Display on secondary video card (Nvidia 8400 GS): horrible refresh, bogs system

Posted by minameismud on Super User See other posts from Super User or by minameismud
Published on 2014-08-19T21:11:31Z Indexed on 2014/08/19 22:23 UTC
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This is my work computer, but it's a small shop. We do business software development. The most hardcore thing we create is some web animations with html5 and fancy javascript/css.

The base machine is a Dell Precision T3500 - Xeon W3550 (3.07GHz quad), 6GB ram, pair of 500GB harddrives, and Win 7 x64 Enterprise SP1. My primary video card is an ATI FirePro V4800 1GB in a PCIe slot of some speed driving a pair of 23s at 1920x1080 through DisplayPort->HDMI adapters. The secondary card is an NVidia GeForce 8400GS in a PCI slot driving a single 17" at 1280x1024 through DVI.

On either of the 23" monitors, windows move smoothly, scroll quickly, and are generally very responsive. On the 17", it's slow, chunky, and when I'm trying to scroll a ton of content, Windows will occasionally suggest I drop to the Windows Basic theme.

I've updated drivers for both cards, and I've gotten every Windows update relating to video. Specifically:

ATI FirePro Provider: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc Date: 6/22/2014 Version: 13.352.1014.0

NVidia 8400 GS Provider: NVIDIA Date: 7/2/2014 Version: 9.18.13.4052

Unfortunately, new hardware isn't really an option. Is there anything I can do software-wise to speed up the NVidia-driven monitor?

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