Microsoft to Fix Poor Performance of Multiple-GPU Scenarios in Vista with SP1

Among the performance improvements coming with the release of the first service pack for Windows Vista, Microsoft is also preparing enhancements addressing issues that are associated with the integration of its latest Windows client with multiple-GPU. The Redmond company acknowledged the fact that Vista failed to play well with multiple display adapters. At the source of the problems, there are specific configurations using Linked Display Adapter.

"In some scenarios, games and benchmarks perform more poorly than expected on a Windows Vista-based computer. This issue occurs when the games and the benchmarks use multiple display adapters in a Linked Display Adapter (LDA) configuration," Microsoft revealed presenting the symptoms of the Vista and multiple-GPU issues.

And while the Redmond company has stressed numerous times the increase in relevance of Windows updates vs. the service pack strategy, the fact of the matter is that in this case, a resolve will not be pushed via the update infrastructure. Microsoft does have a hotfix available, but end users will have to specifically request it, otherwise they will not be permitted access.

At the same time, if the problem was not stringent, Microsoft has presented users with the advice to just hold on in there and wait for the delivery of Windows Vista SP1. The integration issues, involving Vista and multiple display adapters, will indeed be resolved with the first service pack for the operating system. All that users have to do this time is exercise their patience, until the first quarter of the coming year.

"A graphics processing unit (GPU) or part of a GPU link may incur a small scheduling latency on a new Direct Memory Access (DMA) packet. This is true if the DMA packet is submitted to the GPU that has previously run out of work and if another GPU in the linked configuration is very busy. In some scenarios, significant starvation of one or more GPUs in the linked configuration reduces the expected performance of an application," Microsoft revealed.