Preventing F@H GPU client from killing Win7 GUI performance?

[Elledan]

As said, when I launch the GPU client on my AMD 4450e system to fold on the GTX275 the Windows 7 GUI becomes very nearly unresponsive, with seconds of lag between opening menus, switching windows and such.

I already switched to the Windows Classic theme and disabled PhysX and all fancy UI effects. CPU usage is around 15%. Anything else I can do?

 

[APOLLO]

I see this happening on my Win 7 systems more than the XP systems running GPU clients. I don't exactly know the reasons but I was informed in another thread that Win 7 relies more heavily on GPU power for its GUI, even if you revert to the classic theme. What can be done to minimize lag is a good question and hope someone has useful suggestions.

 

[SmokeRngs]

Actually, I think I figured out your problem. Or at least the cause of it. You'll have to run the Aero theme or Aero glass or whatever. I don't have 7 installed at the moment as I'm stuck on Vista so I don't remember the exact name of the theme. However, I just changed to the classic Windows theme on Vista and I started having the same problems with non-responsive GUI as you are having.

I thought I had seen this before and I have. When Aero crashes on Vista (which is does all too often although not as bad since I switched nVidia drivers) the theme reverts back to Windows Basic if for some reason it can't restart Aero properly. Anyway, the GUI is almost totally non-responsive when this happens until I restart the DWM service and Aero kicks back on.

Try changing back to Aero Glass to see if this changes anything. I know it's annoying and I actually prefer the Windows Classic look myself but there's nothing to be done about it that I know of. It's extremely irritating and it would be nice if there was a fix.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

never had this problem folding with my gtx 260.. just make sure that the GPU clients set to idle priority mode.. and im running dual monitors with ultramon which allows me to transfer windows between screens with a click of a button and had no lag problems.. hell i had more problems with windows xp and my 8800GT folding then i did with windows 7 which is hardware accelerated.. the only other suggestion would be that your cards if overclocked are overclocked to high which is causing a stability problem within windows.. this was the problem with my 8800GT in windows xp.. folded perfectly fine at 760/1890/1050 but caused windows to lag like a mofo but was fine at 736/1836/1050 but the 400-600 ppd i was losing was more important then waiting a couple extra seconds to load stuff for me.. this might be the same thing happening to you if your gtx 275 is overclocked..

 

[APOLLO]

never had this problem folding with my gtx 260.. just make sure that the GPU clients set to idle priority mode.. and im running dual monitors with ultramon which allows me to transfer windows between screens with a click of a button and had no lag problems..

Well, the problem with idle priority mode is any CPU client will affect GPU performance dramatically. I have never been able to run CPU and GPU clients concurrently with the GPU set at idle priority whether it was XP, Vista or Win 7, and whether it was the nVidia client or Ati.. Now, if one runs only GPU client(s), then that's an entirely different story...

...hell i had more problems with windows xp and my 8800GT folding then i did with windows 7 which is hardware accelerated.. the only other suggestion would be that your cards if overclocked are overclocked to high which is causing a stability problem within windows..this was the problem with my 8800GT in windows xp.. folded perfectly fine at 760/1890/1050 but caused windows to lag like a mofo but was fine at 736/1836/1050 but the 400-600 ppd i was losing was more important then waiting a couple extra seconds to load stuff for me.. this might be the same thing happening to you if your gtx 275 is overclocked..

I have two 8800 cards at 1890MHz shaders in Win 7 with lagging. No difference when lowered to 1836MHz. When they were running in XP before - no lags. This may also be attributed to driver versions. I think it's safe to assume every system is different. Different cards, different shader clocks, different drivers, different OSes, different GUI settings, etc. When one calculates permutations of all the possible differences in settings, we will rarely see two identically matched systems.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Well, the problem with idle priority mode is any CPU client will affect GPU performance dramatically. I have never been able to run CPU and GPU clients concurrently with the GPU set at idle priority whether it was XP, Vista or Win 7, and whether it was the nVidia client or Ati.. Now, if one runs only GPU client(s), then that's an entirely different story...

I have two 8800 cards at 1890MHz shaders in Win 7 with lagging. No difference when lowered to 1836MHz. When they were running in XP before - no lags. This may also be attributed to driver versions. I think it's safe to assume every system is different. Different cards, different shader clocks, different drivers, different OSes, different GUI settings, etc. When one calculates permutations of all the possible differences in settings, we will rarely see two identically matched systems.

very true.. last drivers i ever used with my 8800GT was the 186.16 drivers.. so far the only decent working drivers ive found for windows 7 is 186.16, 191.07(which i dont recommend because while they work they cause a ton of other issues hardware wise on your system), 196.21, 196.34.. the 195.62 drivers never worked for me.. couldnt even boot windows up with them.. so far im using the 197.13 drivers in windows xp and hating every minute of it.. im probably going back to 196.34 tomorrow.. they have a PPD increase clock for clock from the 196.34 drivers.. but its not worth it since i lose the ability to overclock my GTX 260 any where near what i was able to.. stuck at 600/1404/1100 folding and 600/1350/1161 gaming..

 

[Elledan]

Actually, I think I figured out your problem. Or at least the cause of it. You'll have to run the Aero theme or Aero glass or whatever. I don't have 7 installed at the moment as I'm stuck on Vista so I don't remember the exact name of the theme. However, I just changed to the classic Windows theme on Vista and I started having the same problems with non-responsive GUI as you are having.

I thought I had seen this before and I have. When Aero crashes on Vista (which is does all too often although not as bad since I switched nVidia drivers) the theme reverts back to Windows Basic if for some reason it can't restart Aero properly. Anyway, the GUI is almost totally non-responsive when this happens until I restart the DWM service and Aero kicks back on.

Try changing back to Aero Glass to see if this changes anything. I know it's annoying and I actually prefer the Windows Classic look myself but there's nothing to be done about it that I know of. It's extremely irritating and it would be nice if there was a fix.

Interesting... just switched to an Aero theme (something purple-ish and stuff, yes ) and put the CPU usage slider of the GPU client back to 95% or so and I'm not noticing the horrible lag I used to before. It kind of doesn't make sense that Basic would be more sluggish than the full-blown Aero stuff, but hey, maybe it's a trick to get people to switch or so