Don't Disable Aero For Increased Performance

[LiquidSolstice]

I hope the majority of you realize that if you have a discrete graphics card of any sort, you should not disable Aero expecting a performance boost. You'll actually get the opposite.

My netbook (which has a discrete graphics card) runs far better with Aero on than with Aero off. There is a good reason for this, but before I go into it, I just want to see how many, if at all, of you made the same mistake, that way I know I'm not talking to thin air.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Of course. Aero is rendered by the graphics card, the ui is offloaded there. If you switch back to classic (non-Aero) then the ui is handled by the main processor again.

I thought this was commonly known?

[LiquidSolstice]

Of course. Aero is rendered by the graphics card, the ui is offloaded there. If you switch back to classic (non-Aero) then the ui is handled by the main processor again.

I thought this was commonly known?

You are indeed correct. I also though it was commonly unknown but recently ran into a thread in which people kept stating they wanted to turn off Aero because "they didn't need that eye-candy slowing down their PC".

You'd be shocked to see how many people think it's wise.

[Descartes]

Yeah, what you say is true.

I only used Basic before I got my HD 4850, the former one was so ****ty that it couldn't even handle Aero (while the other components were actually fairly good :p)

[Rudy]

Performance should be a bit better (probably not noticeable on a recent CPU) but if you're using a portable you'll lose a bit of battery life (not a lot though)

[yxz]

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

And?

[LiquidSolstice]

Good job. You posted a screenshot! Now please tell the class what it's supposed to mean :/

[aexphoric]

I'm curious, what if you got a relatively low end graphics card, would disabling aero help with watching videos such as youtube/DVDs as in will it help reduce the jerkyness?

(Such as a: Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family for the graphics)

[phatphunky]

"they didn't need that eye-candy slowing down their PC".

You'd be shocked to see how many people think it's wise.

Actually, back in the day, that was the first thing you did to improve performance on your computer and if you have friends like mine, they turned it off.

I've since turned it back on, of course, and explained why.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Actually, back in the day, that was the first thing you did to improve performance on your computer and if you have friends like mine, they turned it off.

Luna (XP Themes Service) still put very minimal strain on the system.

[LiquidSolstice]

I'm curious, what if you got a relatively low end graphics card, would disabling aero help with watching videos such as youtube/DVDs as in will it help reduce the jerkyness?

(Such as a: Mobile Intel? 965 Express Chipset Family for the graphics)

Flash (which is what YouTube runs in) is not GPU accelerated (don't quote me on that, I was reading somewhere that it is/eventually will be), so the CPU handles it. I'm not entirely sure if DVD is or not.

@_@ the 965 series is quite old. I remember my old old thinkpad had that chipset.

[Billus]

I thought this was commonly known?

+1 I'm still surprised that some websites and magazines still recommend you disable fancy eye candy to increase performance up to 20%. Back in the XP days, yea, Vista and 7, no.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Correct. (Y)

See: Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM)

[Napalm Frog]

And for those complaining about battery life, leave Aero on, just disable transparency. The way Windows 7 works is that transparency is one of the features linked to your Power Schemes or whatever they are called. I have mine set up to go to transparent as soon as the AC cord is unplugged if I am in Power Saver mode. Although transparency is a component of Aero, transparency != Aero. I think this is where the confusion lies.

[SkyDX]

Oh wow, finally a thread that helps people realizing their mistakes! I admit I believed the same thing in 2007 but soon learned otherwise^^

[cork1958]

Have to admit, this is one I didn't know.

First thing I have ALWAYS done is disable eye candy crap!!

Will give it a shot.

Thanks for teaching an old dog a new thing!!

Edit:

FWIW, this makes almost absolutely no difference what so ever on my Toshiba laptop except that it changed my background and desktop wallpaper, which I HATE MS doing so thusly, I am once again disabling this BS. It's NOT enough of a performance hit one way or the other and I HATE eye candy that is totally frivilous!!

[cork1958]

Have to admit, this is one I didn't know.

First thing I have ALWAYS done is disable eye candy crap!!

Will give it a shot.

Thanks for teaching an old dog a new thing!!

Edit:

FWIW, this makes almost absolutely no difference what so ever on my Toshiba laptop except that it changed my background and desktop wallpaper, which I HATE MS doing so thusly, I am once again disabling this BS. It's NOT enough of a performance hit one way or the other and I HATE eye candy that is totally frivilous!!

For some reason I can't edit my above post so adding another reply.

Well, actually it did change a couple things in the performance options that I don't mind. Windows 7 does run so sweet that memory isn't to much of an issue anymore, unless you have a total lack of it. I downloaded a third party theme that I liked on another computer of mine that enabled Aero also, so I've kind of gotten used to it now. I guess I'll just leave it alone. No hit either way anyway!

[amon91]

I think having Aero on or off on modern hardware is pretty irrelevant, especially with Windows 7 which still shines on any 2-year-old computer out there. I didn't know having it off could actually hurt performance but these days there really isn't any need to run on "low eye-candy" settings, at least from my experience.

[Descartes]

I think a good idea is to enable Aero, but disable all animations (like, maximize and minimize), to improve on sleekiness. Although this might give you a false impression of things being more slow, because when you leave the animations on, stuff loads itself while it occurs, and without animations you can clearly see that stuff still loading.

[LiquidSolstice]

For some reason I can't edit my above post so adding another reply.

Well, actually it did change a couple things in the performance options that I don't mind. Windows 7 does run so sweet that memory isn't to much of an issue anymore, unless you have a total lack of it. I downloaded a third party theme that I liked on another computer of mine that enabled Aero also, so I've kind of gotten used to it now. I guess I'll just leave it alone. No hit either way anyway!

The reason is that Aero itself is a theme. A theme includes everything from window borders, min/max/close buttons, and wallpaper. Switching to Classic or Basic will do the same.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

The reason is that Aero itself is a theme.

Aero is not the theme, Aero is the UI framework, the module of windows that processes the GUI AND the theme!

[LiquidSolstice]

Aero is not the theme, Aero is the UI framework, the module of windows that processes the GUI AND the theme!

What I meant is that he was previously either using Windows Classic or Aero Basic, and he was selecting one of the Aero themes from this group:

Therefore, what I was clarifying was that the reason his wallpaper changed is because any of the Aero themes are actually just a combination of different window colors and a set of wallpapers.

[gian]

But what about games? Is the UI still drawn (but not visible), does it load it to the memory, in any case isn't it better to turn off aero if you are gaming?

[LiquidSolstice]

But what about games? Is the UI still drawn (but not visible), does it load it to the memory, in any case isn't it better to turn off aero if you are gaming?

It all depends on whether or not you have a discrete graphics card and what the specs of that card are.