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Windows Vista. Hesitant to make the switch? So are we, so we've sent a troop into the thicket of Vista to scout it out. Join Jason Krueger as he takes us along on his journey through the ups and downs of "Life With Windows Vista".  Welcome to another edition of my Windows Vista blog. Today I am going to take a break from the “what’s new” theme and the features of Vista to take a glance at what everyone has been asking about: gaming in Vista vs. XP. Play or Be Played The fact is that the majority of our readers out there are gamers. Many of our readers have migrated from our very successful eSports site, which explains why much of our hardware and tech coverage focuses on the gaming aspect. The fundamental connection between gaming and hardware boils down to one thing, the operating system. There just aren’t massive quantities of hardcore gamers out there running Ubuntu or OSX Tiger. Like it or not, when it comes to PC gaming, Microsoft’s Windows platform is the place to be. Hence, any time a new version of Windows comes out there is a transition period between the last release and the newest; not just in a hardware support and software bugs aspect but in the gaming performance aspect too. I remember vividly when Windows XP came out and how few of the people I played Counter-Strike and Quake 3 with wanted to make the switch. Many gamers, justifiably, felt that Windows 98 and Windows 2000 were better operating systems for gaming. And for a while they were on-point with this train of thought. However, eventually the curve caught up and the new kid on the block, XP, became the standard. Assuming Windows Vienna isn’t rushed out the door, Vista will most likely become the next standard in gaming - especially with DirectX 10 being a Vista exclusive. So how is the transition going? Is Vista ready to game on? I will take a look at some benchmarks on various games and benchmarking suites to see how Vista and XP compare on the graphics front. Using this information I will make some recommendations on what your OS of choice should be. I will be focusing on some of the current games that are quite popular here on GotFrag, as well as some of my personal favorites. Tests will include Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Oblivion, Call of Duty 2, the always loved Counter-Strike 1.6, and a couple 3DMarks thrown in for good measure. Test setup is the following:
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Monday November 23 2009 | |||||
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User Comments
Either way, nice article Slap - can't wait for Crysis to come and you can review that on Vista, too :)
The system requirements for lost coast were higher, because it was meant to run with HDR where as Ep1 HDR wasnt required.
I am not sure if Lost Coast allows for 16xCSAA or 8xMSAA either or with HDR at the same time. I should install it and find out.
And you bet I will have Crysis dx10 vs dx9 numbers in a future blog for sure... :D
do the same tests with ATI stage 4 drivers (7.2) and you'll see about 5% drop, if that.
also, the 8800 drivers are BETA atm, so i dont see how this is a fair test.
They are latest revisions, and give the best performance of the drivers out now. And I have tested them all the way back to the RTM versions that came with Vista.
And if I had a ATI card I could provide benchmarks. But I did run my some tests on my X1950Pro before parting ways with it on vista and xp with the 7.2s. And the drop off was more considerable than 5%, close to 12-16%.
Also you have to take into consideration that the ATI cards arent running directx10, and the Nvidia ones are. So ATI doesnt have to worry about coding for DX10 in their current drivers and Nvidia does.
until then, xp rulz (sucks, but still good becouse exists and accel fix)
he has:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SUPERCLOCKED
CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Raptor X 150GB 10,000 RPM
so if ur system isnt has high as his, id say dont get vista yet, maybe wait for a service pack
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