Windows 7 Aero Lag

Intel_Hydralisk

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 6, 2005
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The system in question is my work desktop with the following specs:

Dell Optiplex
Core2Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz
Radeon HD 3450
4 GB DDR2 800
250 GB HDD

I recently put Windows 7 on here. Everything went smoothly except for Aero. Aero functions fine, there's just a noticeable lag. It's most noticeable when I'm typing... for example while I'm typing this thread.

I was under the impression that the HD 3450 should be able to handle Aero. A previous install of Vista was on here with home basic so aero wasn't even an option. Everything is smooth and fine with aero off.

Googling turns up mixed results with some claiming ancient graphics accelerators can handle aero. This is the 6th computer I've put windows 7 on (for family / friends), and this is the ONLY one that aero lags on. I built a computer for my mom recently with my old Athlon X2 4600+, 2gb ddr2, and a 8400 GS and it's flawless with aero.

I have the latest drivers from ATI's website for the HD 3450 and as far as I know everything else is up to date as well. Should I just buy a cheap $30 graphics card or is there some way I can fix this on a software level?
 
I noticed a little bit of lag in the window animations.

I just upgraded (clean install though) from Vista x64.

I noticed the small amount of lag in a virtual machine before I took the full upgrade plunge, but I just attributed it to general VM slowness.

Now that I have Windows 7 fully up and running - Vista was smoother. It's a very subtle difference, but it is there.

Q6600 @ 3.6
8GB ram
ATI 4850.

This issue is gaining traction; more and more people are becoming aware of it (either by their own experience or by reading posts like this).

Microsoft (via their support forums) is aware of a possible issue. It's almost not noticeable. But it is noticeable.

People have tried to attribute it to nVidia cards (I have an ATI), slow hardware (nope, try again), user error (I wish. sadly, no way.)

Really, the only reason I notice it, is because I ran Vista x64 for a year. If I had gone from XP to 7, I probably wouldn't have noticed or known any better.
 
I have Windows 7 loaded on 7 different computers now, and all have had Vista installed on them previously. I don't notice any difference in Aero, in terms of lag. Three of those PCs have ATI graphics in them as well.
 
I've installed 7 on nearly two dozen machines now (AMD and nVidia GPUs both desktop and mobile), including upgrades for friends and family. I've NEVER seen this issue. Indeed the GUI in 7 is MUCH smoother for me on the same hardware as Vista on the four machines that I took Vista to 7.

As is Windows, there's something going on with the hardware and software combos. This is a Windows issue per se.
 
I'm starting to wonder if it has something to do with the OS being newly installed and still caching things, etc.

I swear, I noticed it. I thought I was crazy, so I googled. Apparently I'm not the only one.

I will give it a closer look tonight (at work right now, which means I'm on XP... boooo! )

edit:


I'll give it another look tonight... but I tell you what.... I may be wrong. Now that I remember, I also thought the start menu selections (the hi-lighting that goes on when you move from item to item on the menu) was lagging; but that turned out to just be a phenomenon resulting from there being a gap between the menu items in which the arrow does not cause them to highlight when right in between. So, you get a perceived lag when moving from one item to the next (your mind expects it to be instant, but the arrow has to deselect, move across that void space, and then move to the next item, causing a highlight).

Does that make sense? lol.... anyway, that was another thing. Perhaps the first thing (aero window lag) was imagined due to the menu thing...

anyway, like I said, I'm going to look into it further.

I need more coffee. Or maybe I don't.
 
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Sorry to hear about you problem. Perhaps the greatest beauty in 7 is just how SMOOTH everything is now. Overall I would agree than when it comes to synthetic benchmarks Vista and 7 are close in terms of performance.

But in everyday usage 7 is just so much more responsive and fluid it to me is like night and say. It's very hard to explain when you see benchmark numbers that say otherwise and yet 7 just FEELS so much faster. And I'm far from the only one saying this.
 
it's not really a problem, it's just something I thought I noticed.

I'm also someone that never had a problem with Vista x64 (granted, I only started using it after SP1 came out, and I did so with very capable modern hardware, so those things might have played a factor).

I love all the little interface tweaks in 7 over vista, and I especially like the new taskbar. It's pretty darn cool. I liked the Vista taskbar preview-tab type things, but the 7 taskbar takes it to a whole new level.

I also like how it's easier to naviate a folder hierarchy in 7 in an windows-explorer pull-down menu thing (I think it's called breadcrumbs? or something). They fixed the Vista problems with this, and how Vista would not show you the next folder up in the hierarchy without a fight. At least, I had that problem with Vista lol...

It's little things like that which made me really like 7. I hope this micro-stutter-lag thing is just in my head. I have to say though, I think it might be an animation thing, and not a hardware/software lag. It might be actually that they didn't fully animate the window minimize/maximize motion. In other words, a frame could be missing. Maybe.
 
Sorry to hear about you problem. Perhaps the greatest beauty in 7 is just how SMOOTH everything is now. Overall I would agree than when it comes to synthetic benchmarks Vista and 7 are close in terms of performance.

But in everyday usage 7 is just so much more responsive and fluid it to me is like night and say. It's very hard to explain when you see benchmark numbers that say otherwise and yet 7 just FEELS so much faster. And I'm far from the only one saying this.

Well like I said in my original post, I've installed win7 on 6 different machines and this is the only one thus far to have this aero lag. It is also the machine with the 'weakest' graphics card, with the next weakest one being a 8400 GS that handles aero flawlessly. I'm most likely going to end up just picking up a cheap PCI-E card and replace this HD 3450 that came with the dell.
 
Well like I said in my original post, I've installed win7 on 6 different machines and this is the only one thus far to have this aero lag. It is also the machine with the 'weakest' graphics card, with the next weakest one being a 8400 GS that handles aero flawlessly. I'm most likely going to end up just picking up a cheap PCI-E card and replace this HD 3450 that came with the dell.

I have an old AGP X1950 in an Athlon 64 3200+ and its pretty smooth, better than Vista overall. IE 8 is little sluggish with scrolling. But what funny is that my cheapo Intel 945 integrated graphics which should be slaughtered by an X1950 works better.

Driver, baby drivers.
 
I'm running a Dell Optiplex 360 with an ATI 3450 in it, and Vista's Aero, along with Windows 7's Aero have both worked very smooth, without any lag or stuttering.
 
after I installed 7 last night, and I installed my chipset drivers, I installed the latest ATI catalyst drivers without a thought. I had been running a much older driver version on Vista x64.

I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. Never know I guess....
 
I have definitely noticed this on 7. It's not very noticeable, but it's not as smooth as Vista was. I expect it's a driver issue.
 
I have definitely noticed this on 7. It's not very noticeable, but it's not as smooth as Vista was. I expect it's a driver issue.

I have noticed it but it usually happens to me when I am running f@h gpu, I noticed it most when I am also playing video's at the same time.
I remember when I first started running vista 64bit before sp1 or 2 it had the same problems, but after a few driver revisions the lag or studdering was fixed. So I hope that after a few driver updates the problems will be solved.
 
just got home, and I'm not noticing it right now.... and I'm even running a .rar password cracker full-force in the background (it's really only using 1 of my 4 cores though).

I don't know... I guess either it was my imagination (I dunno about that), or now I haven't used Vista for over 24 hours so I have forgotten if it was smoother.... I'm not sure.

I swear though.... I noticed something.... and I hadn't ever read anything about it, to form a preconceived notion.

twilight zone...
 
okay... I take it back... I am noticing a small weird thing with some of the animations... don't know if it's lag, don't know if it's just time you have to wait for the animation to complete.... all I know is I didn't see that in Vista.

one thing that bugs me (it shouldn't, but it does), is that when you are moving your mouse through a menu on the start menu, the item will not highlight until you put your mouse cursor over the item - not at the edge of it. that's probably how it should be, but it introduces a strange tracking delay on the highlighting if you move your mouse fast.

nitpicking? yeah, wanna fight about it? :p

edit:

yeah, okay, confirmed. it's there. open a folder on your desktop. the last frame of animation before it opens all the way.... that animation needs another frame in it before completion. it's not lag, it's just not animated to my (and apparently other people's) liking.

okay, I'm not crazy. this looks like it was put there to make the window "snap." I can see the argument between the developers now:

dev1: "motherfucker, I TOLD you some people wouldn't like this."

dev2: "shut the fuck up, the popping is great."

dev3: "okay, can we go eat lunch now?"

keep in mind, this doesn't happen when maximizing a window - it only happens when opening a folder or something.... alright, that's all.
 
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I have a laptop with an X1300 Mobility and the only noticeable lag is when the screen dims for UAC, even at 1680x1050 (plugged into a 22" monitor via VGA). My desktop lags worse than that when F@H GPU is on, so make sure nothing else is eating your GPU.

I'm on the "it's the drivers" bandwagon...
 
nah, I've pretty much narrowed down my "observation" to non-lag. it's not lag. it's an animation hard-coded into aero that is just different than what I'm used to.

I'm good to go.

as far as the others, not sure. you might be right.
 
I notice this as well, especially when closing a window. It looks like there is a frame missing in the animation. Vista was smooth, same exact hardware. I googled and found others observing this. If it is normal, then I'll get used to it.
 
No lag at all on my desktop system, neither in Vista nor Win7.

Same with my laptop with Intel X4500 graphics in it. If I use Flip 3D with a lot of open windows, it stutters slightly, but there are no delays when actually working with the UI in applications.
 
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