My CPU right now with Aero and DeskScapes disabled is 0%

Without Aero, its 0%

I have a Intel 6700 Core Duo. My CPU utilization hovers around 5% running @ 1920x1280. If the final DreamScene has more GPU optimizations that would be outstanding, but I can't imagine the utilization would drop much for me.

Also, keep in mind that any animated background relies on your video driver performance, even without GPU optimizations. If you have a beta video driver or one that is having issues you could very well see high CPU utilization as a result.

Im not using a beta video driver...

but now my total resolution is 2560x1024.

I might be wrong, but I thought that's exactly what MPEG hardware acceleration on graphic cards is for. To take over decoding operations so the CPU doesn't have to do anything with the video itself.

Hi guys

I am running a intel core 2 duo 6400 (2.13GHz) with 2GB of RAM with an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (256MB)

I also running dual monitors (main DVI and 2nd VGA) both at 1280 x 960

I have Dream Scene running across both monitors with no hassles. The .dream format files play smoother than the large WMV files. the smaller WMV files play fine as do the Mpeg2 files. Processor usage is between 8 and 20 percent whilst not doing much.

I noticed Vista downloaded new drivers for my monitors, and new drivers for my graphics card a week ago.

Also worth noting that I upgraded from 1GB of RAM and a 128MB grpahics card a few weeks back as I found Vista ultimate with Aero running on dual monitors didnt cope with the orignal setup. Things were slow, the mouse and keyboard had lagging and repeated key errors and video would stutter when email and web applications were open. Once I upgraded the RAM and Graphics card everything started running smooth.

Everything from office to itunes, CAD programs and web applications are all working fine and Dreamscene is fantastic now

Hope this helps

SMILE

Im not having ANY problems with Aero...As a matter of fact, Vista runs much faster than XP did on this sytem...and I just updated DreamScene (using the Earth dynamic wallpaper now), and my CPU is running at 3%. I'm good now.

To add to velveticecream's observations I started with an intel (dual core 2.8 GHz)dell XPS system, 4GB DDR2 and a NVIDIA 7900GTX/GKO with 512MB. Admittedly I was trying to run a 30" and a 24" dual monitor setup with independant configurations in full VISTA AERO minus the dream scapes. Each time the main monitor's appearence changed to enhance the action which required a response to the User Account control's request, The video card could not handle the change and one of the monitors would become a 60 cycle/sec pixelated mess requiring a reboot. This was independant of the resolutions being used. Disconnecting one monitor eliminated this problem. disabeling the UAC caused the problem to occur less frequently but far to often to permit using VISTA as it was meant to be used.
Determined to have both of my monitors I changed to an NVIDIA 8800GTX 768MB DDR3 PCI-Express X 16 graphics card, only to find that it required a Dual Power source which was capable of supplying at least 500Watts. Dell does not offer anything above 375Watt so I purchased an Antec TRUEPOWER TRIO 550WATT PSU and now everything runs like a dream. VISTA with AERO activated is a power hungry program and the size and numbers of the monitors among other things will determine how many of its features can be used. CPU usage at 15 - 20 %

i haven't been above 10%.......even when installing appolications

I dont understand what all the probs are I have a fairly old PC running vista ultimate (an intel 805d 2.66x2) with 1.5Gbs of DDR ram and an AGP 7600... I have no problems with anything I was even playing Lost planet without issues?? Im begining to this all these new Processors etc are slowing your machines down...

everything was fine after i updated the app