Should I consider Vista yet or stick with XP?

H

Hard and Confused

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
1,944
Okay for starters heres my current rig:

4850e @ 3ghz
DFI LP DK 790GX-M2Rs xfire mobo
8gb G.Skill DDRII 800 ( currently only 4gb installed )
2x 250gb 7200RPM SATA in Raid-0
Diamond HD 4850 OC'd to 690/1090

Heres what I do mainly:

Peruse forums posting thread like this o_O

Playing CoD 4/5, STALKER ( both ) and whatever else appeals to me.

Donwloading videos and converting them from video files to DVD format with AVS video converter.

I do a lot of archiving and un archiving.



Thats about it o_O

So do you guys think I'd get any benefits from Vista Home Premium 64-bit or should I pretty much stick with XP Home SP3?
 
I would stay with XP then go straight to 7.... no need for Vista, when 7 will be here shortly.
 
Why would you even buy an additional 4 GB of memory and still only be running a 32 bit OS? Given some of your tasks, you'd benefit from going to an x64 OS. Now, you yourself will have to decide to get Vista or download Windows 7 RC. No one else can make this decision for you, but with 8 GB of system memory available, you shouldn't be running an x86 OS at all...of any kind.
 
Stay with XP home for now.
Windows 7 is coming out soon and it's stabler and more reliable in my opinion than vista. Though being said most of vista's issues have been fixed. There's no real point in doing vista yet.

Wait it out till windows 7.
 
Skip Vista entirely, and go straight to Windows 7. Vista, while it is far more stable and has decent driver support compared to the mess that it was when it first came out, was by all accounts a failure in the eyes of Microsoft. This is why they stepped up the development of Windows 7 to get it ready so quickly. They hope that it'll be everything that Vista was supposed to be, but fell short of.

Unless you're just barely able to run the software you have now at a good framerate, then I'd advise upgrading to Windows 7. If you're running XP 32bit currently, then you're limited to around 4gb or RAM. So if you throw those extra DIMMs in there, they'll do you very little good. Also by moving up to Windows 7 you'll be able to take advantage of the DX10 features of your video card, which it supports. There isn't a way to install DX10 on Windows XP. Windows 7 also makes much more efficient use of Multi-Core processors than XP does, better handling of USB, etc.

You can get a copy of the Release Candidate for Windows 7 at microsofts website for free. While this is technically still in the beta stage, as it is right now it's a pretty solid release and fairly stable.
 
running vista x32 home premium edition

was thinking of going to 7..

use xp sp3 on another station...


any way to upgrade to x64 for no charge? or is that a fee....

I am still deciding....

OP, I do that same kinda thing....I like xp just because I am used to it....

al
 
Also by moving up to Windows 7 you'll be able to take advantage of the DX10 features of your video card.....


what does the dx10 stuff do>? and will it work with an hd 4850 card 512mb card....


big al
 
DL w7 64 bit RC and go for it/dual boot with xp

use it till march 2010
\make a move then

EASY AS PIE
 
There's no reason to dual boot anymore, especially with Windows 7. If you do need XP for some reason, load it in a VM.
 
surfbug said:
what does the dx10 stuff do>? and will it work with an hd 4850 card 512mb card....


big al
Click to expand...

DirectX 10 has Shader model 4.1, Geometry Textures, CPU state changes are more effecient, Texture Array swapping, etc.

Basically DirectX is the system of runtime libraries that developers use to create special effects in video games. Developers use the Direct3D SDK kit to create the effects, and Windows uses the Direct3D API to accurately recreate those effects in real time. There are things that your video card is capable of doing to make your games look better, but in order for it to do that it needs DirectX 10.

Some examples:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/517658128_7bd799cb28.jpg
http://xs321.xs.to/xs321/07472/directx_9_vs_10.jpg
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/650/callofjuarezdx10ng0.jpg

The earliest games to support DX10 won't show a drastic difference between the two versions, however as more developers make better use of the API, your games simply won't look nearly as good as they could if you had DX10 enabled. Similar to the difference you can see in HL2 between DX8 and DX9.

Oh and yes, the video card you listed does support DirectX 10.1
 
Last edited:
As much as I am an advocate of Vista, I'd have to say that it wouldn't be logical or cost effective at this point. Windows 7 is around the corner. I'd opt to stick with XP until then.
 
Blu_Haze said:
DirectX 10 has Shader model 4.1, Geometry Textures, CPU state changes are more effecient, Texture Array swapping, etc.

Basically DirectX is the system of runtime libraries that developers use to create special effects in video games. Developers use the Direct3D SDK kit to create the effects, and Windows uses the Direct3D API to accurately recreate those effects in real time. There are things that your video card is capable of doing to make your games look better, but in order for it to do that it needs DirectX 10.

Some examples:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/517658128_7bd799cb28.jpg
http://xs321.xs.to/xs321/07472/directx_9_vs_10.jpg
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/650/callofjuarezdx10ng0.jpg

The earliest games to support DX10 won't show a drastic difference between the two versions, however as more developers make better use of the API, your games simply won't look nearly as good as they could if you had DX10 enabled. Similar to the difference you can see in HL2 between DX8 and DX9.

Oh and yes, the video card you listed does support DirectX 10.1
Click to expand...


thanks for the info! also, I saw the other thread that I can load win 7 from a flash drive, so I am gonna try that....

thanks

al
 
K, I'll try the Win 7 on a dual boot as I want to make sure I don't lose the ability to use my PC if I find a bug in Win 7.
 
TheGamerZ said:
As much as I am an advocate of Vista, I'd have to say that it wouldn't be logical or cost effective at this point. Windows 7 is around the corner. I'd opt to stick with XP until then.
Click to expand...

This. XP blows and I love Vista, but 7 is right around the corner.
 
TheGamerZ said:
As much as I am an advocate of Vista, I'd have to say that it wouldn't be logical or cost effective at this point. Windows 7 is around the corner. I'd opt to stick with XP until then.
Click to expand...

Go with this. No point in going Vista when Win7 is due in Oct.
 
You can also get the RC1 for Win 7 that will have the minimum amount of bugs and use that until the full retail version comes out sometime during the holiday season. RC1 is good till June 2010 and will still have full update services and everything.
 
QwertyJuan said:
XP Blows? I hardly think so.... it's STILL an excellent working OS.
Click to expand...

Meh, I can't stand to use XP anymore. It looks bad, is less secure, search isn't very good, and Vista is faster. I switched back when Vista first came out and never looked back.

XP is nice if you have really old hardware (I'm talking Pentium 1-3) and need to run a "modern" operating system with an easy-to-use GUI. In my experience XP tends to perform better than linux distros with Gnome or KDE on those sort of machines, but I can't see why anyone would prefer XP over Vista on modern hardware.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Meh, I can't stand to use XP anymore. It looks bad, is less secure, search isn't very good, and Vista is faster. I switched back when Vista first came out and never looked back.

XP is nice if you have really old hardware (I'm talking Pentium 1-3) and need to run a "modern" operating system with an easy-to-use GUI. In my experience XP tends to perform better than linux distros with Gnome or KDE on those sort of machines, but I can't see why anyone would prefer XP over Vista on modern hardware.
Click to expand...

I agree with the 'modern hardware' part... but XP still works well considering it's gonna be 9 years old soon. :)
 
XP is like a dodge station wagon, nothin flashy,reliable and will get you there.

You can easily D/L a trial of W7 RC and give it w whirl.....I'd get the X64 version.
If you like it, you can the skip Vista altogether.
 
Hard and Confused said:
Okay for starters heres my current rig:

4850e @ 3ghz
DFI LP DK 790GX-M2Rs xfire mobo
8gb G.Skill DDRII 800 ( currently only 4gb installed )
2x 250gb 7200RPM SATA in Raid-0
Diamond HD 4850 OC'd to 690/1090

Heres what I do mainly:

Peruse forums posting thread like this o_O

Playing CoD 4/5, STALKER ( both ) and whatever else appeals to me.

Donwloading videos and converting them from video files to DVD format with AVS video converter.

I do a lot of archiving and un archiving.



Thats about it o_O

So do you guys think I'd get any benefits from Vista Home Premium 64-bit or should I pretty much stick with XP Home SP3?
Click to expand...

Hahaha your username is awesome.

That said, wait for Windows 7.
 
I just bought one of the coppies of Vista Home Premium 64 from my shop for the $90 we paid for it :( I couldn't wait :(

I completely formatted my raid array thus probably putting an end to XP for good :'(

Gonna find out is this was a wise move for myself :-/
 
well, you have it now. You'll like vista. I made the jump a few months back and never looked back.
And with vista 64, you can take advantage of all that ram.
 
Charlie Hustle said:
well, you have it now. You'll like vista. I made the jump a few months back and never looked back.
And with vista 64, you can take advantage of all that ram.
Click to expand...

I made the complete switch about 3-4 months back myself BUT I didn't spend $90 to do it. I had it free from work. I woulda waited for 7 if I had to pay for it.
 
QwertyJuan said:
I made the complete switch about 3-4 months back myself BUT I didn't spend $90 to do it. I had it free from work. I woulda waited for 7 if I had to pay for it.
Click to expand...

Well, same with me for my vista business on my laptop. But for the vista ultimate on my desktop, i used my school email address and got it for $70, because of the promotion they were running then.
 
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