Compiling 1.5 in VS 2003

If i run the torque demo that came with the SDK the game runs just fine (frame rate wise) but when i compile it and run the _DEBUG version (just opening the VS7 solution and doing build only on the torque demo solution) i get 1-2 Frames per second.

i tried recompiling everything, no dice... how do i get a non debug version without the dos window..i looked around a bit and couldn't find any references to this so sorry it's been answered already.
Thanks,

Dan