Windows XP gaming performance - day of reckoning

EvaUnit02 on 1/9/2009 at 09:38

The chickens have come home to roost, y'all.

Vista bashers, (http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/features/133761.20090901.Windows-7-Best-OS-for-gaming/) where is your God now?

For those clutching to their outdated views about game performance being better under XP, I'm sorry to break it to you but it ain't 2007 any more. Driver support has matured significantly since the OS' launch, especially for the 64-bit variant.

mothra on 1/9/2009 at 10:34

blah, blah:
(http://firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_7_gaming/)
old news. vista sp2 is known to be better. I don't think you are telling anyone something new. BUT the PC I own runs better with XP because it got OLD hardware like 90% of the gamers out there I presume so Vista still sucks for me and them. look at that for average pc setup and I'm sure XP runs better there:
(http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/)

EvaUnit02 on 1/9/2009 at 11:45

Well no shit, of course XP is going to be better optimised for your relic P4's and the like, because it's an older OS. A new operating system will have higher resource consumption and a bigger footprint. But outside of keeping a back up in multi-boot for compatibility reasons (i.e. hardware sound without workarounds), for those running newer or buying new machines there's no longer any legit reasons to justify ignorant hatred for the operating system. Hardware vendors have long since pulled their finger out and now properly support the OS.

Honestly, the only reason I installed Vista x64 was because A. the only proper crack that defeated the Starforce on my copy of Call of Juarez was for a Vista exclusive build and B. I had a couple free licenses from the MSDN:AA. As a consequence I've come to appreciate the smoother overall user accessibility of the OS. What was going to be a secondary OS installation intended for the occasional DX10 game like Clear Sky has become my primary Windows partition. I can and do move regularly between Vista x64 and XP x64 though, (i.e. to play Thief 2 with fog) and the experience is mostly seamless, thanks to my preference for turning off all of the stupid, bloated desktop bling of both OSes.

Koki on 1/9/2009 at 13:01

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

I'm sorry to break it to you but it ain't 2007 any more. Driver support has matured significantly since the OS' launch, especially for the 64-bit variant.

Windows 7 release date: retail - october 22, 2009

Right on time, I see :rolleyes:

mothra on 1/9/2009 at 13:05

I will use my windows release candidate until next year. no need to buy windows7 if you can have it for free. together with the latest updates you should be on the latest version anyway and since there are not many games being DX10 only I won't miss it. DualBoot is my choice, the switch to Win7 will be done after DX11 cards are out.

EvaUnit02 on 1/9/2009 at 13:16

Quote Posted by Koki

Windows 7 release date: retail - october 22, 2009

Right on time, I see :rolleyes:

Except W7 is fucking Vista with facelift, the infrastructure has already been established.

mothra on 1/9/2009 at 13:34

Except they took apart the kernel and modularized parts of it, other parts have been taken OUT of virtualization because they bogged down the whole system, new parts have been MOVED into virtualization, the driver model has been CHANGED. all things you don't see NO MATTER WHAT GUI YOU USE. overall memory use is less. Where do you get your info from ? Why even post about sthg you have no real knowledge about it seems ? Just read a few tech articles before posting, MSDN member.

Andarthiel on 1/9/2009 at 13:42

Even with SP2 Vista is unstable and has heaps of problems including compatibility with games and applications.
Windows 7 however will be far better, can't wait.

EvaUnit02 on 1/9/2009 at 13:42

Quote Posted by mothra

:picard: You always interpret everything literally, do you? WDM 1.1 isn't an entirely new architecture, it won't take long for a hardware vendor with their shit sorted to come out with properly optimised drivers.

Volitions Advocate on 1/9/2009 at 13:47

Since I've started using Vista. Mostly all of my games work without crashing, and without headaches to get them running in the first place. Thats worth a marginal performace hit to me.