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Subject:Re: WinWord6 memory issues From:"David L. Bergart" <bodafu -at- CCVAX -dot- SINICA -dot- EDU -dot- TW> Date:Mon, 15 Aug 1994 16:25:08 +0008
John Russell <johnr -at- brs -dot- com> and David M Girardot <dmg -at- PENTAGON -dot- IO -dot- COM>
commented on WinWord6's voracious appetite for resources. In passing, David
said "The older version of the video driver I was using (AT Mach 32 v 2.2.2)
exacerbated the problem...". This is a key point. A good video driver is
essential for the stable operation of MS Windows. A poorly written video
driver can waste enormous amounts of resource memory and then fail to release
it. Until my computer was stolen, I was using a video card from Matrox. It was
very very fast, but the video driver for it caused Word to bring the machine
to it's knees--running Word would consume 60% or more of the resources and
I'd only get about two-thirds of this back when I exited the editor! Now that
I'm back to using a plain et4000-based dumb buffer with a more down-to-earth
driver, Word uses about 15% of the resources and I get it all back when I
exit the editor. The only difference is the video driver.
Fancy video cards and drivers may offer great power, but at a price not
entirely financial.
David (no, the other one)
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bodafu -at- ccvax -dot- sinica -dot- edu -dot- tw