Console out is too slow. Suggests?

[C++ Forever]

Howdy, y'all!

I'm trying to make a simple little game, but redrawing the game board is a lot stower than I'd like. Any suggestions to optimize my code?
I'm using a Console program because I'm still a novice and am not ready to tackle a real GUI yet.

Here is my source code:

#include <iostream>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <sstream>
#include "Game.h"
using namespace std;

void startGame()
{
    while(1)
    {
        int ch = ' ';
        Gameboard GB;
        vector pos(1, 1);
        GB.setPos(pos, '*');
        GB.printGameboard();

        while(ch != 27)
        {
            while(!_kbhit());
            ch = _getch();
            if(ch == 0)
                _getch();
            else if(ch == 224)
            {
                ch = _getch();
                vector newPos = pos;
                if(ch == 72)
                {
                    newPos.y--;
                    if(GB.BoardChar(newPos) == ' ')
                    {
                        GB.setPos(pos, ' ');
                        pos = newPos;
                        GB.setPos(pos, '*');
                        GB.printGameboard();
                    }
                }
                if(ch == 75)
                {
                    newPos.x--;
                    if(GB.BoardChar(newPos) == ' ')
                    {
                        GB.setPos(pos, ' ');
                        pos = newPos;
                        GB.setPos(pos, '*');
                        GB.printGameboard();
                    }
                }
                if(ch == 77)
                {
                    newPos.x++;
                    if(GB.BoardChar(newPos) == ' ')
                    {
                        GB.setPos(pos, ' ');
                        pos = newPos;
                        GB.setPos(pos, '*');
                        GB.printGameboard();
                    }
                }
                if(ch == 80)
                {
                    newPos.y++;
                    if(GB.BoardChar(newPos) == ' ')
                    {
                        GB.setPos(pos, ' ');
                        pos = newPos;
                        GB.setPos(pos, '*');
                        GB.printGameboard();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        if(ch == 27)
            exit(0);
    }
}

void vector::operator=(vector& prevVector)
{
    x = prevVector.x;
    y = prevVector.y;
}
vector::vector(int newX, int newY)
{
    x = newX;
    y = newY;
}
void Gameboard::printGameboard()
{
    stringstream sout;
    system("clear");
    for(int ROW = 0; ROW < 61; ROW++)
    {
        for(int COLUMN = 0; COLUMN < 124; COLUMN++)
            sout << Board[ROW][COLUMN];
    }
    string board = sout.str();
    cout << board;
}
void Gameboard::setBoard()
{
    //First Row
    Board[0][0] = ' ';
    for(int COLUMN = 1; COLUMN < 123; COLUMN++)
        Board[0][COLUMN] = '-';
    Board[0][123] = ' ';
    //Middle Rows
    for(int ROW = 1; ROW < 60; ROW++)
    {
        Board[ROW][0] = '|';
        for(int COLUMN = 1; COLUMN < 123; COLUMN++)
        {
            Board[ROW][COLUMN] = ' ';
        }
        Board[ROW][123] = '|';
    }
    //Last Row
    Board[60][0] = ' ';
    for(int COLUMN = 1; COLUMN < 123; COLUMN++)
        Board[60][COLUMN] = '-';
    Board[60][123] = ' ';
}
void Gameboard::setPos(vector& V, char C)
{
    Board[V.y][V.x] = C;
}
char Gameboard::BoardChar(vector& V)
{
    return Board[V.y][V.x];
}

Gameboard::Gameboard()
{
    setBoard();
}

printGameboarh() is the function I'm most concerned with.
I used sout.str() to pass a single string to cout rather than make repetitive calls to cout. This didn't appear to change the speed at all.

I've been told <conio> is deprecated. Is their a better replacement?

[Rashakil Fol]

How slow is it? If it's slow, it's slow because either (1) computing Board[i][j] is slow or because (2) system("clear") is slow or because (3) appending chars to a stringstream is slow.

1 would be the case if you used a bad datastructure for whatever Board is.

2 could be the case.

3 is probably not the problem -- stringstream implementations are generally slow on a lot of systems. They'll acquire a mutex before doing their operation, which means that appending chars is pretty expensive. However, the board is so small that you wouldn't think this to be a problem. There are only about 7500 characters there, so even if each append took 100 ns it would take under a millisecond to build the stringstream.

[C++ Forever]

Gabebord is a char array w/ 124 x 61 elements. When printBoard() is called, the screen begins redrawing almost instaneously, so I know none of the computations beforehand are slowing it down. It's the process of printing each subsequent line to the screen which appears slow.

[C++ Forever]

For anyone else who comes across this thread looking for an answer, I've solved my problem. I used C-style printf() instead of C++ style cout. Despite rumors to the contrary, it really is a lot faster. And here's the reason: cout takes multiple types as parameters and has to convert them; conversly, printf() requires a C-string and type conversions are nonexistent.