What's the best Windows OS for gaming?

[dbwillis]

Id say XP...it even runs the EA Sports games that 2k wouldnt run..havent had any problems.
(plus I run 512mb of DDR)

 

[Muse]

<< Win98SE -- Probably get the most FPS with this OS. It is stable if setup and proper drivers installed.

WinME -- Crap.

Win2K Pro -- Rock solid. Great app support considering it is was designed to be a workstation OS. Probably the best overall MS OS today.

WinXP Pro -- Pretty solid. Pretty. Too much stuff going on in the background that you do not know about. Too much fluff hiding the rawness (well in comparison to 2000 Pro, not a 'nix OS of course) of what is going on and what happens when you do certain activities.

Your mileage may vary. >>

I think Win2k was really designed with the idea that it would be both workstation and home PC OS. That was the strategy they were going to pursue but it didn't quite work out at that time, so they released ME, which was a disaster as you note. Not often MS's subsequent OS releases are worse than the former, but 98SE is said to be a lot better than ME.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Use Win 2000 SP2 ( SP3 to come) right now and in August after the first service pack for XP, use that. You might even be able to uninstall some of the excess in XP wth the new service pack.

 

[nortexoid]

i can't believe how many people opted for win2k over win98SE...

win98se is definintely the better gaming OS, especially if you're running older games...a lot of the older games refuse to run or run improperly on NT based OS's like 2k and XP...i could generate a list for u, but it'd be pointless.

win98se is the best gaming OS period....too bad it's a crappy OS overall.

 

[snidy]

I like XP the best, but I only play new games

 

[Sunner]

nortexoid
You'd be surprised how many old games run in Win2K, I even got Doom I and II running with sound and all.
Of course with JDoom and many other 3D accellerated ports out, there's not much point, but anyways

Have a look at NTComatible.com for a good list.

 

[mesonw]

I had a very stable 98SE system for a long while... I tried ME and 2k, but my fave game at the time (UTournament) ran slower in both... in fact ME was appalling in that respect.

I've just recently setup a dual 98SE/XP system, as JediKnightII totally froze my 98 setup after installing.
XP copes with JediKnightII admirably, despite me "only" having 256mb PC133 RAM (i run it at 1600x1200x32, everything but shadows maxed (which seems to slow keyboard input, but not gfx), on a tbird1466, o/c vanilla gf3).

XP can't cope very well with many older games or emulators though... some fail completely, painfully slow in some, no sound in others... 98SE is better in that respect.

I'm interested in finding out what 2kPro's like though if XP is seemingly so bloated.