G-force CPU utilization - why so high?

[Mas]

I know that comparing visualization plugins is never completely fair, but I must ask why it is that Gforce seems to require so much more CPU resources over other comperable visualizations systems.

A good example is Milkdrop which can somehow operate at 50% (MAX) CPU utilization while running full screen at 1600x1200. No pixel doubling going on, and there's even a few transparent windows hovering on top.
By comparison Gforce (which looks killer ) kicks up to 100% almost immediately no matter what size or what is being rendered.

Based on the fact that gforce will use 100% CPU even when nothing "complicated" is being rendered, I'm left wondering if this has to do with the rendering surface you are using compared to Milkdrop.

Has this subject been beaten to death already? I think both visualizations are top notch (hey I just registered Gforce so I must like something about it ). I'm just curious if there might be a better method out there that might provide better results (lower CPU utilization).

I'm using a 2800XP on an nForce 2 mobo w/ a 9800XT (CAT 4.10 drivers).

--edit--
Before I make a complete a** of myself - is this a problem that is unique to my system? I dont mean to assume that Gforce is at fault.
--/edit--

Thanks for the great eye candy!!

[JayPro]

Welcome aboard.

Well, to be brief, just about everything you mentioned will become rather moot in a few weeks--knock on wood--with the creation of a new, faster GF processor engine, plus the ability to support OpenGL and other graphics-enhancing apps.

Many of us have found it rather annoying indeed that a killer effect takes so long to get called up, usually because the code that goes into making it is so long (this despite the fact that there are aspects of the GF code that allow you to use variables to avoid redundancy, thus saving CPU power).

It's not your fault for bringing it up. It's a good way to remind ourselves and each other of the thigs to come. In more ways than one, things are gonna get *way* faster.

[Rovastar]

What you see in MilkDrop displays stuff using your 3d graphics card and thus the work the CPU has to do is reduced.

GForce is unusual in modern visualizations in that it does not use the 3d graphics card to work out stuff and it is all CPU based. Winamp's AVS uses the same principle of pure CPU utilization.

Lots of modern visualizations utilize more of teh graphics cards and thus more 3d and generally less CPU power. ALthough it is possible to make stuff that is hight in 3d and also high is CPU usage. Some of my ideas for my next visualization (probably R5) I want to focus more on using CPU calculations interwined with 3d graphics stuff.

[Mas]

Thanks for the responses folks.

I thought that Milkdrop just rendered to a 3d surface, but it wasn't actually performing any D3D or OGL operations outside of that. So in essence its just just using a more efficient method than your standard DirectDraw.