Windows Vista 32-Bit Perormance Decrease After Installing 169.04 Driver Update

so, i FINALLY updated my drivers on my asus g1s notebook with the 8600m gt graphics card after receiving some help on this site and was pleasantly surprised when i played a few games and experienced a definite boost in gaming framerates and the ability to now play a lot of games on higher settings smoother. but, i soon realized i saw a hit in windows performance. for instance, when i minimize and maximize windows, it seems to skip in framerate, showing a hitch in what was once a smooth animation. i'm using aero on a 32 bit vista platform and it used to open and close windows incredibly smooth; however, i played games like crap. the downside now is that it seems like it might even take longer to start up my computer and shut it down. it could be all in my head but i want to know if this is a common problem after installing updates. it's not really an issue, but i would love for it to be the best it could be. i don't game as much as i use my computer for browsing the web and listening to music and the like and it seems like the cons of updating the drivers might outweigh the pros. any help would be MUCH appreciated! =]

as a side note, it seems that when i keep on opening and closing the windows, the framerate eventually evens out and it becomes smooth. i don't know if this will point anyone in the right direction either but when i played the crysis demo on medium settings, it was initially choppy but then became smoother after a few seconds.