.fc11.i686
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.6.0-5.fc11.i586

Under regular desktop usage I'm noticing
  * With compiz running, various special effects like wobbly windows 
have a relatively low CPU impact -- good acceleration.
  * glxgears is ok (getting 1800 ish on a V5200/X1400) - could be a bit 
better but just fine.
  * Some seemingly minor activity like firefox's rotating circle that 
appears in a tab whilst loading a page hit the CPU hard (up to 40% + on 
Xorg)
  * Another app "Personal Brain" which is relatively visual has a 
similar huge impact


The system is a core duo " 2.16Ghz, 3Gb ram, V5200 FireGL ie R500 series 
with 256Mb, 3200x1600 virtual (large desktop across 2 screens)
EXA acceleration is enabled
 From log I note - page flipping disabled, dma 4 xv enabled, color 
tiling enabled

I have a few questions

* Apart from glxgears are there any good "benchmark" apps that can be 
used to help check for any regressions between updates? glxgears gives a 
very basic working/not working, but something that's more typical of how 
firefox etc drives X

* Is there any good way of concisely capturing the X/ati workload 
pattern that may assist in identifying specific impacts of that workload 
type as it might relate to various config parameters

* Are there some obvious settings I may have missed.

* Is anyone else seeing this...

Given the above I might have enough to raise a bug... but currently am 
not sure if it's working as designed. Even if not I realise the info is 
far too vague.

Regards
Nigel.