A few questions before installing windows 7 public beta...

[yetyhunter]

Ok windows 7 beta 1 releases friday for the public.I am downloading and installing tomorow.The only thing I'm worried about is driver and programs compatibility.I have allot of questions to ask ,just to be shure.
Does it support SLI? Will there be a 64 bit version for my 4GB ram? Software compatible with vista is compatible with 7 too?
I have allot of games and I want to be shure that they work. I have crysis wars warhead,GTA4,COD 5,Far cry 2,Fifa 09 ,NFS undercover,UT III,red alert 3 and allot of cleaning/tweaking software and I have nod32 .
And how about performance ,is it at LEAST as good as vista?

 

[Scotteq]

Microsoft did not change the driver model at all - The intention for 7 is/was that anything that runs on Vista would/should run on 7.

Yes, the 64 bit version will be available. I know this for sure, since it shows up on my Technet account. Once the links become active tomorrow, I will be downloading it myself.

For gaming - Punkbuster checks OS versions, and my understanding is they do not recognize Windows 7 as a valid OS and will refuse your attempt to connect. This may change soon, or may not.

Here's a listing of games that some of the pre-beta guys have played with:
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/560-official-list-games-work-windows-7-a.html

Area 51
Call of Duty 4
Call of Duty 5
Call of Duty 5 Beta
Company of Heroes
Counter Strike Source
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Fallout 3
Far Cry 2
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. - Combat Evolved
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: 3
Grand Theft Auto: IV (6956)
Grid
Halo: Combat Evolved
Half-Life:2
Left 4 Dead
Mercenaries 2
Need for Speed: Undercover
Portal
Quake 3
Red Alert 3
Star Trek: Starfleet Command III
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Timeshift
Team Fortress 2
World Of Warcraft

Regarding SLI support - It's the same in 7 as Vista. Though I have seen a couple individuals having issues getting SLI to work. It may be a Mobo/Card combination, or supported on one card but not another - I don't know, since I don't run SLI.
http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/602-latest-nvidia-forceware-video-drivers.html

Regarding Performance - 7 is slimmed down a bit from Vista, and the UI was reworked, and by most accounts is faster than Vista - and even XP...

Please understand, though, that it is BETA software, and therefore likely has some bugs and idiosyncracies that will need to be dealt with. Recall at vista's launch, nVidia's drivers were horrible. ATI's were better, though (speaking an an ATI user) of late they seem to have dropped the ball somewhat. Creative... <grrrr>


Towards that end, I do not recommend using Windows 7 as your primary OS. I plan on installing it on a spare HDD I set aside for the purpose.

 

[yetyhunter]

Thank you for the nice detailed answer.
Just to be shure,one more question:
Crysis wars uses punkbuster,so if it does not recognize the os I will not be able to play online?

 

[grieve]

Towards that end, I do not recommend using Windows 7 as your primary OS. I plan on installing it on a spare HDD I set aside for the purpose.

+1
Create a virtual machine for Win7

 

[yetyhunter]

I was planing to completely switch to 7 because vista is failing on me. Games lag,boots up very slowly +5 min.
Basicaly 7 is just an upgraded version of vista

 

[montyuk]

i would say go for it, ive been using the win7 7000 32bit as my main since it was leaked and ive yet to have single bsod or compatibility issue.

 

[yetyhunter]

^^did you tested pukbuster,or crysis wars online?

 

[tomasf]

I want to give it a tried too but i´m worried that my system can´t perform well. I play mostly NFS undercover, battlefront, far cry 2, silent hill and GTA IV.

C2D E6550
4 gb Ram 800mhz
9600 gt

 

[montyuk]

well ive played the original counterstrike on it, but the only other game i play that uses punkbuster i havent got around to installing yet....

 

[mdma35]

I'm an old ET player and 7 seems not to fully support PB every time i start playing "Wrong API System Version" error accurs same for CoD4 and CoD5
but..
RedAlert 3,CoD4,CoD5,Crysis,Warhead,Stalker,F.E.AR,Fallout3,FarCry2 didn't experience any problem with the single player version of this games.


4gigs in more then enouph for 7 i have similar system to you tomasf 4gigs Corsair slightly overclocked to 900 mhz CL5,Q6600 2.4 Ghz no OC and GT8800 and all works just realy good for me i'm realy impressed by 7.
On log it takes only around 500 Mg but you can still disable alot of servces and it will use less ofc

 

[yetyhunter]

I have a fairly good system to run 7:E8400 @ 3600MHZ ,Asus P5N-D ,4 GB ram ,SLI 8800 GTS 512 OC'ed.

^^did you trie to run crysis online?

 

[mdma35]

no i didnt ^^ was unable to run any PB Based online game on it sooo...

 

[randomizer]

Microsoft did not change the driver model at all

Actually, it does use WDDM 1.0 or WDDM 1.1

 

[yetyhunter]

Just installed it and it is more responsive than vista looks better too BUT very bad for gaming for the moment. I spent 2 hours just to make crysis launch then when I finnaly enterd the game, BANG FREEZE after 2 seconds. I had to restart computer.
I found a ton of other bugs. I could not install the mp3 corruption fix,daemon tools doesn't work,can't install mods for crysis.
I'm going back to vista . But still I'm very confident about 7.I'm shure it will beat vista in every way when it's released.

 

[50bmg]

I installed COD5 without a hitch. I have had no issues. Had no issues with PB.

Edit: i just installed Steam and Farcry2. No issues.

Before with win xp 32 dx9c, FC2 maxed settings, 4xAA, 1680x1050, i was getting 45fps with fraps.

With win 7 64 dx10, maxed settings, 8xAA, 1680x1050, i am getting 50fps plus.

I think a 10%+ improvement with more AA is a huge bonus.

 

[yetyhunter]

I think i'm gonna wait for the full version. Maybe it was just a SLI issue.
Im on vista now and it's ALLOT slower than 7 with the usual descktop activity(copy,install, delete....)

 

[randomizer]

Crysis is probably trying to run some Vista-only DRM :lol:

 

[saintvir]

Scotteq:

"I plan on installing it on a spare HDD I set aside for the purpose."

I haven't done any beta testing before and would like to try with Windows 7 Beta. I was thinking about doing exactly what you said; i e, use a spare HDD. Question is: will I need to swap out my current Vista HDD then swap it back in when I want to revert back to Vista?

I am not really sure what to do.

 

[patater]

you can even leave it in your system, in your bios you can switch which drive it boots from!! i was doing that unitl i just wiped my drive and put windows 7 on there (i didnt set ahci in xp, i wonder how much faster it responds with that?) and it seems ok, slow at first, but the spare drive i had was ancient. on a sata2 at ahci compatability, it took windows 7 a lot less time to install...

 

[50bmg]

Scotteq:

"I plan on installing it on a spare HDD I set aside for the purpose."

I haven't done any beta testing before and would like to try with Windows 7 Beta. I was thinking about doing exactly what you said; i e, use a spare HDD. Question is: will I need to swap out my current Vista HDD then swap it back in when I want to revert back to Vista?

I am not really sure what to do.

Exactly what i did. Same machine 2 HDs. I am not dual booting. I just unplug the HD i dont want to boot.

I used a 4 year old Seagate SATA i had from an old HP. Worked perfectly. Installed quick, boots quick, etc. I cant wait to see it boot on the much faster SATA II, 7200.11 i have.

 

[Scotteq]

Scotteq:

"I plan on installing it on a spare HDD I set aside for the purpose."

I haven't done any beta testing before and would like to try with Windows 7 Beta. I was thinking about doing exactly what you said; i e, use a spare HDD. Question is: will I need to swap out my current Vista HDD then swap it back in when I want to revert back to Vista?

I am not really sure what to do.

Unplug the data cable from the existing HDD. Add the new HDD, and plug a second data cable into the next SATA port on your Mobo. Install 7. Once 7 is installed, patched, lathered, rinsed...

Shut down, plug the original data cable back into your original HDD, and boot to your Windows 7 installation disc. Go grab a coffee while it starts up. Then when it offers to install, select the repair option in the lower left hand corner. It'll churn for a couple minutes, then tell you there is an issue that needs to be fixed. Say Yes, and allow it to restart.

When it restarts, you should be offered the choice of your existing installation or Win 7. The Default/timeout option will be to boot to 7.

 

[xxxgrimreaperxxx]

you dont even need to uplug existing harddrive. if you add a second ( or third, etc) then select custom install you can install i ton the second drive and it will add your current OS as a boot option. i currently have 5 hard drives and have a XP64, vista 64, win7-64 tri boot and it works fine booting into either without having to deal with changing bios settings.