Is general user experience degraded when simultaneously GPU Mining on Win7?

[MinerNoob]

I'm thinking about buying a new gaming machine, and doing some bitcoin mining whenever the GPU is otherwise unoccupied. I'm wondering what effect this has on the user experience on Win7.

Suppose I've got three monitors attached to a Radeon HD 5970 using its 2 DVI ports and 1 displayport. I fire up a GPU miner. Does this affect my user experience when, for example, I'm simultaneously checking my email or browsing in Win7?
Examples of user experience degradation that come to mind:

• will mining disable the displays?
• Will it degrade display performance, for example by disabling Aero interface features and/or speed?
• Will it have a significant CPU impact even though the bulk of the processing is done on GPU?
• Does it perhaps limit display resolution?
• ...

I already gathered from the BC Wiki that it's not possible to share the GPU between a game and a miner at the same time.

I'd appreciate if anyone could shed some light on this or has pointers on where to find more information on how GPGPU applications may or may not play nice with display capabilities. Thanks!

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[bbulker]

I have "-f 60" in my flags and I notice no degrade in performance. I can even play games with a decent framerate while mining (>90fps on Counter-strike Source), of course my hashrate drops during gameplay though.

[Diablo]

I have "-f 60" in my flags and I notice no degrade in performance. I can even play games with a decent framerate while mining (>90fps on Counter-strike Source), of course my hashrate drops during gameplay though.

Pretty much this. I have a HD5770 and am still able to play Left 4 Dead 2 at max settings, 1920x1080 at least 60fps. Not sure what my hash rates are, but it doesn't stop me from playing.
Also means I don't have to remember to start/stop the miner when I want to game.

GPU mining while browsing internet or something is barely noticeable. Suggest that you do turn off hardware acclereation for Flash/videos as that will decrease the hash rate. And any recent CPU should be able to play flash fine without hardware accleration anyways.

I already gathered from the BC Wiki that it's not possible to share the GPU between a game and a miner at the same time.

What do you mean by this? The performance will be lowered, and but it is possible to game/mine at the same time.

[MinerNoob]

@bbulker @Diablo: Thanks for your clear answers and examples; this is exactly the information I was looking for!

I already gathered from the BC Wiki that it's not possible to share the GPU between a game and a miner at the same time.

What do you mean by this? The performance will be lowered, and but it is possible to game/mine at the same time.

Please ignore that sentence. Somehow I had the idea that gaming would claim the whole GPU, which would prevent any mining activity. After reading your answers I now understand it's possible to do both gaming and mining at the same time.