Jerky performance? Vista? Nvidia?

I've seen some posts about video drivers and the SL client on Vista - but I'm having performance issues I can't find any info on and am looking for insights or, at least, commiseration. 8( I'm so frustrated that SL is becoming less and less enjoyable.

Machine specs:
Intel Core2Duo 3.0 ghz
Vista Ultimate with SP1
Nvidia 8600GTS with latest drivers 175.16

Problem:
I can't walk more than about 3 steps without my AV pausing for several seconds... continuing and pausing again after another few steps. This is just an example of overall lousy performance. Another odd symptom is that object rotations do not work. Basically - CPU is always near 100% utilization and the entire SL experience is 'jerky'.

Relevant Info:
I'm a computer geek for a living and have tried all the usual suspects. I've uninstalled/reinstalled the client and the video drivers. I've tried beta and older version video drivers. I've tried the release candidate clients. I've emptied my cache. I've turned all graphics options to the lowest possible settings with no improvement which makes me suspect Vista more than video. This has been going on for weeks now but I don't remember exactly when it started. I've even tried running SL in XP-compatibility mode. I also have a minimal Linux machine and an XP laptop (same broadband internet connection) -- both run SL much better than my primary Vista machine even though they have far inferior specs. Nothing I try seems to even cause an impact... much less an improvement.

Are others having similar issues? Any success with fixes or workarounds?

Thanks.

I'm with you. Horrible performance, running an 8800GT, Vista machine, 3gb of RAM, 5.3 on the "Windows Experience" rating.

I don't know if it's SL itself, my video card, my computer, my internet connection. Just about the time I've decided it has to be me, everyone else starts complaining about SL being slow, laggy, etc, and my doubt resurfaces.

I'm pretty much getting used to this being the state of things

You didn't mention how much RAM you have. I found I needed a lot more when I switched to Vista.

I don't really have much to offer in the way of help other than a *bump*.

I will say that I am using the 8800GT on XP and do not have any major problems. So if it is your computer, my bet would be Vista related rather than the graphics card.

It does seem that SL has slowed quite a bit over the last few months, but everything still almost always runs pretty smooth.

You didn't say whether you was using the 64 bit version of Vista.

I'll answer anyway:

Ugh!!

You might try turning off Aero (the Vista 3d glassy UI), and rebooting. There have been reports on both sides concerning the impact of Aero, particularly with regard to OpenGL and Nvidia. Your mileage may vary, but it's worth a shot.

How would one turn off Aero? And once it's off, how would one turn it back on?

The jerky-ness makes me think its the internet connection.




According to Microsoft:

an I turn Aero off?


Yes. If you see poor display quality using the Aero color scheme, try changing to another color scheme, such as Windows Vista Basic, to see if performance improves.




1. Open Appearance Settings by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, clicking Personalization, and then clicking Window Color and Appearance. If the Appearance Settings dialog box is not displayed, at the bottom of the page, click Open classic appearance properties.

2. In the Color scheme list, select another color scheme, and then click OK.



There's also:

http://www.direct-laptops-guide.com/turn-off-windows-vista-aero.html

Now I feel silly - I didn't realize it was just a color scheme

I had the same problem and I disabled my Windows Desktop Manager. If you go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services, you'll find a list of the services running or available on your computer. Go to Desktop Window Manager Session Manager and right click and go to Properties. You'll need to pick Disable from the drop down menu for Startup Type and then go down and stop the process. You will notice the difference immediately. I was having horrible horrible hangs and when I disabled this, it has not happened since. This service makes your desktop windows look pretty. It also takes up tremendous resources, almost as much as SL did.

Also, I got rid of that useless sidebar, although I doubt that did much.

Thanks for all the tips. I have tried turning off Aero with no improvement. I'm running Vista 32bit with 2GB RAM. I really don't believe it is video related because I've run MANY different driver versions and turned off all the SL glitz with no effect. Video settings and drivers just don't do much of anything - good or bad - and all the video 'bling' in SL seems to work very well for me, regardless.

I work at home so use my computer all day every day for heavy duty database crunching. Yes, I find Vista to be a disappointment in general, but nothing besides SL - including other games like Oblivion - seem to be nearly as problematic as SL has been lately. I was really hoping the Vista service pack might help but, again, I noticed absolutely no difference.

Also - regarding internet connection.... I thought that maybe too so i checked it and it is definitely not that. I am getting really good throughput with no packet loss at all. My laptop and Linux machine use the same internet connection and work great - but they don't have the high-end video I can get on my Vista machine.

Disable your Desktop Manager...really. If it doesn't work, just go back in and restart it and set it to start automatically on startup. But, it will work. I would bet on it. This is different than Aero, btw.

One minor correction on my previous post. Stop the process first and then pick disable from the drop down Startup Type. If you hit disable first, I don't think it will let you stop the process.....ooops.

Yeah.... thanks on the desktop manager. That's what I was just trying. I double checked to be sure it is off after rebooting and it is. I'm afraid it did not help either. I watch task manager to try and see what's going on, and SL is using 100% of both CPUs when it glitches. I've disabled all the non-essential processes I can find and it just does not help. It does not matter where I am in SL. I just bought land in a new sim and where there is virtually nothing happening. The second I start to walk... SL CPU usage jumps to about 98% and stays between there and 100%. the only time it drops is when I'm standing still. I've tried removing all attachments and gadgets.... still with no effect. It has got to be somewhere in the SL client - but I can't see as I'm doing anything that could possibly cause it. I am doing absolutely nothing but virgin SL with no scripted objects.

Running Vista on a Dell XPS 420 quad core with 3gb of Ram and an Nvidia 8800GT (not sure the driver version can check when I get home). SL for me has been almost flawless in the two months with this machine, except an occasional crash. Out of the box everything was fine, all I did though after reading posts was update to the latest driver, and I have since then installed service pack 1.

I have the max settings for all of the graphics and keep my draw around 256m and it has been amazing with performance, unfortunately I am normally on my laptop where i don't go over 64m draw and as striped down as possible. I do isolate SL to one of the 4 processors, have read that this has helped people. Don't remember the specifics how, buts its real easy. I think in task manager just right click on the process and you should see a setting. The one process I do have it on does usually run at close to 100% however.

Thanks. I just tried isolating to a single CPU and no difference.

by the way.... I purchased this machine back in October 2007. It screamed with SL then so I don't think it is hardware-specific. Something changed about a month or two ago and I just can't seem to isolate it. I even had a hard failure and had to reinstall Vista from scratch just about 3 weeks ago. I really thought that might fix the issue - but no difference before and after the rebuild.

I really appreciate everyone taking the time to make suggestions.

are you using the 1.2.r8 beta viewer? I had to switch back to 1.9 because it was producing bad lag and stuttering like you discribe.

The odd thing was it only happened at a friends house .. I imagine it was some script that was running...she has lots of animated objects about her house. when I went to my mundane house that lag and the stuttering cleared up.

When I loaded the 1.9 viewer and went back to her house there was zero lag....so its something in the Viewer

I have a very similar machine to you except I have a 8800GT with 8 gigs of Ram and am running 64bit Vista.

Wipe Vista and install XP Pro, my friend. That's the best advice you could -ever- get.

For myself, I'm slowly migrating entirely to Ubuntu. Goodbye Windows.

I tried both the production and pre-release viewers. Still no difference.

Well --- too late to go back to XP now. The growing consensus is that we've stumbled into the new Windows ME. I'm stuck with MS for work so I struggle along.

If you are in an Openspace region then the jerking is caused by a virtual memory problem in the server code. They are working on it, but it isn't quite nailed yet.

I was having that stuttering issue yesterday on RC and when I tp home it was not there. Then when I was another place it happened mem leaks? So after crashing I never went back to RC and used the standard newer viewer w/o any issues. I have never had any problems w/Vista.
I dont understand why ppl dont like it?

I am by no means a Microsoft fan, but Vista for the most part isn't all that bad. I am a serious computer user and reluctantly went with Vista just so I could get Digital HD cable on my desktop computer at home, and I have been very pleased with it. I also stripped a few things out and have the proper virus programs running. The one problem that windows has is its not intuitive for non-computer savvy people to get to run efficiently, which I think is the big advantage to a Mac.

I have had problems with my Mac also, bu I will admit its usually when running a windows VM

My AV is jerky no matter what region I'm in no matter how busy or empty it is.

As to Vista.... I crunch extremely large MS Access databases for several well-known clients for a living. Vista/Access 2007 is SLOWER to process these databases on my current Core2Duo with Raid0 data drives (appx double throughput) than a 4-year-old laptop running XP/Access2003. I have been using PCs since the first IBM dual floppy at 4.7 mhz came out... before Windows was even an idea. I know how to tweak an OS. My usual beef with MS is that they sacrifice performance and the power-user's experience to TRY and be more intuitive and 'easier' for the less sophisticated user. I'll admit that the performance/ease of use trade-off is a difficult one for any software manufacture -- but, even the Access Team at MS - whom I've e-mailed with - have quietly expressed disappointment. It all depends on what you're using a machine for as to whether or not Vista is a good thing or a bad thing.

I kinda had the same experience. I'm running Vista 64, 4G RAM, nVidia 8800 Ultra, quad core. For some reason SL has been a lot more problematic just over the past month. It doesn't seem to matter which video drivers or SL client I run; a memory leak crashes me in a crowded area within a couple hours. More worrisome, I've seen big funny polygons on a couple of recent occasions, as if the video card were overheating, but the card seems OK -- and runs everything else fine.

Incidentally, I've had very few problems with Vista other than SL. I'm quite pleased with it overall.

u may need more ram. u say u have 2 gig of ram on vista? i have that on xp and i am ok but vista may take more