Brushes.White slows graphics demo down

Question

Below is a (very naive) implementation of Conway's Game of Life in WPF. It's just a demo...

xaml:

<Window x:Class="wpf_conway_life_2013_05_19.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="500" Width="500">
    <Grid>
        <Canvas Name="canvas"
            Width="auto"
            Height="auto" 
            HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"  
            VerticalAlignment="Stretch">
        </Canvas>
    </Grid>
</Window>

code behind:

using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
using System.Windows.Threading;

namespace wpf_conway_life_2013_05_19
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            var random = new Random();

            var data = new int[100, 100];

            var dataB = new int[100, 100];

            Func<int, int, int> at = (x, y) =>
                {
                    if (x < 0) x = 100 + x;
                    if (x >= 100) x = x % 100;
                    if (y < 0) y = 100 + y;
                    if (y >= 100) y = y % 100;

                    return data[x, y];
                };

            for (var x = 0; x < 100; x++)
                for (var y = 0; y < 100; y++)
                    data[x, y] = random.Next(2);

            var rectangles = new Rectangle[100, 100];

            for (var x = 0; x < 100; x++)
                for (var y = 0; y < 100; y++)
                {
                    rectangles[x, y] = new Rectangle();

                    canvas.Children.Add(rectangles[x, y]);
                }

            canvas.SizeChanged += (s, e) =>
                {
                    for (var x = 0; x < 100; x++)
                    {
                        for (var y = 0; y < 100; y++)
                        {
                            rectangles[x, y].Width = canvas.ActualWidth / 100;
                            rectangles[x, y].Height = canvas.ActualHeight / 100;

                            Canvas.SetLeft(rectangles[x, y], (canvas.ActualWidth / 100) * x);
                            Canvas.SetTop(rectangles[x, y], (canvas.ActualHeight / 100) * y);
                        }
                    }
                };

            Action macroStep = () =>
                {
                    dataB = new int[100, 100];

                    for (var x = 0; x < 100; x++)
                    {
                        for (var y = 0; y < 100; y++)
                        {
                            var neighbors = 0;

                            for (var i = -1; i <= 1; i++)
                                for (var j = -1; j <= 1; j++)
                                    if (i == 0 && j == 0)
                                        continue;
                                    else
                                        neighbors += at(x + i, y + j);

                            dataB[x, y] = data[x, y];

                            if (neighbors < 2) dataB[x, y] = 0;
                            if (neighbors == 3) dataB[x, y] = 1;
                            if (neighbors > 3) dataB[x, y] = 0;

                            rectangles[x, y].Fill = dataB[x, y] == 0 ? new SolidColorBrush(new Color()) : Brushes.Black;
                        }
                    }

                    data = dataB;
                };

            var timer = new DispatcherTimer();

            timer.Tick += (s, e) => macroStep();

            timer.Start();
        }
    }
}

Here's what it looks like:

If I replace new SolidColorBrush(new Color()) with Brushes.White the program runs much more slowly. Why?

I'm testing on Windows 7 64-bit using 2010 Express.

Answer 1

Because new Color() has alpha value of zero, which means WPF doesn't have to render it because it's fully transparent - on the other hand White color's alpha is 255, which means it is completely solid white color which have to be rendered.