Is it true that utorrent will dl faster when minimized to tray?

I watched the total dl speed will become slower when utorrent window is open (gui update 2000ms) from tray.

Nope. It's nothing more than pure coincidence.

µT uses less RAM when minimized to the tray, though (or so I've heard).

@splintax: Yep, it does decrease memory usage, but that shouldn't affect download speed either... (a difference of what, 5 MB?)

I haven't observed yet

and it wouldn't make much sense anyways...it would mean that updating the GUI every 2 seconds would eat up so much power that there wasn't enough left to handle the BT protocoll

I clearly can't see that happen

-DG

Are you saying uTorrent downloads quicker when you're not looking?

it's like a GUI lag, my upload limit on 48KiB and realtime ul rate between 49~47K on µT window open, but if i minimize µT for several minutes then reopen it, the ul rate bump up to 50~54K. i think it's a GUI lag, because my ul rate never up to 52K(far end node) in any clients.

Maybe you should set the GUI refresh faster, then?

Ultima: I know, it's just that I never save any RAM that way. But everyone else seems to...

Is that like kettle watching?

Hmm...

@splintax: Do you minimize to tray by clicking on the tray icon? If that's the case, it doesn't seem to free RAM that way. Any other way (closing with Alt+F4, the X on the top right hand corner, the taskbar item, etc) should clear the RAM. I sorta reported this a few months ago, but it might have gone unnoticed =T

When I first downloaded uTorrent, I thought it might have too. In theory, it is possible. It doesn't affect any other client, but uTorrent is so little and uses so little RAM, it might just be possible its algorithm would try and save RAM while the GUI is up by reducing something related to the BT process.

A problem with BitTorrent is that it is particularly finicky and its speed is dependent on countless factors including your luck of the day. The upshot is that it is almost impossible to prove that your slow speed is the fault of the client or even necessarily how you set it up. You may suspect and even generalize, but you can almost never prove.

Anyway, if you are convinced it might be a factor (like I still suspect), then set the update interval to maximum (10000ms). You will still see what happens quite well and I don't think it slows you down any at that rate. Also, turn Low CPU usage to False, especially while you've got it up. If you can afford to have it up maximized, you aren't doing anything important, and uTorrent doesn't drag you measurably even with it on False (as opposed to most other clients...)

Kazuaki: I don't see any difference turn on/off CPU usage in advance options. And I don't see CPU usage is high when I set update interval to 2s as I don't have so many torrents active.

Most of the time I keep utorrent in tray and I can move my mouse above it to show it's dl/uling, speed etc. And I found out if I open it and see the figures, dl speed is lower down and it doesn't climb up again. That's why I asked here.

Have you checked the speed graph to see if there was an actual decrease in speeds? It might just be the tooltip reporting the wrong statistics (speculation here).

Checked, the dl speed is dropped a bit and ul remains steady because I have my ul capped.

Kazuaki: I don't see any difference turn on/off CPU usage in advance options. And I don't see CPU usage is high when I set update interval to 2s as I don't have so many torrents active.

I've found to my depression that your subjective perception is more practical than any statistics about CPU and RAM usage when it comes to BitTorrent clients. Azureus also claims low CPU usage in the Task Manager and RAM usage that is, while about 10 times higher than uTorrent, still only at the level of say Acrobat Reader, so it shouldn't be a lethal drag. Meanwhile, everything outside of Azureus slows to the speed of a snail.

Most of the time I keep utorrent in tray and I can move my mouse above it to show it's dl/uling, speed etc. And I found out if I open it and see the figures, dl speed is lower down and it doesn't climb up again. That's why I asked here.

What kind of computer are you having? I noticed this too when I first started with the high refresh rates and Low CPU Usage TRUE, but after taking update interval to 10s and making sure Low CPU Usage is FALSE with the thing maximized, there was no appreciable depression in speed. I got some of my best speeds in uTorrent while it was maximized.

Are you saying uTorrent downloads quicker when you're not looking?

I could almost swear that uTorrent goes faster by about 10% everytime I keep my fingers crossed......I cant explain it, you will just have to test it out yourself.

;-)

Kazuaki: I'm trying your method, lowcpu_usage to false and update interval 10s. There's a bit improve in speed, I may test it for some days, thanks.

Kazuaki: I'm trying your method, lowcpu_usage to false and update interval 10s. There's a bit improve in speed, I may test it for some days, thanks.

Try that. I believe your problem is real too, but then I think I have a weak computer compared to some of the guys here. As I said, the problem is IMO that uTorrent is such a miser on your resources, so if you keep insisting on lots of screen updates, there isn't enough to go around. Just look at how little it takes and how much say Azureus with pretty much the same interfaces and displays take, and one may appreciate why Azureus seems unaffected no matter what the data updates you demand (Azureus simply grabs even more of your system, as if it hasn't fossilized your system already).

Oh yeah, if you have Logging on, turn it off. It is fun to see the stuff rolling up the screen, but I swear that logger slows me up, and IIRC they don't recommend you have the logger on all the time unless you have a problem in the FAQ too.

One more, stay away from that graph, I swear it does nothing positive to your speed. The best way is just to leave everything unselected when it is maximized and just watch the main display. Unless of course you need to peek into details, then go in, take your peek and make your adjustments, then deselect the torrent.

As in the FAQ said utorrent can run on a 486, I think my computer is much faster than that. But it's an overkill for Azureus and a little bit for Bitcomet 0.56+.

As in the FAQ said utorrent can run on a 486, I think my computer is much faster than that. But it's an overkill for Azureus and a little bit for Bitcomet 0.56+.

Theory (or testimonials from the lucky ones) never quite matches practice. I bet your computer WILL feel the drag even from uTorrent if you are really using a 486.

I will, however, bet that neither Azureus or BitComet could MOVE themselves on a 486

I can't imagine how Win95+IE4 runs in 486 system. Perhaps DX4-100 might give reasonable speed. I have a Cyrix 486SLC at home but never tried to install Win95 on that system, used Win3.1 and NetBSD twin OS.

For Azureus, no way, Bitcomet's doc said it can run on a K6 266.

An 486 can, IIRC, indeed run Windows 95 in my memory. I once did it.

Kazuaki Shimazaki: it was a testimonial by Smoovious, he was running w95 on a 486, but you can't really look at the GUI while it runs (it takes about 10 seconds per screen refresh). close it and it's pretty reasonable

The only uTorrent does when minimized is stop updating the GUI, Which decrases resource usage a bit. Might assist performance if your network is being bogged down by very high cpu\memory usage, but that would probably affect only very old and incapable machines.