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Illustro GPU questions

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silk186
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Joined: March 21st, 2015, 8:16 pm
Location: Reading, UK

Illustro GPU questions

Post by silk186 »

It seems that skins don't have an update function. I've been using Illustro Gadgets for a while and I like the look. The only problem is that it doesn't pull any GPU info. It seems that I can manually enter this info though it is a long slow process. It also seems that this info will be stored in the skin and not the Rainmeter itself. I'm guessing that if I update or try another skin I will need to start this process all over again.

This has me looking for a similar looking alternative with closer HWinfo integration. I tried ModernGadgets and this function has been added but the gadgets look smaller and cramped. It also seems that I need to run HWinfo which I've read can be CPU intensive. I also see that some skins have HWinfo and AIDA64 branches.

What is the difference between the HWinfo and AIDA64 options?
Do I need to leave the program running in the background?
Why do CPU, network and disk usage display but not GPU?
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balala
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Re: Illustro GPU questions

Post by balala »

Let's clarify first a few notions:
silk186 wrote: May 7th, 2019, 2:38 pm It seems that skins don't have an update function.
There is no a such way. Every skin has an Update. If there is no a such option in the [Rainmeter] section, the default Update=1000 is used by the skin, but no way to have no update.
silk186 wrote: May 7th, 2019, 2:38 pm It also seems that this info will be stored in the skin and not the Rainmeter itself. I'm guessing that if I update or try another skin I will need to start this process all over again.
Rainmeter doesn't store information related to skins. But you can share the information if you store them into a file, which is included into more skins. For example adding a @Include=#@#Settings.inc option to the [Variables] section of each skin, you can use the variables contained into the Settings.inc file in every skin having added this option.
silk186 wrote: May 7th, 2019, 2:38 pm It also seems that I need to run HWinfo which I've read can be CPU intensive. I also see that some skins have HWinfo and AIDA64 branches.

What is the difference between the HWinfo and AIDA64 options?
Do I need to leave the program running in the background?
Although I'm not using none of them, as far as I know for example you need to run the program, to use the HWiNFO plugin. It has to run in background to get the plugin to work.
silk186 wrote: May 7th, 2019, 2:38 pm Why do CPU, network and disk usage display but not GPU?
CPU, network and disk usage information are all returned by some simple measures (CPU, Net and FreeDiskSpace measures, accordingly). But no simple measure is returning GPU information. UsageMonitor plugin measures can be used to get some of these information, but no simple measures.
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jsmorley
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Re: Illustro GPU questions

Post by jsmorley »

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raiguard
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Re: Illustro GPU questions

Post by raiguard »

Hi, creator of both illustro Gadgets and ModernGadgets here. I assume by "update" you mean checking for updates and installing them through some semi-automatic process. Rainmeter does not have that, so I put together my own solution for my skins.

In both illustro Gadgets and ModernGadgets you need to install and configure HWiNFO. And yes, HWiNFO must be running in the background (or at least, the sensors window must be running in the background). This is due to there being no built-in API in Windows for getting GPU information, unlike with CPU, Disk, and Network stats.

I usually try to actively discourage people from using illustro Gadgets, as ModernGadgets is superior in every way. You said that MG feels too cramped? You can increase the width of the gadgets by following this GIF:
BgWidth.gif
Obviously you can set any width you want, in this example I set it to 210, which is the width of illustro skins. The default width in ModernGadgets is 150.

I hope this helps!
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pul53dr1v3r
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Joined: July 30th, 2014, 10:30 am

Re: Illustro GPU questions

Post by pul53dr1v3r »

silk186 wrote: May 7th, 2019, 2:38 pm
What is the difference between the HWinfo and AIDA64 options?
Do I need to leave the program running in the background?
Why do CPU, network and disk usage display but not GPU?
Any of the two programs has got all the sensors you need at least for most of the skins if not for all.
Aida64 is much easier to set up for Rainmeter use, very accurate, light, but PAID. Has got some extra features (for benchmark etc.) but you don't need it for this purpose.
HWiNFO will take you more time to set it up, but is also as good as AIDA for the Rainmeter's skin use.
Both of them are light for the System if you disable all the unused sensors.
I put to the test both of them with my ancient dual core CPU using Kaspersky. The result is that none of them uses more than 5 % of the CPU and up to 30 MB of RAM memory configured for illustro Pulsar skin suite. Disk R/W is negligible.
Just disable all unused sensofrs. If not, you'll experience much higher resource usage no matter what skins you have on your desktop.
Just 2 examples how it looks for the programs:
HWiNFO
AIDA64

Any of the programs must be running in the bg, preferably minimized so you don't notice it at all.
The data you can see not using any of the two software are read by Rainmeter's plug-ins built into Rainmeter itself. For the rest you'll have to use an additional software required for the suite.