Virtual Machine for Gaming--- Host is Vista 64 Business; I want XP Pro 32bit as guest

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Pocatello

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Virtual Machine for Gaming--- Host is Vista 64 Business; I want XP Pro 32bit as guest

I hope I can do this, and I hope I can game from within XP Pro.

Virtual PC 2007 Free Download from MS

I like my Vista 64 bit Business gaming machine. I have a Q6600, some new nVidia graphics card (I forget; 8800 something) 4 Gb memory. Some games play fine in Vista, but many do not.

I hope to install XP Pro as a guest within the Vista 64 Business using the Virtual PC 2007. I've never done a VM before, and I have some concerns.

Will the XP Pro get to use the full functionality of the nVidia graphics card so games can be played at 1600x1200? If I can't use the graphics card for games, that would be a deal breaker for me.

Thanks in advance. :D

Let me know if I missed anything! ;)
 
It will work. I actually have a similar setup, being that I Vista Ultimate with XP 32-bit on Virtual PC 2007. I use it for older games that aren't exactly Vista compatible. I've honestly haven't used any 'graphically intense' games on the guest OS.
 
Pocatello said:
Will the XP Pro get to use the full functionality of the nVidia graphics card so games can be played at 1600x1200? If I can't use the graphics card for games, that would be a deal breaker for me.
Click to expand...

It will not, virtual machines get a virtual video card (along will every other virtual device) which can be equated to some pretty terrible onboard graphics chips. For older games probably ok, but don't plan to play anything made even remotely recently. Which of course you wouldn't want to do anyway given the specs of the physical machine you have. ;)
 
Hardware accelerated graphics are pretty much unsupported or experimental for all virtual machine software out there. Performace in 3d games would probably be abysmal even if you could get it working.

Your best bet is to dual boot XP/Vista.
 
gtg465x said:
What games don't play in Vista? Ultra old stuff?
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SS2, Bad Mojo, and Grim Fandango, etc. I've got DosBox running a great number of DOS supported games in Vista, but some of the later Win9x games just do not work right, even with compatibility changes.
 
SockMan! said:
Hardware accelerated graphics are pretty much unsupported or experimental for all virtual machine software out there. Performace in 3d games would probably be abysmal even if you could get it working.

Your best bet is to dual boot XP/Vista.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true, there are some decent stuff on the mac side of things that do 3D games fairly well. VMware Fusion, crossover etc. They are growing fast in this field.
 
StarTrek4U said:
It will not, virtual machines get a virtual video card (along will every other virtual device) which can be equated to some pretty terrible onboard graphics chips. For older games probably ok, but don't plan to play anything made even remotely recently. Which of course you wouldn't want to do anyway given the specs of the physical machine you have. ;)
Click to expand...

Okay, so the virtual machine is out for me. I must use the power of the graphics card... that is why it is there --- playing the games. That helps alot.

SockMan! said:
Hardware accelerated graphics are pretty much unsupported or experimental for all virtual machine software out there. Performace in 3d games would probably be abysmal even if you could get it working.

Your best bet is to dual boot XP/Vista.
Click to expand...

Dual boot? I've never done that before. I am a dual boot virgin. Is this easy to do when I already have Vista installed?

Thanks for your replies.
 
SockMan! said:
Hardware accelerated graphics are pretty much unsupported or experimental for all virtual machine software out there. Performace in 3d games would probably be abysmal even if you could get it working.

Your best bet is to dual boot XP/Vista.
Click to expand...

Dual-booting works, but can be a real pain in the ass. If I were you I'd just install a second hard drive with XP and boot to it when needed.
 
Choder said:
Dual-booting works, but can be a real pain in the ass. If I were you I'd just install a second hard drive with XP and boot to it when needed.
Click to expand...

I could install a second hard drive. No problem there.

The motherboard is an Intel Bad Axe version 2. I am not sure about this, but I have seen the boot screen on some of my computers ask me if I want to dual boot (or choose where to boot from). I was kinda surprised to see that because I have never installed a second boot drive or dual booted anything before. It might be on the computer in question with the Bad Axe, but I am not sure. I've never seen that in the boot screen before.
 
Instead of dual-booting, I'd get a removable drive cage, and just swap in the drive you wanted to boot from.
 
Maybe it was offering you the ability to choose your boot device. I know my IBM desktop at work allows me to press F12 to choose an alternate boot device. Once pressed, I am presented with a list of all possible boot devices (Hard drives, floppy drive, optical drives and flash drives) that the BIOS currently sees. This is exactly what you want to see if you plan on going the second hard drive route.

I'd remove the Vista HDD while installing XP. Best not to complicate matters.

Pocatello said:
I could install a second hard drive. No problem there.

The motherboard is an Intel Bad Axe version 2. I am not sure about this, but I have seen the boot screen on some of my computers ask me if I want to dual boot (or choose where to boot from). I was kinda surprised to see that because I have never installed a second boot drive or dual booted anything before. It might be on the computer in question with the Bad Axe, but I am not sure. I've never seen that in the boot screen before.
Click to expand...
 
DeaconFrost said:
Instead of dual-booting, I'd get a removable drive cage, and just swap in the drive you wanted to boot from.
Click to expand...

This computer is used primarily by my young son. I'm guessing that such a solution would not be practical.

But a second boot option in the BIOS boot up screen is within his comfort zone... and mine.

Choder said:
Maybe it was offering you the ability to choose your boot device. I know my IBM desktop at work allows me to press F12 to choose an alternate boot device. Once pressed, I am presented with a list of all possible boot devices (Hard drives, floppy drive, optical drives and flash drives) that the BIOS currently sees. This is exactly what you want to see if you plan on going the second hard drive route.

I'd remove the Vista HDD while installing XP. Best not to complicate matters.
Click to expand...

Yes, removing the Vista HDD sounds like a very good idea. Thanks.



 
I know I've played Grim Fandango on my Vista machine. What problems are you running into? The only game I haven't been able to get running is Full Throttle with DOSbox.
 
Playing 3d games on virtual machines is spotty and experimental. Some day it will be pretty good, there is clearly a market for it and VMWare engineers are researching it.
 
melkore said:
I know I've played Grim Fandango on my Vista machine. What problems are you running into? The only game I haven't been able to get running is Full Throttle with DOSbox.
Click to expand...
I'll have to go back and check the errors. I believe I couldn't get it to boot right if I remember correctly. For FT, I'd use ScuumVM. It runs pretty much perfect :)
 
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