Rapid gfx display Qs

I have a task that involves getting still image files to the screen as
quickly as possible (20ms max). These images are all equal size, but
are randomly chosen from a stack of 30,000 or so in a folder.

I'll have access to fast disk, fast dual-core proc, fast video, but
for testing all I have is my pedestrian 2gHz, single-core with IDE
drive and older graphics.

To get a baseline, I timed just getting (LoadPicture) random 1280x720
BMP files into a picture box with autoredraw off. The average load
time was about 65ms, with almost no variation -- 63-67ms was the
range.

To my surprise, turning autoredraw ON reduced this to 60ms on average.
However, the variability went up, with 47-75ms as the range. Any ideas
why this should be so? It's very repeatable. Using the form itself
instead of a picbox makes no difference.

I converted the BMPs to JPGs to see if the smaller file size (95%
reduction: 2.5MB to 120KB) would change things -- to see if disk
transfer or CPU would be the bottleneck. JPGs were considerably slower
on my system, even with much reduced disk time, and variability was
all over the map. Plus, after some period of time using JPGs the
program hangs up.

So I'm casting about for the fastest method to sustain a transfer of
randomly selected disk images to the screen. What would help here? API
calls, DirectX, GDI+, 3rd party, ... ?

Thanks for any insights.

--
Jim

.

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