GDI + vs WPF
What are the benefits of the WPF graphics subsystem? Let's get a look:
- Drawing / Composition with Saved Mode
- Vector graphics
- True transparency
- And further...
What are the benefits of GDI +? Hm. This is harder because I really love WPF. However, if you were able to constantly recreate the geometry of the objects you are trying to display, you might need the immediate mode API that GDI + offers.
Here are two ( one , two ) really good blog posts on this subject.
(Note that the aforementioned blog posts are quite old. They still contain excellent information, but they also know that the WPF team has made significant progress in terms of performance and graphics capabilities from the original version of WPF (.NET 3.0).
System requirements
They really are not the minimum system requirements for WPF applications, other than what the operating system must be in Windows XP SP 2 or higher and that .NET 3.0 (at least) must be installed . Nevertheless, at the same time, the best graphics card with quality in the car, the WPF application works for the better.
We noticed that WPF works fine even on older hardware, especially if you aren’t doing anything complicated or fantastic.
What does it mean? In my experience, keep a close eye on your work if you start to do something with WPF 3D and / or bitmap effects . In fact, I would advise you to follow your work throughout the development of the application.
Finally, I add that we saw very strange graphics problems ( this and this ) with certain video solutions and, in particular, with Intel integrated video.
For more information about hardware limitations, please check out this other StackOverflow post, and in particular, check out the information on Rendering Levels .