Vista - Same RenderCapability, Different CPU Usage

Hi,

I have two systems:
1)3.6Ghz P4 with an ATI Radeon x300
2)1Ghz P3 with Nvidia GeForce FX 5500

I am using the more powerful system to develop an application that will use
the less powerful system to run it at all times, in a "kiosk" type scenario.
Both systems show a RenderCapability of 2.

While at idle (there are some background animations) the application shows
0% CPU usage on the powerful system, and 30-40% CPU usage on the less
powerful system. My question is: To boost the performance of the less
powerful system, would I want to focus my extremely limited student financial
resources on a better CPU or on a better graphics card? Since they both have
the same RenderCapability, the answer isn't immedietly clear to me.

Thanks!
Avery

Note that graphics cards with renderCapability 2 range in price from around
$70 to over $600, so there is quite a bit of difference in
performance/quality, supported resolution, and scalability between them.
But don't go buying the most expensive card without doing some profiling
first!

You didn't say how much memory you have on the systems, that may be useful
info as well.

One quick test may be to swap the graphics cards between the machines if
possible (although perhaps the 5500 is AGP and the x300 is PCIe, right?).
If the slow machine gets better, then you may have your answer...

Let me check and see what other folks think about this one.

-Pablo

"Avery Z" <AveryZ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4F5D4BA3-D162-4EDD-9FDE-7C961C5E4CFF@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have two systems:
> 1)3.6Ghz P4 with an ATI Radeon x300
> 2)1Ghz P3 with Nvidia GeForce FX 5500
>
> I am using the more powerful system to develop an application that will
> use
> the less powerful system to run it at all times, in a "kiosk" type
> scenario.
> Both systems show a RenderCapability of 2.
>
> While at idle (there are some background animations) the application shows
> 0% CPU usage on the powerful system, and 30-40% CPU usage on the less
> powerful system. My question is: To boost the performance of the less
> powerful system, would I want to focus my extremely limited student
> financial
> resources on a better CPU or on a better graphics card? Since they both
> have
> the same RenderCapability, the answer isn't immedietly clear to me.
>
> Thanks!
> Avery