Windowed mode = less fps? ?!

I downloaded CSS on my desktop and i installed it just fine.

When i started playing, preferred in window mode, i get around 20fps.

I switched to fullscreen mode...and i got 100fps.

Whats the deal? I dont understand why im not getting MORE than 100fps in windowed mode.

Dont ask why, i just prefer playing in windowed mode on my desktop.


I also noticed that if i play on windowed mode and i stretch out the game to FIT the whole screen, it gets to 100fps. Even if there is a small gap between my ingame screen and my desktop, it drops to 20 fps..


weird huh?

 

That sounds pretty normal. I think it has something to do with Windows Aero because everytime you launch pretty much any PC game, Windows will automatically switch off Aero to, I guess, get better performance. Though I am curious to find out the "under-the-hood" reason why this happens.

 

playing in Window Mode, compared to Full screen mode will be affected by V-Sync.

at different resolutions and settings of games/applications, V-Sync can be forced to be enabled or disabled depending on the config of game/OS.

 

Ah yes, that is correct. V-Sync is the issue behind it.

 

It also depends what the computer is rendering,. If you have dynamic stuff in the background, the GPU has to render that as well as the game so it's resources will be split.

V-sync is a factor to blame though.

 

This happens to me too when i try play CSS and chat the same time. I dont use V-sync so my guess that it is Aero taking up resources in the background.

 

My desktop computer is running XP , so no aero. And i have V-sync off.

=\

 

v-sync is not off when you are in Window Mode.... because Windows will have control of that, and wont let V-Sync be disabled... so you are stuck to the FPS cap of your display settings' (refresh rate usually).

 

Hmm this will sound weird but turning off HyperThreading(HT), might solve your problem.
Source: http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=150216&l=2

 

i guess that's preety normal,and flipfire has a point, when fullscreen,the resources are focus on the game only, bu when in windowed mode,all the resources are divided to the OS and Game..well,preety much xplain y.

 

Try umm...checking what your CPU usage is when you are in windowed mode and full screen mode. Source games are CPU intensive so it could be either the CPU or GPU to be blamed.

 

it could work,unless ure XP system set to be "cool" with the effects and all, but gaming are supposed to be played in full screen..with is most games are optimized for full screen rite?

oh yea, try disabling ur explorer auto restart on end process..
load ur game in window mode, ctrl+alt+del and end explorer.exe process, i've notice that ir can improve fps and load time for games in windowed mode ^^