Computer's performance is slow message

[Guest]

I've got a 2.33GHz Dual Core, 4Gb RAM and Vista Ultimate - and I often get
messages telling me that the computer's performance is slow and I should
switch from Aero to Basic. Is Aero *that* hungry, or is there something I
can do to lessen the burden?

 

[Jay]

I've got a 2.33GHz Dual Core, 4Gb RAM and Vista Ultimate - and I often get
messages telling me that the computer's performance is slow and I should
switch from Aero to Basic. Is Aero *that* hungry, or is there something I
can do to lessen the burden?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero#Requirements

"a Direct3D 9 compatible graphics processor with a Windows Display Driver
Model (WDDM) driver, Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware, and a minimum of 128 MB
of Video RAM "

 

[On the Bridge!]

xp

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Debbie.

Have you run the WEI (Windows Experience Index)? What does it say about
your Graphics score?

There are several ways to get to the WEI. My favorite is <Win>+Break. That
is, hold down the Windows logo key while pressing the Pause/Break key. This
should pop up the System Properties screen. The WEI is in the middle of
this screen. Clicking it will open another screen showing the details of
the overall score. There are 5 scores for Processor, Graphics, etc., with a
potential maximum of 5.9 for each. You can click "Update my score" to
recalculate all these. My lowest score (with an ATI Radeon X1600 PCIe
graphics card) is 4.6 for Graphics, "Desktop performance in Windows Aero",
and I have no complaints about the Aero performance. My CPU is AMD Athlon
x64 X2 5000+, also with 4 GB RAM and Vista Ultimate x64.

What is your computer's Graphics score? Is this the lowest of the 5
component scores for your computer? Your CPU/RAM/OS sound strong, but you
didn't tell us what graphics card you are using, or if you are using your
computer's integrated graphics.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)