JinH - I figure around 3/5% additional CPU load (i.e. MJ used to run a 10% it now runs around 13 - 15%). This is not a very scientific study, just watching Task Managler doing it's stuff.
I do have a very CPU-intensive task running in the background (at a lower priority) and this runs a little slower now (since I upgraded to 245 this morning).
This is not a huge difference but when I don't "see" the benefit of skinning because I don't use or want it I'd prefer the option to turn it off - especially when you give the "Maybe" answer above.
Either way, not a huge deal but I've at least given my opinion. I know others love the skinning stuff and I'm not dogmatic enough on this issue to worry overly about it.
MJ8 generally consumes more CPU cycles than MJ7 because it's difficult to turn off visualizations / track info etc. Previously this was possible but I haven't found a way of doing this in recent times since the Playing Now window changed.
Media Jukebox PLUS 8.0.245
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1539 MHz MMX
Memory: Total - 261 MB, Free - 83 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0 Service Pack 2 (Build 2195)
Internet Explorer: 5.50.4807.2300
ComCtl32.dll: 5.50.4807.2300
Shlwapi.dll: 5.50.4807.2300
Shell32.dll: 5.00.3502.4718
wnaspi32.dll: N/A