Low 2D performance on windows 7

[ilza]

Hi there.
At first I want to say a great thanks to all the creators and developers of this awesome Passmark Software.

Not far ago I have updated my system from Windows Vista SP1(64bit) to Windows 7 7600.16385 build(64 bit).

And I have got a problem. Before OS update I have made a full benchmark on Vista on Passmark 6.1(64 bit), and after installing Windows 7 on the same hardware I made another benchmark.Also the Passmark 6.1(64 bit) too.

And what I have got? All the results were incredible(almost all tests went more good, fast and etc.) EXCEPT the 2D TEST.

The results of 2D TEST seems really suspicious for me(all results on Win7 were almost 50% decreased compared to the same ones on the Vista SP1 )
For example:

WINDOWS VISTA SP1 64bit
Graphics 2D - Lines: 132.5
Graphics 2D - Rectangles: 92.1
Graphics 2D - Shapes: 57.3
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text: 343.0
Graphics 2D - GUI: 276.2


WINDOWS 7 7600.16385 64 bit

Graphics 2D - Lines: 67.6
Graphics 2D - Rectangles: 86.9
Graphics 2D - Shapes: 25.8
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text: 274.1
Graphics 2D - GUI: 129.7


if that helps you - Passmark 7.0 2D test on WINDOWS 7 7600.16385 64 bit

Graphics 2D - Solid Vectors: 4.7
Graphics 2D - Transparent Vectors: 4.5
Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors: 103.2
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text: 134.3
Graphics 2D - Windows Interface: 75.4
Graphics 2D - Image Filters: 284.3
2D Graphics - Image Rendering: 360.0
2D Graphics Mark: 543.3
PassMark Rating: 1162.7





Video driver:
DESCRIPTION: ATI Radeon HD 3850
MANUFACTURER: ATI Technologies Inc.
BIOS: 113-AB37302-100
DATE: 8-13-2009









Can you help me with this problem?

Thanks, ilza.

[Michael (Passmark)]

We haven't done any comparisons using PT6 between Vista and Win7. However we have noticed a drop in performance between them using PT7.

Have a look at this thread, another user who was particularly concerned about this issue even made a video about the real world impacts.
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2233

We also have a more detailed write up here;
http://www.passmark.com/support/perf...erformance.htm

In short changes in Win7 have heavily impacted the kind of artificial benchmarks that PT does. The real world impact of these changes may be beneficial in some cases and detrimental in others, but the average windows user probably won't notice much difference.

[ilza]

thanks

Thanks for your reply!
It is really clear and informative.
I should have looked more patiently through your forums before posting my thread. Sorry.




Cheers, ilza.

[crazyhorse6621]

Solution to Poor 2D Performance on Windows 7

When I initially got my Sony Vaio VPCFM136FM, i ran a baseline benchmark of PT 64x, and got a score of around 1600, very fast for an i7-laptop.

However, after a few software installations, i've lost tracked, i couldn't get the score anywhere near 1200....

After almost a month of trying uninstalling software, Video driver, OEM driver for the video card,etc...,, I was not able to get the score more than 1200.

Finally, i did more online reading and research and found this link.. Gave it a shot, an my score is back to 1600 now.
2D solid vector and Transparent vector tests went from 0.65 to 4.5+.

I think this is the solution you are looking for. Although, I did not turn off all the background services as suggested, the key, I think is disabling Aeros. But, here is a checklist of 11 items to try. I only did 5 of them, and very happy to get 1600 back now.
http://mintywhite.com/windows-7/7maintenance/11-ways-improve-performance-windows-7/

[David (PassMark)]

There is also a more comprehensive list here,
Common reasons for a PC running slowly

Most of the comments on the Mintywhite site are OK. But some don't make sense. In particular "Check for Bad Memory Sectors" doesn't make sense. Memory doesn't have sectors, and bad RAM will not in general cause a PC to be slow. It will make it unstable however (as crash it). Which is not the same as slow.

[crazyhorse6621]

yes, some of the suggestions are very trivia, just to improve overall performance of windows 7, not specific to 2D performances. But, I went through some of them, and it fixed my 2D Solid and Trasparent vector scores.

To be more specific, the ones that I did from http://mintywhite.com/windows-7/7maintenance/11-ways-improve-performance-windows-7/ are:
4. Disable The Search Index Service

6. Optimize Visual Effects

and
7. Turn off Windows Aero


I hope that helps

[David (PassMark)]

Turning off the search index service won't effect 2D performance at all. Shouldn't impact much at all in fact as it should only run in the background.

[crazyhorse6621]

agreed. I just did not know how much CPU power it would hog, so i played it safe.... In my opinion, probably only need to perform 6. I did all 3 before re-running my testing.