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I'm using VS 2010 since we're developing an app in .Net 4 and the performance is driving me crazy. It's mostly bad when I don't view the IDE for a while (such as when I get pulled away for a help desk call or come in in the morning).

I realize it's probably built in WPF which unloads its resources when unused, but the few minute delay while it loads everything back up is really annoying. I've also noticed some significant delays when opening files or compiling.

Walter
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Rachel
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    This question would better fit on [Super User](http://www.superuser.com) as they give objective answers on computer hardware and software, while we are into subjective discussions about software development. – Tamara Wijsman Sep 24 '10 at 13:28
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    You will get better answers here. I unknown one VS user who aren't programmer. – Maniero Sep 24 '10 at 16:41
  • If you can vote and think this is a useful question or it have useful answers below, please vote up. StackExchange sites need votes to build a good community. You can give 30 votes per day, don't waste them. Specially users with high reputation and low counting votes given please read this: http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/393/asking-better-questions – Maniero Oct 05 '10 at 19:31
  • Still using VS2008. Does it have the same issue? – B Seven Oct 10 '11 at 17:08
  • Get a SSD. It made a huge difference for me. – B Seven Oct 10 '11 at 17:09
  • Check [Raj Aththanayake's Blog post](http://blog.rajsoftware.com/post/2011/02/01/VS2010-and-ReSharper-performances.aspx) out, it has a lot of helpful tips to improve the performance of VS2010 and Resharper. – Piers Myers Feb 04 '11 at 15:44
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a programming tool (IDE), which would normally belong on Stack Overflow, but is too old to migrate. –  Sep 14 '14 at 00:49

5 Answers5

7

Get a faster machine?

Maniero
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Muad'Dib
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7

In addition of the Muad'Dib answer, I would recommend you a simple upgrade:

Replace you old hard drive by a solid state drive.

The performance increase of Visual Studio .NET is incredible.

Maniero
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    I can confirm that, I have 2 striped Intel X25-M drives and Visual Studio flies. – ChaosPandion Sep 24 '10 at 14:28
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    If you consider the relation price/capacity of the SSD incompatible with your needs then go to a **good** Hybrid HDD. Anyway I would consider a SSD + HDD. SSD is the best upgrade you can do. – Maniero Sep 24 '10 at 16:47
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    I think that a developer should have the best machine available, this include the best SSD available. –  Sep 24 '10 at 16:58
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    @Pierre just remember to also test your software's startup performance on a lowly consumer machine that doesn't have 8GB RAM and a $500 SSD :) – Roman Starkov Jan 24 '11 at 00:57
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    @romkyns: Your suggestion is good, but I'm afraid it falls in the category of "means well". People easily talk about doing testing on a slower machine, but I've never *ever* seen anyone do it, with an eye to fixing performance issues. – Mike Dunlavey Feb 04 '11 at 15:54
  • @Mike: we do it on virtual machines. Like that we can even control the setup by running the VM on different configuration –  Feb 04 '11 at 16:13
  • @Pierre: OK, That's a good start. Now do you also have something on those slow machines that can diagnose where the performance problems are? If not, all you know is "Gee, it's got a problem." I use random pausing on my slow dev machine to find where the problems are so I can fix them. I know that's not popular, and other devs have lightning-fast machines which act like bottleneck sponges, while the testers on the virtual machines just run small problems and go out for lunch. – Mike Dunlavey Feb 08 '11 at 01:07
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I had a similar problem after installing a couple of extensions. I ended up disabling them all and enabling them only when I actually use them. This really helped the experience.

EDIT: There seems to be a problem with certain Video Cards and drivers. You can check all the info here: Link

Glorfindel
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Arturo Molina
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Are you running anti-virus software? If so, try turning it off for a while and see if you notice an improvement. It may be that it's configured for on-access scanning of certain file types, which can be a real performance killer with typical developer usage patterns.

Dan Dyer
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  • We have Symantec AntiVirus. Network admin has it so we can't turn it off or tamper with it, but perhaps I can ask him to add an exception for the VS project directory – Rachel Sep 24 '10 at 16:16
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With 2GB of RAM, I would really start right there. The larger the projects in your solutions, the more RAM you will need.

When you're away from VS and resume, do you notice the hard drive working very hard? That's an indicator it's using the disk to handle increased demands for RAM... RAM runs in nanoseconds, disks in milliseconds, so you can see the problem.

RAM is cheap (2GB should be well less than 100USD unless your machine is very old), but your OS may limit how much you can have. It also is as simple of an upgrade as you can pull off in most cases.

MIA
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