Windows 7 RC Performance


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I am not sure if this is a performance issue per se, but I thought I'd make a quick post to see what you all thought. My initial thinking is it's just a video driver that will most likely be resolved once the OS hits RTM and the WHQL drivers start getting released.

Anyway, here is the issue. It's extremely minor, but not something I am used to seeing and it caught my eye right away.

When I any window, it seems to open really smooth onto the screen. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's one window or several.

When I go to close the window, it seems to hitch for a split second before closing. I have the latest NVIDIA Beta Drivers for Win7 (185.81 I think). It doesn't matter whether it's an application window, a library window, or a dialogue box, it's doing the same thing.

Not a major problem, just wanted to get some thoughts on this. My specs are below.

AMD Phenom II X4 940 (not overclocked)

4GM OCZ DDR2 800 RAM

EVGA Geforce 280 (vanilla clocking for now).

All drivers are up to date (although I do have 2 devices listed under Other Devices a co-Processor and an Unknown Device) One is related to Power Management. I am going to try and install the latest NForce motherboard drivers to see if that fixes it).

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

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That's just because when it's in an animation the blur gets turned off, it's just fully transparant. You can look at this effect better if you enable the slow aero on shift-trick (google).

If it's something else it's not happening here on 185.81 with my 8600GTS (desktop)...

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...it's not happening here on 185.81 with my 8600GTS (desktop)...

Not happening here either. 185.81 - Nvidia GeForce 9800GT

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When I go to close the window, it seems to hitch for a split second before closing.

I know exactly what you mean and I've noticed it on every installation of W7 I've come across, be it Beta, RC, a build between, with ATI or nVidia and different drivers (for example the new one from ATI). Doesn't matter. It's very subtle so it's not suprising a lot of people don't notice it but right now I'm pretty sure it happens everywhere. It's a very quick jump at the beginning of the animation or the end if you open a window, as if a few frames are skipped. It doesn't happen when a window gets minimized or maximized (at least I don't notice it) and it doesn't happen with Vista. I really hope they fix this because it's slightly annoying.

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I feel it too , ati user here ... 1-2 frames at max missing . And another problem...this time a nasty one . When i put a wallpaper with "set as desktop wallpaper" or from personalize , the quality of the image drops , i use photoshop and have an eye for compression artifacts , it looks like if a put a PNG as wallpaper ,windows makes it JPG with lower quality. Compare the wallpaper with the origial picture. ( try with gradient pictures or high contrast lines)

If you use irfanview and set a picture as wallpaper from there, the problem is gone, the image looks good.

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Still happening to me with the latest Win7 WHQL drivers. At least I have a few people who are seeing it. I'm not sure if I should file a bug report with Microsoft, or what. Hopefully it's something that will be fixed in the final release. Like other have said, it's very subtle and would be hard to pick up on if you're not looking for it.

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well I had this same issue on Windows 7 Beta build 7000. I found this solution, Go To "Performance Options" and deselect "Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing". Try this and You won't see any effects, but the response is fast. Anyways, Im going to try new Windows 7 RC 7100 and see how it works!!!

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Well, I've opened and closed loads of Windows now trying to see what you all mean, I don't see anything wrong. I'm using WDDM 1.1 display drivers though. As far as I'm aware is that with WDDM 1.1 drivers, Windows doesn't need to keep the windows in the main system memory any more, everything is held on the GPU memory (WDDM 1.0 had to keep the windows in both the GPU and system memory), maybe because I'm using WDDM 1.1 drivers that I don't see this issue because the computer doesn't need to sync the windows with the system memory?

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Well, I've opened and closed loads of Windows now trying to see what you all mean, I don't see anything wrong. I'm using WDDM 1.1 display drivers though. As far as I'm aware is that with WDDM 1.1 drivers, Windows doesn't need to keep the windows in the main system memory any more, everything is held on the GPU memory (WDDM 1.0 had to keep the windows in both the GPU and system memory), maybe because I'm using WDDM 1.1 drivers that I don't see this issue because the computer doesn't need to sync the windows with the system memory?

I'd say that's quite possible. I'm using Wddm 1.1. drivers as well and don't see the bug either.

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I too have noticed this with every build, and am using Nvidia's 185.81 drivers w/ 9200M GS. Does not occur w/ Vista. Don't know what could eliminate that (although it is slightly better with the RC...)

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I have a Geforce 9800GT and when using 185 WHQL drivers and previous beta drivers, Playing games like Counterstrike Source i sometime get screen flickers, not all the time but every now and then, I would say it has something to do with the Windows 7 drivers because i have used previous Vista WHQL drivers without any flickers.

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maybe because I'm using WDDM 1.1 drivers that I don't see this issue because the computer doesn't need to sync the windows with the system memory?

That's not it, I'm using WDDM 1.1 and see the stutter. And it isn't there in Vista.

As I'm still pretty sure that this happens on every machine and some people just don't notice it, is there someone here who noticed it on one W7-PC but not on another, so we can be sure that it's not a universal problem?

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When i put a wallpaper with "set as desktop wallpaper" or from personalize , the quality of the image drops , i use photoshop and have an eye for compression artifacts , it looks like if a put a PNG as wallpaper ,windows makes it JPG with lower quality.

This happens in Vista too.

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That's not it, I'm using WDDM 1.1 and see the stutter. And it isn't there in Vista.

As I'm still pretty sure that this happens on every machine and some people just don't notice it, is there someone here who noticed it on one W7-PC but not on another, so we can be sure that it's not a universal problem?

I have commented about this same problem in another thread. From my personal experience, out of the 4 computers that I have tried win7 on, all exhibit this problem. What I have realised is that a lot of the people just can't seem to notice the missing frames in the opening/closing animation (eg. some of the people to whom I tried to show the problem and also from the general feedback or lack there of about this issue). I guess it is similar to the fact that most people are not bothered/don't notice the judder in films (mostly noticeable on scene panning), where as for me to be able to enjoy a film it has to be played back on hardware capable of 1080p24 (for bluray content) or in case of dvds it had to be pal versions since they were converted from 24 to 25 fps (which made them playback smoothly on pal 50hz tvs).

I sure hope they do fix this however as there is no reason why this should happen in win7 when it wasnt a problem in vista. Also, wddm1.1 drivers make no differnce whatsoever as all the 4 different video cards I have currently install wddm 1.1 drivers by default anyway. Putting vista drivers also makes no differnce.

Edited by vask
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I feel it too , ati user here ... 1-2 frames at max missing . And another problem...this time a nasty one . When i put a wallpaper with "set as desktop wallpaper" or from personalize , the quality of the image drops , i use photoshop and have an eye for compression artifacts , it looks like if a put a PNG as wallpaper ,windows makes it JPG with lower quality. Compare the wallpaper with the origial picture. ( try with gradient pictures or high contrast lines)

If you use irfanview and set a picture as wallpaper from there, the problem is gone, the image looks good.

Haven't seen that hitch on closing/opening windows as of yet. In no build, with no driver. But as far as wallpaper quality goes, windows converts bmp's and png's (as well, as far as i know) into jpegs, so your best bet would be to save your wallpaper as jpeg in photoshop with maximum quality (11 or 12, that is). Itll leave it alone then.

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Haven't seen that hitch on closing/opening windows as of yet. In no build, with no driver. But as far as wallpaper quality goes, windows converts bmp's and png's (as well, as far as i know) into jpegs, so your best bet would be to save your wallpaper as jpeg in photoshop with maximum quality (11 or 12, that is). Itll leave it alone then.

As far as I know, it only converts .png, but leaves .bmp alone.

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