[EMK0]

Windows 7
ATI 5400
Dharma RC2

For a while now XBMC was soo sluggish in the UI for example if i hold down arrow on my keyboard in a 300 movie list the fps would drop to 5 and it would skip and move down really slow. I thought a SSD would help but it didn't so i tried XBMC live and wow that was super smooth no fps drop. I tried everything on windows and i couldn't find anything that helped until i tried to run xbmc in windows xp service pack 3 compatibility mode and it now works just like XBMC live. DXVA 2 still worked as well so this looks like what i will use until i figure out whats going on.

just wondering if anyone else has this problem and why does this work?

[mitul103]

That sounds identical to the problem I experienced a long time ago (and was fixed back then), and that seems to have resurfaced in Dharma:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=59498

The problem seems to be with the Windows scheduler and the solution was to lower the thread priority for XBMC background threads. Currently in Dharma, I have to compile my own versions using idle thread priority to get GUI performance on Windows equivalent to the Linux version as detailed in that thread. I'll have to try that Windows XP compatibility mode fix to see if it works for me. It would be easier than compiling a new version every time I upgrade.

[EMK0]

That sounds identical to the problem I experienced a long time ago (and was fixed back then), and that seems to have resurfaced in Dharma:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=59498

The problem seems to be with the Windows scheduler and the solution was to lower the thread priority for XBMC background threads. Currently in Dharma, I have to compile my own versions using idle thread priority to get GUI performance on Windows equivalent to the Linux version as detailed in that thread. I'll have to try that Windows XP compatibility mode fix to see if it works for me. It would be easier than compiling a new version every time I upgrade.

yes this looks like the same problem because i could as well disable fanart and it would then scroll smoothly. I tested some more and i think its only good if u use windows xp compatibility, vista compatibility will have the same slow gui.