Unusual Vista 32bit performance

D

darkpark

Gawd
Joined
Aug 15, 2004
Messages
696
I just got Vista 32bit Business installed today and so far all is good enough (not perfect).
As I was toying around with various ui and display settings, I noticed that windows *seems* to perform better when the aero theme is enabled. The only visible evidence of this is when dragging windows around. In windows classic or vista basic display mode (non-aero) moving windows around is slow and very jerky. It is jerky to the point that there is a trail of windows. When I switch to aero, this jerkiness disappears completely and windows seems to respond altogether faster.

edit: DVD playback exhibits the same thing. DVD playback in fullscreen is unplayable while aero is disabled. With aero enabled, dvd playback in fullscreen is smooth as silk.

here are my pc specs:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
4GB RAM
2x 74GB WD Raptors SATA hard drives
BFG 7800GS using 162.22 forceware drivers (beta)
Creative X-Fi soundcard
 
Its meant to be like that. Aero uses your 3D card to Render the windows as this is being done in hardware rather than software it is much faster leave it on and hug it :)
 
That's all well and good, but the gui shouldn't be sluggish just because 3d rendering in hardware isn't being used anymore. I think that it should be at least as responsive as Windows XP.
 
Obviously the standard rule of thumb holds:

"It's the drivers... it's always the drivers..."

You can thank Nvidia for the issues you're having.

And besides, Vista is designed to operate with a 3D GUI, so anytime people go goofing around and turning it off, if you end up having lackluster performance because you're changing a default setting for the OS I simply don't consider it a problem.

I've used Vista on well over 2,000 machines since it's release, from GMA950 to 8800 cards and everything in between and I've never had issues with Aero or non-Aero video modes using drivers from the default ones included with the RTM build of Vista or any later ones up to 2 weeks ago.

I have no idea why you're having the issues you're having, but anytime I hear about such things (and you're not the first), I tell people to try swap out the drivers for possibly the last oldest revision or bring 'em up to date with some leaked beta drivers. Never had anyone fail to tell me either one or the other didn't resolve their issues.

Good luck either way...
 
I'm using nvidia drivers fresh off the beta frying pan (www.nzone.com) and they work well enough. I also switched back to using aero and everything seems to work hunky-dory except that web pages scroll sluggishly (both in Firefox and internet explorer 7) which I can live with until nvidia gets some decent vista drivers.
 
I've played with Vista 32 on a laptop with integrated gfx (GMA 950) and performance was very good with Aero on or off.

With Aero on, CPU utilization is generally a bit lower since those calculations are offloaded to the GPU.

I'll agree with bbz_Ghost - you have a driver issue with Aero disabled. I'd just leave Aero enabled for now until those bugs are worked out.

And then I'd still leave it enabled...
 
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