Vista Ultimate 32 Bit Vs XP Pro SP2 32 Bit for Gaming.

[USMC2Hard4U]

I am sure this has been asked 1000000 times. I have searched and I found too many mixed results to know what is good and what is bad because It turns into a flame war. I have been dead set to be aganst vista from Day 1, I dunno why but this is why I ask.

I have a MacBook Pro which can run Windows Vista/XP 32 Bit Natively. The only reason to run Windows on my Mac is to play games.

Am I safe to assume that XP plays games faster but Vista can only play DX10 games? Is that the tradeoff? Is there any circumstances where vista outperforms XP in games? Vista better with Multi Cores?

my Specs are Core 2 Duo (Merom) 2.4GHz / 4GB DDR2 667 / 200GB 7200RPM / GeForce 8600M GT 256MB / 1440x900 Native Res.

[griffinhart]

You are not safe to assume that XP runs games faster. It did when Vista drivers were still new, but things have changed since a year ago.... This article is about 5 months old and shows the changes that have occurred since Vista's release.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_nvidia_windows_vista_driver_performance_update/default.asp

[LstOfTheBrunnenG]

If you have 4 GB, why aren't you considering any of the 64-bit versions?

[swatX]

Go with vista x64 since you have 4gb ram.

[Ponder]

If you already own xp I would likely do nothing...

If you have to buy it today I would purchase a x64 bit version of vista...While direct x 10 is not amazing at the moment it seems silly to hedge that some game might be directx10 worthy. The problem with that logic is likely that the notebook does not support it anyways, or does not have enough horsepower to run said game in a manner that you would truly care about it.

[USMC2Hard4U]

If you have 4 GB, why aren't you considering any of the 64-bit versions?

The Mac EFI that I can run windows on does not yet support 64 bit Versions of windows. Only 32 Bit versions.

Edit: It should Note I own both Vista and XP. So purchasing one or another is not the concern. Just which one to use.