Do live wallpapers slow down your PC?
In short: every animation has a cost, but a well set up wallpaper should not get in the way of work or games. Most of it depends on the type of wallpaper and on whether the app knows when to stop.
What uses the most
Video wallpapers mostly decode a clip, and most modern graphics cards do that in hardware. Wallpapers generated live, such as shaders and simulations, draw every frame on the graphics card. Simple scenes are light, while large particle simulations can be demanding, especially on laptops with integrated graphics.
Pausing is what matters
The key is that a wallpaper should not run when nobody is looking at it. Aurolis pauses the animation during games, on a locked screen and when running on battery. You can also add your own list of apps that should pause the wallpaper.
How to lower the load
- On a laptop, choose minimal or calm wallpapers.
- If the fans speed up, try a different wallpaper. The differences can be large.
- On a weaker PC, start with simple scenes rather than particle simulations.
- Open Task Manager and compare CPU and GPU use with and without the wallpaper.
What about games?
While the wallpaper is paused it draws no new frames, so the graphics card can focus on the game. If you still notice a drop, add the game to the list of apps in the pause settings.