Windows 7 - Caps Video - Uses GPU memory!

Apparently Windows 7 video is capped?

I'm still confused but members that have Windows 7- do a little digging and see.

Quote from a forum;

one big thing no one sees

WIN 7 VIDEO IS CAPPED AND USES VIDEO CARD GPU TO BOOST SYSTEM, WHICH IN TURN . WHERE AS A GTX 295 OR ATI 5870 GET 25-30% LESS FPS THEN ON XP. AND IF YOUR SO SMART ON THE NEWEST AND SUPPOSEDLY THE BEST SEARCH THE WEB AND MICROSOFT FOR CAPPED GPU AND EVEN TRY YOURSELF, YOU WILL SEE.

I have seen a drop myself in FPS with my new system even though my CPU is better.

Blaz, you have dual boot - can you see if you get better FPS in XP than Win 7 for the same game? - would be interesting to know.

Cool

Joined: Jan 11, 2009 Posts: 253 Status: **Offline**

So is it capped by a config file, and can it be uncapped?

Joined: Jan 12, 2009 Posts: 134 Status: **Offline**

The human eye sees at roughly 30 FPS so anything more then that is really a waste of video capabilities. So lets say if you still get 60 FPS with windows 7 and you get 80 FPS with XP your own visual orbs are not capable of seeing the extra FPS that your video card created. Just a little science for the day.

Aw, but if you have a game that in certain spots drop below 30 FPS you'll notice lag and your eyes will see it.
I have a game - Flatout 2 - Ultimate Carnage that runs 60 fps in Win 7 but drops down to 20 in some sections with lots of action.
Now the same game runs in my old system at about 70 fps with XP and during the sections with lots of action only drops down to 30 to 35 fps, so I really don't notice much lag.

This does make a difference to me if Win 7 is using some of my GPU memory and lags the game a bit because of this.

Yes, I'd like to know how to turn it off if possible or is it built right into the kernel of Win 7?

Anyone know? - it's a bit technical I know, but there must be someone who can steer me in the right direction - been Googling like crazy and can't get a straight answer.

Oh well, I turned down the resolution and that seemed to help - not what I was looking for but a fix at least - the game is not as bright at lower resolution and there's no brightness or contrast settings within the game.
If I adjust the monitor brightness, then I screw up all my other games and internet looks washed out. No Nvidia setting brightness or contrast in Nvidia Control Panel for specific games, just other settings like AA, AF
etc.

I'll keep trying to find an answer. Thanks for letting me vent - heh heh!

Laughing

first i have heard of it!, i will see what i can find out my end, even so i like 7, im very happy with it.

Joined: Jan 12, 2009 Posts: 134 Status: **Offline**

Yes if it drops below 30 FPS then you have a problem I agree with that. I wonder if there is a setting to maybe at least use less of the Vid card to boost the FPS in such situations. That might be something to look at also.

Here's an article on Tom's Hardware site - it's an older article prior to the full release of Win 7 but explains how win 7 draws from the GPU.

I have confirmed that my system is using the WDDM 1.1 Drivers so Win 7 is using my GPU memory and that is why I'm seeing a slow down in a couple of games.

Here's the article;

www.tomshardware.com

Hope this helps some Win 7 users when they notice a slight lag in some games.

Now I'm going to try and see if this feature in Win 7 can be turned off as I feel I have enough RAM that Win 7 doesn't need to use any from the GPU.

There is a setting in the Nvidia Control Panel called - Power Management Mode for the video card. Choices are;

Adaptive Mode and Maximum Performance Mode - I'm not sure is this refers to power that the video card is drawing from the PSU or RAM utilization. I have it set for Maximum Performance for the
Game and don't notice any difference.

Cool