Which OS is best for Gaming for my PC

[aaqibi]

System Specifications:
Mother Board: Intel DG31PR
Ram:Kingston DDR 2 2GB 667mhz
Processor:Core 2 Duo 2.8Ghz 3mb L2 Cache
Graphic Card:XFX 9800GT 512MB Green Edition
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Blue-500GB-WD5000AAKS-16MB-7200 RPM
OS:Vista Ultimate Edition 64bit service pack-1&2, DirectX 11

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So i am a bit confused in choosing OS my brother has recently got a Windows 7 32bit edition but i am using Vista 64bit because he says that Vista 64 is better for gaming than Windows 7 32bit.

I am confused in making a decision that which is the best according to my specs for gaming

 

[isamuelson]

Well, he's partially right in that you only have 2 gigs of memory. You really want at least 4 for 64-bit.

Still, Windows 7 is better than Vista, even the 32-bit. It's what Vista SHOULD have been.

 

[aaqibi]

so what should i have to do now remain with this OS or upgrade to Win7 because i really like Win7

 

[isamuelson]

Well, normally it depends on a few things. If you know that you will be getting 2 or more gigs of memory soon, I'd go with Windows 7 64-bit.

If you know that you are NOT going to get 2 gigs or more of memory for a long time or at all, then I would go with the 32-bit version. Since the 32-bit version cannot use all of the 4 gigs, you will waste some memory if you go to 4 or more gigs of memory.

Your 32-bit apps will NOT necessarily run faster under the 64-bit version of windows, which includes your games. You'll just have better memory management when you have 4 or more gigs of memory installed.

Now, in your case, since you already have Vista 64-bit, that could make or break your decision on which route to go.

If you get the 64-bit version of Windows 7, you'll be able to do an inplace upgrade which means you won't have to reinstall your apps or anything. It will just upgrade Vista to Windows 7.

If you get the 32-bit version of Windows 7, then you'll have to do a clean install, reinstalling all your games and applications, backing up and restoring your user profiles, etc.

So, you'll have to pick your poison. In my case, I always do a clean install anyways because the in-place upgrades do not always result in the most efficient running installation due to old drivers and other dlls hanging around.

So, even if you go 64-bit, I would suggest doing a clean install.

So, knowing all that, you have to decide is it worth it to upgrade to Windows 7? I think Windows 7 is the better OS over Vista and I ran Vista since the day it came. I promptly got rid of it as soon as Windows 7 came out. Not just because of overall performance, but useability was SO much better with the UI enhancements they added.

 

[jay2tall]

A 64bit OS can address more than 4GB of RAM. A 32bit OS can only address 4GB, however, you are usually stuck with 3 or 3.5GB depending on your video card as it uses some of the memory addresses or the video ram. If an application is 64bit it will perform better with a 64bit OS, otherwise it will still run as a 32bit app on a 64bit OS. This is not always a bad thing because even if the app, or game, is 32 bit, Windows itself is 64 bit and will run a bit better. With that being said, there is a catch. A 64 bit OS and 64 bit apps usually consume more memory. I personally would not run a 64bit OS with anything less than 4GB of RAM. DDR2 memory is relatively cheap, can you toss in 2 more Gigs?

In comment to the statement that Windows 7 is better than Vista, I find them to be not that much different. Vista was just marketed poorly and there was confusion with "vista compatible" systems. People were trying to install Premium on machines that were vista compatible, not vista premium compatible. Alot of the lower end systems that were 1-2 years old choked when it was installed. I've installed Vista on several machines and never had any issues what so ever. The only time I've heard people complain was when they installed the upgrade on an XP machine that was older or purchased a lowend cheapo machine and installed premium on it. Or when it was new and pre SP1. My buddy had alot of issues from day one until he did a fresh installed and applied SP1 right off the bat, he hasn't had a problem since then. I have Vistal Ultimate 64bit and got it right after SP1 and never had one single issue at all. A good rule of thumb is to never install an Micorosoft OS until after SP1.

Windows 7 is Vista with a few extra features, and a new name. I believe they also toned down the super prefetch that killed the boot time on older machines before. Other than that it is Vista. They even tell you to use Vista drivers on Windows 7 in some cases. People accepted Windows 7 more because it's been 2 years since vista launched and alot of lower end hardware has been replaced, and SP1 for Vista has been out. Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 won't give you much. There are some SSD features in 7 that might be of benefit if you have a solid state drive, but there aren't many reasons to upgrade.

 

[bildo123]

The short and sweet answer, just stay with Vista Ultimate 64-bit. It does the job more than adequately.

 

[jay2tall]

The short and sweet answer, just stay with Vista Ultimate 64-bit. It does the job more than adequately.

I guess I could have save all that typing, huh? haha

 

[bildo123]

I guess I could have save all that typing, huh? haha

Your reply was spot on, you just had the long and sweet answer

 

[jay2tall]

Thanks Bill

 

[aaqibi]

A 64bit OS can address more than 4GB of RAM. A 32bit OS can only address 4GB, however, you are usually stuck with 3 or 3.5GB depending on your video card as it uses some of the memory addresses or the video ram. If an application is 64bit it will perform better with a 64bit OS, otherwise it will still run as a 32bit app on a 64bit OS. This is not always a bad thing because even if the app, or game, is 32 bit, Windows itself is 64 bit and will run a bit better. With that being said, there is a catch. A 64 bit OS and 64 bit apps usually consume more memory. I personally would not run a 64bit OS with anything less than 4GB of RAM. DDR2 memory is relatively cheap, can you toss in 2 more Gigs?

In comment to the statement that Windows 7 is better than Vista, I find them to be not that much different. Vista was just marketed poorly and there was confusion with "vista compatible" systems. People were trying to install Premium on machines that were vista compatible, not vista premium compatible. Alot of the lower end systems that were 1-2 years old choked when it was installed. I've installed Vista on several machines and never had any issues what so ever. The only time I've heard people complain was when they installed the upgrade on an XP machine that was older or purchased a lowend cheapo machine and installed premium on it. Or when it was new and pre SP1. My buddy had alot of issues from day one until he did a fresh installed and applied SP1 right off the bat, he hasn't had a problem since then. I have Vistal Ultimate 64bit and got it right after SP1 and never had one single issue at all. A good rule of thumb is to never install an Micorosoft OS until after SP1.

Windows 7 is Vista with a few extra features, and a new name. I believe they also toned down the super prefetch that killed the boot time on older machines before. Other than that it is Vista. They even tell you to use Vista drivers on Windows 7 in some cases. People accepted Windows 7 more because it's been 2 years since vista launched and alot of lower end hardware has been replaced, and SP1 for Vista has been out. Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 won't give you much. There are some SSD features in 7 that might be of benefit if you have a solid state drive, but there aren't many reasons to upgrade.

Thanx buddy, Your effort explains a lot
Now i am moving to Win7 32bit until I get a 4Gig memory.
Coz I like that Shiny window

 

[RickyT23]

I bought the retail copy and they sent me two disks - the 64 bit and the 32 bit so I can pick and choose

 

[jay2tall]

I bought the retail copy and they sent me two disks - the 64 bit and the 32 bit so I can pick and choose

Yeah the Retail version comes with both versions but costs significatly more than the OEM version. You can also uninstall and reinstall on another machine. The OEM version lives and dies with the machine. It is also "technically" supposed to be for system builders who will resell the PC. However, until they stop selling it to me, I will keep buying it. And sometimes the reselling is true unless it is for myself.

 

[isamuelson]

In response to Vista vs. Windows 7, Windows 7 does it's memory management better, especially when it comes to 2D acceleration. When Vista came out, 2D acceleration was pretty much destroyed. That has come back with Windows 7.

The following article on THW pretty much sums up what the issues were with Vista. The first link describes what Vista did wrong regarding how graphics were handled. The second link describes what Windows 7 did to correct this.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2d-windows-gdi,2539-6.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2d-windows-gdi,2539-7.html

Again, I think the user interface in Windows 7 is snappier than Vista's. I also feel Windows 7 runs much better than Vista with all the latest patches. When I went from Vista to Windows 7, I was still running the same hardware and I could definitely tell that there was a big difference in how the system was running.

Vista itself was stable, but just too darned slow and memory hungry and applications took longer to load. Once I went to Windows 7, that all went away and that's on the exact same hardware setup.

 

[jay2tall]

^
Interesting read, thanks! So really as long as you have enough memory and a graphics card of sorts Vista will be fine for you? Everything is really snappy for me in vista. It has been since day one. Actually I think it fared better than XP because by now i would have started to see performance decrease and have not experienced it yet. I usually reinstall every 1-2 years to get rid of junk, but it has been a little over a year and still no issues. So no complaints.

My parents have windows 7 on their new laptop and it is nice. I think the only think I like more in win7 is the windows snap feature that you drag the window to the side and it half windows it automajically. I LOVE that. But i don't like the system tray setup with the little pages on top of each other. I'm sure there is a way to switch it but.

 

[isamuelson]

@jay2tall

Regarding the system tray, it took some getting used to, but I actually like it.

Definitely, the snap feature is great. I also like the shake feature where you grab a window and shake it and it minimizes all the other windows. Shake the window again and all the windows that were minimized are placed back in the positions they were at. Pretty nice!

 

[jay2tall]

Definitely, the snap feature is great. I also like the shake feature where you grab a window and shake it and it minimizes all the other windows. Shake the window again and all the windows that were minimized are placed back in the positions they were at. Pretty nice!

next time I get a chance I will try this. that sounds cool.

 

[rahul babaria]

if i have 2 gb ddr3 ram with a gcard blocking 512 mb ram, can I still get the 64 bit version and keep the system running lag free ?

 

[bildo123]

if i have 2 gb ddr3 ram with a gcard blocking 512 mb ram, can I still get the 64 bit version and keep the system running lag free ?

Kind of a stretch but doable. I would suggest 4GB minimum for a 64-bit OS. See if you can fetch a single 2GB stick for cheap.

 

[gauravtushir]

both sucks? windows xp 32-bit is the best ..

 

[isamuelson]

both sucks? windows xp 32-bit is the best ..

But it's on it's way out. It won't be supported anymore, no more patches, etc.

Windows 7 is a vast improvement over what Vista was. I actually like it BETTER than XP. It's so hard to work on my laptop at work which is running XP. I keep finding myself trying to do things in XP that you can't because it's only for Windows 7.

 

[gauravtushir]

i meant for gaming currently xp 32-bit is good. laptops obvious windows 7 will be better . now just because just cause 2 needs vista or win 7 that dosent mean xp is outdated. still 48% of the world is stuck to xp . just cause 2 game

 

[isamuelson]

Windows 7 is fine for gaming as well. I have no issues with it. It runs just as well as XP ever did.

Don't get me wrong. XP was great and I loved it. Vista was a mistake but Windows 7 is right where XP was when it first came and I have a feeling that eventually, Windows 7 will be the next XP love fest.

 

[bildo123]

both sucks? windows xp 32-bit is the best ..

Remarkable statement...I found your points very intriguing...

i meant for gaming currently xp 32-bit is good. laptops obvious windows 7 will be better . now just because just cause 2 needs vista or win 7 that dosent mean xp is outdated. still 48% of the world is stuck to xp . just cause 2 game

Realistically, the differences between a regular joe, used on a daily basis computer with xp, vista, or 7 is negligible. The biggest difference that more than makes up for any 'bonus' XP would score would be DX 11 support in the latest OS's.

 

[gauravtushir]

yeh . but this dude has got core2duo , direct x11 dosent matter unless you have a gpu for it. right now currently xp 32 will do just fine . if you got a processor like core !7 or higher then windows 7 is obivous .

 

[isamuelson]

yeh . but this dude has got core2duo , direct x11 dosent matter unless you have a gpu for it. right now currently xp 32 will do just fine . if you got a processor like core !7 or higher then windows 7 is obivous .

Windows 7 will work just fine with his cpu as well. If DX11 is not an issue for him, then XP is where he can stay. But, if he wants to stay with the latest and greatest, then Windows 7 is the way to go.

I had an Athlon X2 4200+ before I upgrade and Windows 7 ran just fine for me. Runs even better now on my X3.