New Gaming Computer. Vista or XP?

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For Gaming, which OS is better?

  • XP

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Vista

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1
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when my XP setup stops working i may use vista 64
i do dual boot XP 32 and Vista 64 and i do still use XP more

there are things that i like on vista and Xp

Vista > superfetch idea works well, looks better , 64 support is better , DX10 ? , UAC? good idea but i turnd it off as some programs just did not like it, some bad things on Vista tho, System restore now has Volume shadow service (all vers do) as part of it now can can make your hard disk go bonkers for some time (up to an hr untill it fails), other problem Superfetch is not pauseing when other programs are accessing the hard disk at the same time and can degrade performace when you just exited an an program that used alot of ram, other problem and most likey why i not useing vista right now is that my X-FI sound card does not work right and teamspeak is an little buggy on it as well, get an odd BSOD {nvidia} some times as well, but thats more an program+Vista WDDM fault

XP > every thing works on xp, xp 64 is now more suported due to Vista been 32 and 64 now,
removel of malware does not require you to format your PC once its been removed most of the vista pcs i clean up requre an reload, its alot easy to fix problems on XP then vista (norm not requireing reload), not sure what i can complane about XP realy DX10 is not intresting me at all due to hardware out now cant handle it any way

If you want an no fuss pc XP is an better OS to use every thing will work it give you less problems (Any vista only games will be crap any way so thats not an problem), you can allways Buy Vista or windows 7 in 2-3 years or when thay drop support for XP, does not matter if you think vista is better or is better then XP get the one that will best sute your needs

i would recommend Vista only on new fast hardware, you should allways aim for 2gb ram min any less its an typewriter (3-4gb if gameing) on vista dual core cpu and alot would most likey say its not that much of an improvement use 2 disks in raid 0, i could never use this gameing pc with out raid 0 just to slow Vista just hammers the hard disk (its like it thinks i am running SSD drives, norm hdds do not like random read and writes)

this topic has gone on for an bit :)
 
You don't need RAID 0... though it is quite nice to have. My laptop with 2GB of RAM and Intel dual-core CPU runs quite nicely on Home Premium. It even games well... considering it has Intel integrated graphics.

If you have at least 2GB and plenty of room on your hard drive, Vista should run quite well on modern hardware... especially with a good vid card.
 
What OS?
Vista Home Premium. Go x64 if you want 4GB's of RAM or More.
Vista Ultimate isnt worth all the extra money. Go with Home Premium.

Retail or OEM?
As someone already said OEM is the Same thing but you get no Tech Support. Its also Cheaper than Retail.



 
Vista. You will need dx10 for games sooner or later.

I think vista is a fine OS, don't get me wrong xp is great, I also have dual booted with linux for a long time and also enjoy using OSX. I dual booted with XP on my pc until recently where I went completely vista x64. My PC is x2 5000+, 9600GT, 4 GB RAM. There is at most a couple frames difference (Negligible) in my games which include crysis, Orangebox, cod4, Quake Wars, CS:S, GHIII, BF2, BF2142, and Bioshock. They are all maxed out at 1440x900 except crysis. Crysis is actually a little smoother for me on vista.

I have had no stability or performance problems with vista, it actually seems more responsive and boots faster than XP, So I have had nothing to complain about.

For an older PC XP

New gaming Rig? Definitely vista.

The only thing vista really needs for good performance is RAM, and DDR2 is REALLY cheap right now. I got this ram for less than i got 1 GB of DDR for a couple years ago.
 
Oatmeal has it right in that XP is a better OS than Vista today but the future is with Vista, specifically Vista 64. I had intended on holding out until the next OS (Windoze7) because of the extra resources Vista demands. It's a simple truth that a game running on Vista has a (slightly) lower fps than XP.

So why did I change? I saw first hand that the end was in sight for 32 bit OS's with the THQ game Supreme Commander when it ran out of memory. You see Windoze 32 bit OS's (both XP and Vista) give 2 GB to an application and if that application uses more than 2 GB - crash. SupCom is that first but there will be more games that slam into the 2 GB barrier. Company of Heroes and Cryis come very close and game will only get bigger over time.

So I'm sure you can see that the 64 bit argument doesn't favour Vista 64 over XP 64 but there's more. Drivers. If you look at where most companies are spending their time developing drivers XP 64 is at the bottom of the list. 32 bit drivers are easy to find but there are more 64 bit Vista drivers then XP 64.

At the end of the day, it's your choice. XP32 is a mature and stable (for Micro$oft) OS but it's life is at an end. Vista 32 is horrible because it can not run large programs and it consumes more system resources. I switched last month to Vista 64 so I could run large games and have future drivers.

This being said, it has not been all roses switching to Vista... half of the games I tried need a tweak to get running but so far only one will not run at all. (due to the Copy Protection not recognizing Vista as a valid OS). The list is on another forum: the Vista32 vs 64 so I won't double post.

Enjoy your games, whatever OS you choose,
Falcon688
 
I suggest 64bit Ultimate. I build and sell high-end gaming rigs and haven't built an XP gaming rig in 6 months. Anyone who says that XP is the OS for gaming isn't a hardcore gamer cuz all the 3-$5000 gaming rigs people order from me have Vista. XP and DX9 is yesterdays news. Make sure you get the Vista with SP1, do all the Windows updates and install the latest drivers for your hardware, especially the video card. Use 4GBs of high performance ram like Corsair XMS. Then play Crysis, Bioshock, Lost Planet, COD 4 in DX10 and enjoy. Everytime a new OS comes out there are crybabies whining about it. Happened when XP came out and will happen when Windows Whatever comes out. If people are happy with XP and dont want any of the extra features Vista has they should just stick with XP and quit messing their computers up trying to put an OS in when they really haven't a clue about how to do it and tweak it to run right. I'm in the biz so I have a lot of computers myself, including 2 Extreme gamers, one with Vista and one with XP. I use the XP rig for the older games and the Vista rig for the new games. When i have company the Vista rig, by far, gets the most use.
 
7.....windows 7


The DX10.1 boost seen in Assassin's Creed or whatever it was is pretty interesting though. The upcoming Windows 7 gets me PO though. I really hope there aren't new OS releases every 2 years now.
 
The problem with Vista is, it needs significantly more computer power to achieve what XP can already do. Gaming in truth needs 4GB in Vista for best results, while XP will usually run great on 2GB. DX10 gaming is far from taking off, take Crysis for example it's technically stunning on very high with AA, just no systems that can run it well.
I'm tempted to ditch PC gaming gaming eventually and start using a Console, cheaper and graphics look good on a HD TV.
 
I don't know, I just got my copy of Vista 64bit ultimate OEM, installing tonight. I still have a DX9 video card though. I have actually heard difficulies when installing with 4 gigs. You upgrade the memory later after installaion.
 
I have no problems with Vista Home Premium 64 Bit what-so-ever. I had to do a few reinstalls when first messin with it, but hey i was tryin to learn it. imo Vista is not a bad os, all the aggrevating things can be disabled, ie the "Are you sure" box can be turned off. just my 2 cents
 
If you are staying with 32 bit OS then stay with XP.
If you want to go to a 64 bit OS and your Hardware is less than two years old, and you have 4 Gig Ram then Vista Home Premium.
 
My Vista 64 bit ultimate seems to faster the Xp 32 bit, and I only have 2 gigs of ram. It definitly is better then XP. Had a problem with punbkbuster but found a fix for it.
 
I haven't been using Vista long, but my opinion would be to go with Vista only if you have plenty of RAM, fast CPU, and the game is "Vista certified" or similar.
 
I went with Vista for some very good reasons. I wanted to go beyond 3 GB of Ram so a 64 bit OS was a must. I wanted an OS that felt secure and I didn't need to worry about Viruses and junk like that. XP has issues in that department. With 8 GB of Ram you don't need Virtual Memory. It's pretty sweet not to have Virtual Memory as things just seem to run faster. Give Prefetch some time and pretty soon you'll notice the increases in speed that you wouldn't get in XP.
I had my computer duel booted for a while with XP and Vista but I never went back to XP. I had way less issues with Vista than I did with XP. Even now my wife has begun to worm her way up to my Vista Machine and I would say my computer and hers is the same just I use Vista and she has XP but she notices that things just open faster and works better on mine.
 


Vista also has issues in that department

While Vista has more security features than XP built in from Default, It still needs Anti-Virus because it's still vulnerable to Viruses and spyware. Linux based operating systems are far more secure and it's not because of the smaller user base.
 
i just tasted vista dx10.geez its crap, i aint gaming with my face glued to the monitor so i cant see the rendering advatanges of dx10 compared to dx9 (crysis, gearsofwar)..

big mistake. i even lost my surround sound. im planning to return my vista copy to the vendor and get my money back.

vista isnt ready for primetime yet.maybe after a year or two.
 
Since I just recently switched from XP to Vista64, and pretty much only use my computer at home for web browsing and games, I thought I'd add to the pile of replies.

I am completely and totally impressed with Vista64 so far. It installed effortlessly - didn't need to ask me but one or two questions and the setup was done. Rebooted, updated my video, chipset and mouse drivers, and then tried HalfLife2. Zero issues. Next tried Bioshock. Zero issues. Next WoW. Zero issues. Next Lineage2. This one surprised me because I am getting a ton of issues on my old XP installation (same hardware, different disk). Zero issues on Vista64.

The OS is just solid. I have not had a single crash or system hangup since installing, and I have been gaming intensively so I could testdrive my new hardware. For reference, I got an E8400, 2x2 GB Mushkin RAM, Gigabyte EP35-DS3L mobo, and a WD SE16 640 GB disk (the newer one that only needs two platters). Just listing stats so you know that this combo gets along with Vista perfectly well.

My friends are having issues with their 32 bit versions. But I read so many postiive things about Vista64 that I went that route. I think its actually more stable to be honest (and clearly more forward-thinking).
 
For future reference

PC World - "...even Gartner, that prophet of Windows' doom, forecasts that Vista will be more popular at the end of this year than XP was at a similar juncture -- with 28% of the PC operating system installed base worldwide, vs. 22% for XP at the end of 2003"

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150263-1/vista_may_still_have_its_day.html




Intel upgrades to Windows 2000 six months after Windows XP was released:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2002/01/10/intel-chooses-w2k-over-winxp

Sluggish corporate adoption of Windows XP:
http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2002/0,4814,74276,00.html

Microsoft offers new licensing terms and other incentives to jump-start stalled corporate XP adoption:
http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18821819

Three years after release, XP uptake still too slow:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39151481,00.htm?r=8

Four long years after XP release, more corporate desktops still using Windows 2000:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/XP-May-Catch-Up-to-Win-2000-by-Years-End/
 



You can't return open software... once you break that seal, install the software and start using it, you've agreed to the license terms and that usally means not being able to return it. How does the store know you didn't make a bazillion copies of it before returning it?

Vista is perfectly ready... you're just not ready for Vista.

😛
 
best way to find out is if you have both Operating systems.

in 3dmark06,pcmark05 and sciencemark

i scored higher with Vista. than i do when i switch over to XP.

my vista out performs my XP sp2, SP3, and another comp with same specs running xp corp edition.

If anyone tells you Vista is Garbage. then disregard anything else they say.

then again. even with vista being new. Windows 7 will be out soon 😛
 
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