Unity 2D a bit slower than 3D

[teejay17]

I have tried both the 2D and 3D interfaces out in 11.10 and I find that 2D is a bit slower on the same machine than 3D, particularly when pressing the Search/Ubuntu icon in the top left.
This is a general observation, wondering if others are also experiencing the same? Also, is this just something that needs to be worked out some more, or is there a setting somewhere to speed up 2D?

[tomluft]

I know this thread is old, I just wanted to confirm teejay's observation.

In my case 2D unity is WAY slower than unity 3D. Until I found this thread whilst googling I always thought the buttons to choose between 2D/3D were switched :roll:

[3Miro]

Unity 3D relies on graphical power, while Unity 2D relies on CPU power. For graphical purposes, good GPUs will crush any CPU, and that is the only reason why people buy expensive video cards. Unity 3D is expected to be smoother and faster on machines with decent graphics, that's why it is the default. Unity 2D is for machines with low graphical capabilities, where Unity 3D will be too slow or even impossible to run. Unity 2D is designed to have good response on machines with weak graphics, it is not designed to be faster than Unity 3D.

Basically, what you observe is absolutely normal.