OT: Desktop Size

mjroddy wrote on 10/18/2003, 11:35 AM
I was watching a tutorial last night and they suggested that screen resolution should be 1280x1024 on a single monitor setup.
So I decided it might be cool to bring myself up to that and, after re-arranging all my icons, everything looks cool. But is it possible that the desktop now runs slower?? Does it take more resources or something to have everything at that high-res? It may be my imagination, but menus and such feel like they pop up slower.
Thanks for any advice and ideas. -mjr

Comments

rmack350 wrote on 10/18/2003, 11:58 AM
Yes, a larger desktop could move a bit slower. Depends on the speed of your card, your PC, and the amount of extra fancy effects you're running.

Memory on the card is a relatively mnor issue-I think you can run dual 1280x1024 screens at full color off of 16 megs. All that extra memory holds textures and things for games.

The best thing to do is turn off al the fancy menu effects. That's the biggest drag.

Rob Mack
mjroddy wrote on 10/19/2003, 7:03 PM
Thanks very much for the info.
I'm still waiting to purchase a second monitor for this system. I am running it a 1280x1024 (no effects that I know of) and it just seems that there is a delay when bringing up menus and such. I'll do some more experimenting.
Thanks again. -mjr
TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/19/2003, 9:14 PM
What's your computer specs? I used a P3-667 with 256mb RAM and an ATI8500 LE with 128mb. about 90% of that 128 is for games. My res (then) was at 1280x1024. I never had any slowdowns. Now I'm on an AMD XP 1800, 512mb RAM, same video card. I am at 1600x1200 and don't have 1 slowdown.

2 things that would make a difference would be type on RAM on card (DDR vs SIMM) and the interface (PCI vs AGP). DDR and AGP will be much better then the others.
rmack350 wrote on 10/20/2003, 12:14 AM
Effects might be drop shadows under the cursor, smooth scrolling, menu effects that make it roll down smoothly instead of abruptly.

In XP under system properties/advanced there is a performance button. In the control panel select "adjust for best performance"

Windows Me may do something similar.

Rob Mack