Windows Hardware Acceleration

[J. Baker]

After working on a new app, using the CanvasGadget(), I noticed the flickering and slow refresh rate on Windows 7. Dragging images around on the canvas look bad. I haven't had this issue on Windows XP or even OS X. So I did some investigation and found that Windows 7 hardware acceleration, is a lack thereof. Something changed in the WDDM driver version after 1.0 and it is just not the same. Granted I haven't done any test in Windows 8 or 10. I don't really care for them but I did find the fix for Windows 7. I swapped out my Nvidia GT 720 for the ATI 9250 and problem solved. I have hardware acceleration again and the CanvasGadget() now works great.

The problem with that is, you can not tell your customers to go and get an older graphics card, so your apps works properly. Anyways, I will have to do some test on Windows 10 and see if there's an issue there too. Anyone else run into this issue on Windows 7, 8, or 10? Mainly graphics moving on the canvas or slow GUI refresh rates.

[yoxola]

Win 8/10 have a new video driver architecture called "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" which is a fallback for temporary video driver and performed better. And Win10 actually try to install WDDM driver when you're online.

And you can try your program on a VirtualBox to see if it works as expected.

[J. Baker]

Thanks for the info. My kids have Windows 10 computers but I haven't got around to testing anything on it yet. Maybe later today.