minimizing games instantly

[mbevolution]

this may be a stupid question but it's bugging my mind for a while.

whenever i play fullscreen games, when i press windows key or alt tab to get back to windows, there is always a black screen that lasts about 2 sec. if it's not fullscreen then there is no lag. also when i reclick back into the game, again there is the 2 sec of darkness.

im not sure if anyone else had experienced the same problem before, one of my friends laptop 3 years ago minimized fullscreen games instantaneously so i doubt it's a speed thing, i think it has more to do with settings.

anyways, if anyone has a fix for this and is willing to share, I owe you a beer

 

[Maximilian]

If its an ATI card then its to do with refresh rates changing, i get that too its a pita... Never found a solution. Keeping the game and desktop at the same refresh rate works sometimes but thats easier said than done as not all games have that option and even if they do it only seems to work on some game and not others.

ATI just need to fix the way this works, nvidia cards dont have this problem i gather.

 

[SonicIce]

yea something to do with changing resolution/refresh rate. if you keep the game and your desktop using the exact same then it usually won't have the delay. also get the latest drivers.

 

[mbevolution]

i see, thx guys. i'll try to mess around with the game settings, my old 7900gtx does the same thing so prolly its not just an ati card thing.

 

[novasatori]

You could also try enabling Aero if you don't have it enabled, and your game resolution == desktop resolution.

If you're on XP or without Aero, its normal, the OS has to switch GPU rendering mode.

 

[lurk3r]

It won't all be graphics card either, your monitor takes time to switch modes.

 

[borisvodofsky]

this may be a stupid question but it's bugging my mind for a while.

whenever i play fullscreen games, when i press windows key or alt tab to get back to windows, there is always a black screen that lasts about 2 sec. if it's not fullscreen then there is no lag. also when i reclick back into the game, again there is the 2 sec of darkness.

im not sure if anyone else had experienced the same problem before, one of my friends laptop 3 years ago minimized fullscreen games instantaneously so i doubt it's a speed thing, i think it has more to do with settings.

anyways, if anyone has a fix for this and is willing to share, I owe you a beer

YOU NEED MORE F-ing RAM, jeeeeessus

 

[Barfo]

I don't have this problem.

 

[EarthwormJim]

This problem went away with Vista and Windows 7 for me with Aero enabled. Provided that my game resolution and desktop resolution were identical.

 

[Nik]

It's a CPU speed issue.

 

[TecHNooB]

I thought it had to do with switching between 2D mode to 3D mode. Windows Vista/7 shouldn't have this issue if you have aero enabled.

 

[Howard]

I run my games in full-screen windowed mode whenever possible. Tabbing in and out is nothing remarkable (a good thing).

 

[tokie]

I have this problem with TF2, even with Aero enabled. Alt-tabbing out is fine, but getting back in the game takes a good while. Supposedly this has to do with the video memory being flushed when the desktop appears (ATI card).

 

[EarthwormJim]

I have this problem with TF2, even with Aero enabled. Alt-tabbing out is fine, but getting back in the game takes a good while. Supposedly this has to do with the video memory being flushed when the desktop appears (ATI card).

Maximizing Source games seems to have this pause, minimizing is instant though for me.