NON-aero Desktop Lags.... why?

[thefounderx]

well i'm baffled by this...

when i run my NON-aero Win7 desktop my windows lag and my CPU usage can actually spike to about 25% just moving windows around. the edges of my windows show jagged edges when I drag them and the whole desktop just doesnt feel "smooth". i actually worried that i have a virus. i dont even have a image as my background.. just solid black. fresh win7 install.

BUT... when i run AERO desktop (the infamous laggy Aero) i actually have extremely smooth windows and my CPU usage is next to nothing.. maybe 2%. GPU usage is about the same as with non-Aero. i've always run non-Aero because people said it was a CPU hog and im a performance freak. so im baffled by this..

specs:
win7 64bit
AMD 1100t @ 4.1ghz
8gb Gskill Ripjaws RAM
AMD Radeon 6950
Corsair 240gb SSD

 

[kristjan_i]

Prolly because Aero uses GPU rendering and non-aero is a combination of software and CPU rendering, that's only my guess, as my old laptop (pentium M 1.86ghz and Mobility Radeon x300)has non-standard Windows experience (non-aero) and it works fine.
actually, even that laptop runs aero smoothly.

As it is an fresh install you might be missing a few chipset drivers here and there, or something along those lines, i suggest you poke around your component manufacturers sites and update your drivers to try again.

If no avail i'd try to rerun the Microsoft windows experience index and see if any performance figures have changed. If yes (or even not and still lags, as you say), try windows update.


If that doesn't help than i don't know what will. Maybe using Aero experience again, what so bad about it anyway?

In my opinion Aero's great if you have the GPU power to drive it (and really, that's not even a lot asked, if 2 pixel/4vertex shaders running at 250-350Mhz can handle it with 64mb framebuffer). Aero is meant to make things smooth, using slightly (really in your case practically nothing) more resources.

Plus if you run games, it doesn't affect the performance at the slightest, believe me, i tried to play Doom3 with my stoneage laptop.


If you really say that you're a performance freak then you should try playing around with msconfig, rather than disabling things that take up a mild 1-5% of your CPU whilst active and couple of more megs of RAM. Disabling unneccesary services is what you're after for.

 

[thefounderx]

Prolly because Aero uses GPU rendering and non-aero is a combination of software and CPU rendering, that's only my guess, as my old laptop (pentium M 1.86ghz and Mobility Radeon x300)has non-standard Windows experience (non-aero) and it works fine.
actually, even that laptop runs aero smoothly.

As it is an fresh install you might be missing a few chipset drivers here and there, or something along those lines, i suggest you poke around your component manufacturers sites and update your drivers to try again.

If no avail i'd try to rerun the Microsoft windows experience index and see if any performance figures have changed. If yes (or even not and still lags, as you say), try windows update.


If that doesn't help than i don't know what will. Maybe using Aero experience again, what so bad about it anyway?

In my opinion Aero's great if you have the GPU power to drive it (and really, that's not even a lot asked, if 2 pixel/4vertex shaders running at 250-350Mhz can handle it with 64mb framebuffer). Aero is meant to make things smooth, using slightly (really in your case practically nothing) more resources.

Plus if you run games, it doesn't affect the performance at the slightest, believe me, i tried to play Doom3 with my stoneage laptop.


If you really say that you're a performance freak then you should try playing around with msconfig, rather than disabling things that take up a mild 1-5% of your CPU whilst active and couple of more megs of RAM. Disabling unneccesary services is what you're after for.

hey thanks alot for the info. appreciate it. well its a fresh install but im 100% positive that i have the recommended manufactorer's drivers for everything so no worries there.. i checked msconfig as you advised and i did see a few nonessential processes but really nothing that amounted to more than a couple MB of Ram and maybe 1-2% cpu. still seems strange to me cuz while monitoring GPU usage with MSI Afterburner in both Aero and Non-Aero desktop, they show nearly identical usage.

gonna run with Aero and be happy. makes sense that its a negligible performance hog with todays hardware.

cheers