What are your thoughts on Vista (Home Prem.) now?

[orbit18]

I'm doing Live search club, and trying to get Vista Home Premium... just wondering what you guys think about it now that SP1 came out a little while ago. How does it play typical games from Steam, etc? Lemme know what you think! :)


EDIT: I currently have XP SP3

[hankmecrankme]

It runs just about anything now, except some old games. Graphics card driver issues have largely been resolved too. I don't SLI, but I haven't heard too many good things about Vista and SLI.

I've used Steam plenty on it. No problems at all.

One thing is, after SP1, Vista seems to have some new problems, at least for me. It likes to stutter and lock up for a few seconds. Maybe it's just time for me to reinstall it.

I'd say if you get it for free, try it out. Otherwise, DX10 isn't really worth it yet.

[Jest]

Pretty much see above. There is really no point to getting Vista unless you are buying a new PC that comes with it. Performance is still better in XP for games. I have run games on my Vista partition (DX10) and XP (DX9) and the DX10 games haven't looked much better, but also didn't run as good because I had more RAM to use in XP.

The SP1 did almost nothing for me, seeing as I have been doing all the windows updates, driver updates, and video enhancements as the came out. It did manage to make deleting files faster and searching slower though.

[Vinny]

I think it's pointless to pay the same amount for Vista honestly... Vista works fine, yeah, but I like XP way more. If Vista was like $50 cheaper than XP, then I'd get it.

I did hate Vista a until just recently but it's ok now.

[Damian]

My question is, what would Vista do for you? Does it offer any compelling features or functionality that you need? If not, why would you spend all that effort to get it?

[PikaPichu]

Vista's been pretty solid for me. Unlike XP, everything just 'works.' USB devices work pretty much right when you plug them in with no need to download or install drivers. The interface looks pretty slick too. Some games will require a bit of tinkering around to run properly though. I haven't yet installed a game that I could not run though.

[Dezuria]

I'm using Vista, and it's fine but I actually prefer XP just because it's less boated(less services and crap I need to disable!), and DX9 seems to run better than DX10 when games support it.(Crysis for example)

[n25philly]

Pretty much see above. There is really no point to getting Vista unless you are buying a new PC that comes with it. Performance is still better in XP for games. I have run games on my Vista partition (DX10) and XP (DX9) and the DX10 games haven't looked much better, but also didn't run as good because I had more RAM to use in XP.

The SP1 did almost nothing for me, seeing as I have been doing all the windows updates, driver updates, and video enhancements as the came out. It did manage to make deleting files faster and searching slower though.


wrong on xp performing better than Vista

www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2302495,00.asp (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2302495,00.asp?kc=ETR%20SS02129TX1K0000532)

[n25philly]

I'm using Vista, and it's fine but I actually prefer XP just because it's less boated(less services and crap I need to disable!), and DX9 seems to run better than DX10 when games support it.(Crysis for example)

Crysis is a DX9 game

[XxSmityxX]

it's optimized for DX10 but will run with DX9.....

Anyways, Vista is pretty good now that microsoft has made some updates, there seems to be no performance gain with SP1 though...

Just an FYI it is a MEMORY hog!!! Just idoling on the desktop mine uses 600mb of RAM thats with windows sidebar and AVG running. If I run a game like CS Source it shoots up to 1200mb (1.2gigs). More demanding games like Crysis it almost maxs @ 2gigs!!!

Like one of the above posters said I do like when you plug in a usb headset, mouse, keyboard, ect. MAJORITY of the time it auto installs the right driver which is good...

It does seem a bit more streamlined than XP, maybe because of Aero being on but who knows?

And it has run pretty much any game I've thrown at it....

[n25philly]

it's optimized for DX10 but will run with DX9.....

Anyways, Vista is pretty good now that microsoft has made some updates, there seems to be no performance gain with SP1 though...

Just an FYI it is a MEMORY hog!!! Just idoling on the desktop mine uses 600mb of RAM thats with windows sidebar and AVG running. If I run a game like CS Source it shoots up to 1200mb (1.2gigs). More demanding games like Crysis it almost maxs @ 2gigs!!!

Like one of the above posters said I do like when you plug in a usb headset, mouse, keyboard, ect. MAJORITY of the time it auto installs the right driver which is good...

It does seem a bit more streamlined than XP, maybe because of Aero being on but who knows?

And it has run pretty much any game I've thrown at it....

wrong, Crysis is a DX 9 game with some DX10 effects when running in DX10. It would take way too much work to make it a full game that other way around. Its code is actually very poorly optimized for DX10

Are you running vista & XP with similar things running. Running with sidebar and other added applications on Vista against a bare XP is like comparing apples to oranges. Run with similar applications ram usage is nearly identical between the two.

[XxSmityxX]

wrong, Crysis is a DX 9 game with some DX10 effects when running in DX10. It would take way too much work to make it a full game that other way around. Its code is actually very poorly optimized for DX10

Do you know what the fuck you are talking about?

It IS optimized for DX10 plain and simple, its a DX9 game with DX10 optimization!!!!!!!

And for Vista even with everything disabled you could never get as low as XP memory wise. Due to the fact that XP needs less services to run!

Fucking common sense use it....

[n25philly]

Do you know what the fuck you are talking about?

It IS optimized for DX10 plain and simple, its a DX9 game with DX10 optimization!!!!!!!

And for Vista even with everything disabled you could never get as low as XP memory wise. Due to the fact that XP needs less services to run!

Fucking common sense use it....


Drugs, stop using them. Crysis is a DX9 game. They shoved some DX10 effects on top that run poorly. That's why it runs like crap in DX10 mode. Optimization for DX10 should be used lightly because they didn't optimize it, it runs like crap.

The memory intensive services are things like aero/sidebar/superfetch. Run XP & Vista with the same basic things running such as turning off the sidebar in Vista as XP doesn't have it and the ram usage is nearly identical. If you're running extras then of course they aren't going to be the same. Add a bunch of memory intensive applications to XP and it will use more ram than a clean install of XP. At the core they are about the same in memory usage.

[XxSmityxX]

Drugs, stop using them. Crysis is a DX9 game. They shoved some DX10 effects on top that run poorly. That's why it runs like crap in DX10 mode. Optimization for DX10 should be used lightly because they didn't optimize it, it runs like crap.

The memory intensive services are things like aero/sidebar/superfetch. Run XP & Vista with the same basic things running such as turning off the sidebar in Vista as XP doesn't have it and the ram usage is nearly identical. If you're running extras then of course they aren't going to be the same. Add a bunch of memory intensive applications to XP and it will use more ram than a clean install of XP. At the core they are about the same in memory usage.


I give up talking to you!!! (gotta do more drugs?8-))

[plasticbathmonki]

The only way I'd switch to Vista is if I got it for free. Now that I've used my ninja-like conversation skills to guide this conversation elsewhere, where can I get Vista for free? =P

[Koggit]

Vista is superior in nearly every way, although they're really similar. The ways in which Vista is superior are numerous but minor. I'm fully convinced anyone who prefers XP just didn't give Vista enough of a chance -- like anything new, you have to get used to it first.

[Richard Longfellow]

I heard people were giving away free drugs on this thread. Am I too late?

[Chacrana]

I like the Vista interface a lot better, and the performance seems to be on par with XP, for the most part. DX10 definitely isn't there yet, but all things considered, I would much rather have Vista than XP.

[orbit18]

My question is, what would Vista do for you? Does it offer any compelling features or functionality that you need? If not, why would you spend all that effort to get it?


not much, its just free and theres not really that much effort, just earning a couple of easy points per day, should have it in a couple of weeks.


The only way I'd switch to Vista is if I got it for free. Now that I've used my ninja-like conversation skills to guide this conversation elsewhere, where can I get Vista for free? =P

live search club :p


club.live.com


but you have to earn points and its 20k, and you get 25 points per each flexicon game :p



is it a bad idea to have a dual partition going on with both them?



EDIT: btw my machine is a AMD64 athlon 64 3500+
2gb of RAM
6800 gt oc and it runs most games right now that i play pretty well on XP sp3

[crystalklear64]

If you have XP already and its doing it for ya, theres no reason to get Vista.

When I built my new computer I installed Vista just cuz, and I guess I prefer XP just because I'm more familiar with it even after all this time using Vista.

Theres also the occasional issue that pops up that I haven't ever had in XP, so meh, its fine but nothing about it is worth changing your OS IMO.

Oh and for steam,

Any of my HL2 based games (portal, tf2, hl2) will ALWAYS cause a crash error when you quit the game. Obviously its not that big a deal since it only happens when you're quitting anyway, but kinda annoying.

Also, TF2 has a weird glitch that causes it to maximize and minimize repeatedly until you hit alt+tab.

Never had those issues on my XP machine, but ofc they are minor.

[Damian]

not much, its just free and theres not really that much effort, just earning a couple of easy points per day, should have it in a couple of weeks.
That didn't answer the question, your answer seems to be "because I can." Which is fine, but it means that you aren't really looking for advice.

Also, look at some of the other prizes. They have Rock Band for 25k, my wife is working on that one now alternating between Flexicon and those anagram ones that are three different but identical games (except the baseball one is stupidly slow for some reason).

[orbit18]

thanks for all the opinions :D