When I move the mouse over the window, the program runs much faster (cc. 3 times). This is a real time webcam .Net/Mono application running on a MacBook. On Windows works perfect. Is this maybe a power saving function of the laptop? The code: Thread t = new Thread(Foo); t.Priority = ThreadPriority.Highest; // I've tried without priority too, doesn't matter t.Start(); ... void Foo() { while (true) { ++k; // then write k to the window somehow } }