XP or Vista for games

[mrchan]

So I just bought:

Phenom 9500 w/ crappy ECS 6100pm-m2
MSI 8800GT OC
2GB Crucial Memory

+ all the standard stuff....

Just for games, like COD4, Crysis, etc....

Am I better off with XP or Vista? If Vista, which version?

 

[nerp]

Buy 2GB more memory and go Vista Home Premium 64 bit.

 

[Twista]

XP

Vista needs 1gb of ram for itself. So that leaves 1gb for games
Now, if you run xp itll be lighter.

 

[rchiu]

No diff. Go with OS that support your hardware.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Twista
XP

Vista needs 1gb of ram for itself. So that leaves 1gb for games
Now, if you run xp itll be lighter.

I game all the time on Vista,performance wise I have not notice any difference in gaming.I would say with SP1 about a week or so away from Vista there's no real reason not to go Vista,drivers have had over a years worth of updates.

Vista is very good at using available ram so it does not go to waste,it also will release/move ram around when needed for applications/gaming etc.

Ram prices are real cheap now so if you want to add more, now is a good time .Games will always like or need more ram as time moves on.

 

[Canterwood]

If you need to buy an OS, I'd say go with Vista.
If you already own XP, then I'd stick with that for now.

Vista will give you DX10 support for games, but you're current video card will struggle using it.

Playing in DX9 will give much better framerates, and at this point in time, there's not a huge amount of difference in visuals, especially when you're actually playing the game.

Although 64bit computing isn't really a huge thing right now, Vista x64 will play games just as well as Vista 32bit, give or take a frame or two, and also give you the option of adding 4gb or more of ram and being able to use it all. (Subject to motherboard).

Vista 32bit is limited to 4gb or ram, and you wont have all that available to use, so no real reason to go with it unless you have 16bit games and apps you need to run.

 

[shlemielo]

Originally posted by: Canterwood


Vista 32bit is limited to 4gb or ram, and you wont have all that available to use, so no real reason to go with it unless you have 16bit games and apps you need to run.

actually vista 32bit will only see about 3.2 gigs of ram

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: shlemielo
actually vista 32bit will only see about 3.2 gigs of ram

Sigh! I'll just requote myself.

Originally posted by: Canterwood
Vista 32bit is limited to 4gb or ram, and you wont have all that available to use

 

[QuixoticOne]

Vista 64 works fine for me in gaming.

Vista 32 would probably work even a bit better in the few areas where compatibility is not perfect with Vista 64.

I don't think XP has any major advantages over Vista for gaming unless you KNOW you have some incompatible game or some unusual kind of hardware like oddball sound card / joystick / game pad / whatever that is known not to work with Vista.

I don't think Vista inherently has huge advantages over XP for gaming, but I think that if you ever DO decide to upgrade to 4GB or more of memory, you'll be glad you bought Vista 64 instead of XP 32.

I suppose if you choose to reuse an retail version of Vista on a future system Vista will start to have hardware compatibility advantages over XP in terms of things like new versions of USB / SATA, new generations of GPU cards, new generations of motherboard chipset, new generation sound cards, etc. that may not get XP support in 2009 or 2010....

I can't see wanting to / being able to use XP any more in 2009, chances are any new gaming / high performance PC will have way more than 4GB RAM as standard by then...

 

[Captante]

XP is still faster performing in most newer games period ... this is based on benchmarks run on my dual-boot XP Pro / 32-bit Vista Ultimate gaming PC not speculation, bias or reading other peoples test results.

Having said that, if I were doing a fresh install on this same system tomorrow I'd go with 64-bit Vista & skip the dual-boot.