Does better GPU make Windows UI look better?

I have no idea if this belongs in hardware, gaming or here, i'll try it out here

I've been wondering this for a long time now, I'm using vista right now and I can switch between integrated and a dedicated graphics card... i don't notice much difference in "aero"...

so my question is, (and this includes windows 7).. do better graphics cards make the UI graphics nicer? for example.. better anti aliasing around windows? nicer shadows?... better transparency for the taskbar? nicer textures? better filtering? etc.etc.

 

I'd say to a certain extent ... If your integrated GPU is relatively recent then you won't see a difference, but if it's some old- GPU then it probably won't even run Aero.

Post # 1,500!

 

If your GPU suports AERO,and other themes and stuff without too much pressure,you will probably not see a graphical improvement if you switch to a bettter GPU.

 

Nope. Once you get to the point where Aero is supported (pretty much everything out there) it does not matter anymore. It is enough.

 

i think that in games, better gpus do better jobs at .. for example, smoothing out corners,

i was just wondering if gpus work on windows' UI and "smooth out corners" and "add shadows/transparency" the same way that gpus do it for games

or.. if it's different.. like everything is prerendered or something.. so it'll look the same on any gpu?

 

It also depends on screens (contrast, response time, refresh rate, resolution settings). The UI looks its best at the screen native resolutions. I go to a college where most of the students have either Vista or 7, they don't necessarily "look" better but some screens seem to make the UI "feel" better.

 

Not any GPU -- there exist some ancient ones that will struggle with Vista or W7. But basically, yes, it doesn't matter whether you're running the modern integrated graphics or a powerful discreet card; Windows will look the same. The reason is that even integrated GPUs are more than powerful enough to render the Windows UI. They're also more than powerful enough for almost all other commonly used applications (with the obvious exception of 3D games, of course).

 

Well, Windows 7 UI looks the same on both my Intel GMA 4500m & Desktop ATI Radeon HD 4770, even at 1920x1080 so as long as you have a newish notebook id say no difference at all.

 

so, those texture filters and antialiasing processes that higher end GPUs use to make games look better aren't used when rendering the windows UI?

(i know most gpus have these features, but i'm assuming that better gpus have more/better filters/antialiasing processes)

 

Nope. Its all done using the same stuff regardless of the gpu.

 

The only difference you even might see is the framerate of Aero itself. On things like the GeForce 6200/6150 (dedicated/intergrated) Aero works, but the framerate that it runs at is noticeably low, especially when you start going past 1280x1024 resolution, all the little animations won't look as smooth as say, a 480 running at full clocks that can run it at 60 fps across multiple displays.

 

oh... does this mean that high end graphics cards dont have any features that allow them to filter textures, antialias, etc. better than non-high end graphics cards? even for games?

if that's true, then does that mean that there is only one way to filter textures or apply antialias?
have the processes used to filter textures / antialias gotten better than they were in the past?

one more question, if, for example, you set custom settings in nvidia's control panel to force anisotropic filtering 16x to be applied regardless of application settings... would this be applied to the windows UI?

 

Why would you need anisotropic filtering for the Windows GUI? Anisotropic filtering is used to create seamless transitions between high resolution textures and low resolution textures when used to portray objects that are far away in video games.

What exactly are you trying to do with your computer? A modern smartphone can handle the Windows GUI. We're not talking Crysis 2 here.

 

Bottom line...this is a 2D desktop with a few fancy features built into it. It kind of looks 3D. But it is not 3D. GPU's are only really useful for 3D. 2D stuff like the GUI is nothing for a GPU to handle.

The GPU does *not* factor into the equation and it does not give you more FPS or better appearance of the desktop.

 

thanks everyone!

and thanks for telling me what anisotropic filtering does

what if i changed my question from anisotropic filtering to antialiasing? so, forcing 16x antialiasing for the edges of windows? or perhaps the edges of fonts? or using supersampling for the aero transparency? or texture filtering for whatever textures there are in windows..

don't these settings apply to 2d?

actually, after looking under nvidia's control panel, i realized that these settings are under "3d settings", so i guess they don't apply to 2d.. just as you said that clears things up a bit

then.. i'm guessing that rendering 2d transparency for aero is different than rendering 3d transparency.. and that for 2d transparency, all gpus do it the same way in windows, just like how all gpus would render.. for example, cleartype the same way

 

That's what we call "ClearType" . Seriously, that is essentially all the AA you can configure.

 

What these guys have said is correct as long as the GPU meets certain requirements. Yes a GPU that is on the bottom end of minimum requirements combined with the minimum recommended system RAM can give a bad user experience. Pauses/stutters. Any current last couple of years should not have issue.

My HD5870m runs it great!

 

I'll throw in my 2 cents...I have a four-year old IBM R52 that runs Windows 7 with all the GUI effects enabled and I haven't noticed a single stutter, render failure, or slowness of any sort. Even with literally dozens of windows open. You'd be hard pressed to find a GPU made in the last few years that can't handle the Windows 7 GUI, heh.

 

Grapic cards "renders" the graphics it doesn't "enhance" it.

 

lol, antialiasing in a Windows theme ^^

It's all just bitmaps, man.

 

so... does this mean that everything is made from prerendered images (bitmaps) and when you use windows DPI scaling, it just enlarges the original image?

does this mean the original images were designed for 96dpi? (the default dpi in windows?)

and... how do they achieve the shadows and transparency with bitmaps? is there any place where i can read more about this or about how the windows UI was designed?

 

Intel GPU, IMO, seen to make the screen quality a little fuzzy. On a notebook like the UL30VT (not known for its screen), an intel GPU look fuzzy compare to a nvidia GPU. Think of it like going from VGA to DVI/HDMI.

However, going from Nvidia to ATI show no difference.

 

You're studying a really insignificant thing, but knock yourself out.

Desktop Window Manager - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Aero desktop uses a subset of the features available on any GPU, even newer integrated graphics chips. It is mostly for scaling and being able to use the fast graphics memory efficiently, and a few very simple transforms. Really, it's not worth stressing about. If your gpu supports Aero it says very little about its gaming capability.