System 1 (2004): Windows XP, Pentium M (Banias, 1.6 GHz), ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, 2GiB RAM, 100 GB 5400 RPM HDD
System 2 (2011): Windows 7, Core i3, Intel HD Graphics 3000, 8GiB RAM, 500 GB Samsung EVO SSD
System 3: System 2 with Nvidia discrete graphics activated

Compared to system 1, on systems 2 and 3 the graphics performance of Xara Xtreme Pro 5 is horrible. Moving around a simple solidly colored rectangle is jerky. On system 1, the movement is smooth, i.e. the rectangle follows the mouse cursor without noticeable delay.

What could be an explanation?

I also tried the trial of Designer Pro X9 64, and this runs smoothly on systems 2 and 3.