it turns out, the choppy behavior is due to the "mouse polling" plugin, use Compiz Settings Manager to set the mouse polling plugin to a smaller time (<10).
Requires a restart for the changes to take effect. Still not perfect but is a stop gap. The screen is still slightly unresponsive to mouse movements at times. Especially with firefox. ** Changed in: compiz (Ubuntu) Status: New => Confirmed -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/786774 Title: Regression: Compiz Enhanced Zoom plugin jerky,slow and unresponsive -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs