D3DPOOL_DEFAULT Question..

For simple demo's I tend to throw everything in the default pool.

There are cases where D3DPOOL_MANAGED will be better due to it maintaining a system-memory copy of the resource. If you're doing lots of resource modification (e.g. Lock() operations) then it can sometimes perform a bit better.

There was a good thread discussing this on DIRECTXDEV a while back. I'll see if I can find it for you...

Jack

Another quick thing... D3DPOOL_MANAGED allows the runtime/driver to do some automagic resource management for you. Because it has a copy in system memory it can transparently page in/out the data as appropriate for the resources priority and usage pattern.

Jack

In general, you should put as many resources as possible in MANAGED memory and only use DEFAULT memory for objects that can't be created in MANAGED (like render targets and such). The reason for this, as Jack stated, is that it allows D3D to handle memory management for you.

If you throw everything into DEFAULT memory, what happens if you try to allocate too many resources? Running out of video memory opens up a huge can of worms in D3D. On the other hand, using MANAGED memory lets D3D use AGP memory as well so it can page textures in and out of video memory as necessary.

Again, as Jack mentioned, there as a good thread about this on the DirectXDev mailing list. In the end, the general concensus was that you should create as many resources as you can in MANAGED memory and only use DEFAULT for things that cannot be created in MANAGED.

neneboricua