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guino · 06-24-2005, 02:06 PM

High CPU load, Choppy or Slow flash playback AFTER latest flash installed

I recently rebuilt one of my machines at home and since I typically test RR on different machines this one was no exception. Basically, everything worked out flawless, first time (including de video which was the cause of rebuldin the machine). Now to the interesting part: I noticed that in this machine, RR was using about 5% CPU when IDLE (song scroll and flash logo rotating in main menu with music playing). The same state typically runs at 0-1% on my other machines. Now, I knew I had all the latest video drivers and the latest flash player and video playback (DVD/DivX etc) was perfectly fine, so that's when it stroke me that Flash doesn't use ANY hardware/graphics acceleration for drawing images, so it had to be something basic.. so I set the screen to a 16Bit color resolution and tried again and the result was a little better, but like it was before. So I remembered that there are some software updates that VIA puts out to enable/control enhanced AGP interfaces on newer mobos.. sure enough, installed the VIA 4-in-1 Update an set the screen back to 32bit color resulting in Perfect, and lightning fast, Flash playback PLUS 0% CPU usage in RR when idle (as it was supposed to be).

To sum up, if you want to use full res flash, you better have a decent graphics card along with the appropriate VIA/Card Drivers installed or it will use more CPU and look choppy. I can almost guarantee you that some of the most portable and/or cheapest computers/laptops have a real cheap-O VGA card in them (typically with SHARED RAM memory) which will provide you with just-as cheap non-accelerated graphics (which is what Flash uses). In any case, it never hurts to look at your manufacturer's website (or VIA's website) for an update to your AGP/PCI[EX] Interface drivers and update them. Typically windows installs a "standard" interface which works, but it's the same one that sucks CPU and displays choppy 2D graphics.

06-24-2005, 02:06 PM	#2
guino RoadRunner Mastermind Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Vitória, ES - Brazil Posts: 8,047	High CPU load, Choppy or Slow flash playback AFTER latest flash installed I recently rebuilt one of my machines at home and since I typically test RR on different machines this one was no exception. Basically, everything worked out flawless, first time (including de video which was the cause of rebuldin the machine). Now to the interesting part: I noticed that in this machine, RR was using about 5% CPU when IDLE (song scroll and flash logo rotating in main menu with music playing). The same state typically runs at 0-1% on my other machines. Now, I knew I had all the latest video drivers and the latest flash player and video playback (DVD/DivX etc) was perfectly fine, so that's when it stroke me that Flash doesn't use ANY hardware/graphics acceleration for drawing images, so it had to be something basic.. so I set the screen to a 16Bit color resolution and tried again and the result was a little better, but like it was before. So I remembered that there are some software updates that VIA puts out to enable/control enhanced AGP interfaces on newer mobos.. sure enough, installed the VIA 4-in-1 Update an set the screen back to 32bit color resulting in Perfect, and lightning fast, Flash playback PLUS 0% CPU usage in RR when idle (as it was supposed to be). To sum up, if you want to use full res flash, you better have a decent graphics card along with the appropriate VIA/Card Drivers installed or it will use more CPU and look choppy. I can almost guarantee you that some of the most portable and/or cheapest computers/laptops have a real cheap-O VGA card in them (typically with SHARED RAM memory) which will provide you with just-as cheap non-accelerated graphics (which is what Flash uses). In any case, it never hurts to look at your manufacturer's website (or VIA's website) for an update to your AGP/PCI[EX] Interface drivers and update them. Typically windows installs a "standard" interface which works, but it's the same one that sucks CPU and displays choppy 2D graphics. __________________ Road Runner ,RR's Myspace "Being happy is not about having what you want, it's about wanting what you have." "The best things in life are always free - but that doesn't mean money can't buy you good things."