Effects of having Deskcapes 3 running while playing resource demanding video games on ultra high settings such as StarCraft 2 and Crysis Warhead

from Stardock Forums

Hi Neil Banfield and all other developers,

Deskcapes is an awesome product and I liked it (even purchased it) right of the bat.

What are Deskcapes resource usage of GPU, CPU and RAM resources when playing a game full screen?

I tested playing a full online game (roughly lasted 45 mins full screen of course) of StarCraft2 in high/ultra high combo setting having Deskcapes "solar flare" running. NO noticeable degradation of frame rate. Then I tried to play a second match/game.. in the first 5 mins that's when I noticed an extreme degradation in frame rate from +100fps to 14fps. I left the game thinking the other guys computer was slowing things down. I did a third test online match/game, same thing 12-14fps right at the very start of the game. 

I checked - Win 7 View Performance Details in Event Log

This is what was logged after the tests.

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The Desktop Window Manager is experiencing heavy resource contention.
     Scenario    :    Video memory resources are over-utilized and there is thrashing happening as a result. Reducing number of running programs and open windows may help resolve this condition.

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Is Deskcapes 3 OK to use when you play resource demanding games?? Isn't Deskcapes 3.0 suppose to Not use resources such as RAM, GPU, CPU when a window is full screen??

My setup:

CPU - Intel mobile core i7 Q820

GPU's - ATI Radeon mobility 5870 in crossfire

RAM - 8gb

OS - Win 7

I really like Deskcapes 3. It would be a shame if I will have to unistall it because I Primarily use this laptop for games. I'd really appreciate some help.

-Franc

deskscapes
4,838 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Are you running the games fullscreen or in a window? Also are you using Deskscapes 3.2?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm running the game full screen and I'm sure I have Deskcapes 3.0 (not really sure) I just bought this from Stardock yesterday

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Deskscapes should pause when running fullscreen games. This doesn't happen when running games in a window.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Ok. So just to clarify. Your saying that Deskcapes does not use RAM, CPU and GPU resource during full screen gaming.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Deskscapes will use RAM so long as it's loaded, however it shouldn't use any significant amount of CPU/GPU when paused.