xp 64 bits or vista 64 bits ?

S

slamcmy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 10, 2007
Messages
241
i guys, this is 1st post on these forums, which i like a lot, especially the reviews, but anyways im having a hard time to decide which OS im gonna run on my new rig.....i already have all the components......what i do usually with my pc's is encode dvd's and audio....and especially i play games a lot.
these are my spec:

CPU: q6600 g0 stepping
MOBO: EVGA 680i NF68T1
VIDEO CARDS: EVGA 8800gts 640mb ( im waiting for the other one to run SLI )
HDD: WD Raptor 150 GB SATA Hard Drive ( for booting and for all my software ) and a WD SATA 2 500 GB for storage
RAM: Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB(2 x 2GB) ddr2 800mhz

i know i have to be on a 64 bits OS ( cause im using 4gigs on ram ) but im trying to decide which one ?
i have been researching this for a lot of time, and still i cant decide.....i have been reading that vista lets the government spy on your pc, that uses a lot of ram when its on idle, compatibility issues, not stable.........and about xp 64 bits, we all know that xp is already the past and that we gotta move to new things but i like to hear from the experts on this community what do you think ? do you have any recommendations, any thoughts ?

thanks in advance for all your help :)
 
You say you play games a lot. I'd say go with Vista because of that. DirectX10 is going to be mainstream before long. :)
 
but i've heard that SLI wont work with vista, is that true or it already has a driver to fix that.
 
slamcmy said:
but i've heard that SLI wont work with vista, is that true or it already has a driver to fix that.
Click to expand...

Recent driver releases as well as patches from MS have gotten rid of a lot of the SLI issues. There are still some problems (notably older cards not being supported in an SLI configuration) and some other hiccups along the way. Looking at the release notes, SLI antialiasing is still not supported by current nVidia drivers. However, to say that it "won't work with Vista" is a vast overstatement and actually almost the opposite of truth.
 
Yep, running Vista x64 w/ 7900 GTX SLI on my XPS 600 - works great. I had previously tried XP x64, but had way more issues with games. And Vista looks way cooler anyways. :)
 
slamcmy said:
i know i have to be on a 64 bits OS ( cause im using 4gigs on ram ) but im trying to decide which one ?
Click to expand...

Further development of and for XP x64 will not occur. If you're moving to 64-bit on a new rig then the choice of Vista x64 should be a 'no-brainer'.
i have been reading that
  1. vista lets the government spy on your pc
  2. uses a lot of ram when its on idle
  3. compatibility issues
  4. not stable
Click to expand...
  1. No it doesn't. No OS can actually STOP the government from doing so if they choose, of course, but Vista does no more than any other OS in the way of HELPING them ;)
  2. Misleading criticisms there. Vista uses, at any particular point in time, more of your RAM than earlier Windows versions but that's becauses it manages your RAM more effectively. When you see a higher reported 'usage' figure that doesn't mean other programs you try to run will have no RAM available to them. Vista will re-allocate your RAM as it is needed.
  3. Whilst some software compatibility issues do exist, there isn't a single one of them which can't be resolved by either updating the program in question or replacing it with a more compatible alternative. Hardware compatibility is excellent, with the overwhelming majority of hardware in common use supported.
  4. Amongst the several Vista rigs I have here I have one 'unstable' system. It has a dud, secondhand motherboard in it, which I haven't yet got around to upgrading :)
 
Catweazle said:
3. Whilst some software compatibility issues do exist, there isn't a single one of them which can't be resolved by either updating the program in question or replacing it with a more compatible alternative. Hardware compatibility is excellent, with the overwhelming majority of hardware in common use supported.
Click to expand...

While I think that's generally true...I don't think it's necessarily quite that simple. Replacing incompatible software with a more compatible alternative may be cost prohibitive compared to just not using Vista.

One example: the wonderful NeatReceipts receipt scanner/software package. Does not work at all in Vista x64 (they took forever to come out with a beta version for Vista x86, which is flaky at best). I haven't found a reasonable package that works as well for that purpose as NeatReceipts, without having to start from scratch or undergo a painful conversion. Fortunately, through the magic of VMWare, I can get around that...but I wouldn't expect most consumers to jump through the hoops I have.
 
I very strongly believe that the "cost-prohibitive" argument is often inappropriately trotted out. We're talking here about a machine that's been built for private, gaming use, aren't we, rather than a machine deployed in a corporate retail environment and having to run mission-critical (and possibly custom built) receipt scanner software! And whilst such an issue can be relevent to corporate deployment, it is so because it's one of the many preparation/training/deployment issues corporations face and which leave them adopting an updated OS, on average, much later during the product's lifespan than private users are able.



For the bulk of private/personal use scenarios the software compatibility issues will relate to:

  • Secondrate software which has been freely provided with printers and other hardware items, and which is most often installed because the end-user assumes it must be 'necessary' because it's on the disk!
  • Downloaded 'freebie' software - particularly tools and utilities. If they don't work under Vista then find alternatives which do.
  • Downloaded and 'cracked' older versions of commercial software packages. If you're a 'pirate' and the older version you've pirated doens't work in Vista thenb bloodywell go swashbuckling again, on a new trip, rather than Vista bitchin'
 
so with 2 evga 8800gts 640mb on SLI, since they are the newest video cards from nvidia i should be able to run SLI with no issues right ? am i gonna lose performance on vista running SLI or i should be getting the same performance as running SLI on xp ?
those updates you guys are talking about can be downloaded automaticlly once i install vista 64 bits by running the automatic updates or will i have to look for them ? should i also download the newest drive from nvidia or will i have to look for an specific driver ?

thanks for your attention
 
What size monitor do you have and what screen resolution do you run on it?

That rig, with a pair of 8800GT cards fitted to it, should be able to absolutely CREAM any game available now or upcoming any time before at least the middle of next year, on just about any monitor you could hook it up to!

So much so that any difference in performance you could possibly encounter between XP and Vista would be rendered meaningless. Seriously, dude. the rig is good enough that you don't even have to CARE if Vista slows it down a wee tad or not!
 
Catweazle said:
I very strongly believe that the "cost-prohibitive" argument is often inappropriately trotted out. We're talking here about a machine that's been built for private, gaming use, aren't we, rather than a machine deployed in a corporate retail environment and having to run mission-critical (and possibly custom built) receipt scanner software!
Click to expand...

Well, in my scenario - this is my personal PC, and I use the receipt scanner to track personal expenditures. It's nice come tax time if I need to itemize anything, and it keeps me from having the store boxes of receipts for years on end. I've invested a significant amount of time in using the product and storing information in its environment, so there would be a significant transition cost to me personally (in the way of time), and failure to use it would also be costly (in the form of my wife giving me grief for buying the thing in the first place and not using it). It's a COTS product (most prominently sold at kiosks in airports because they are targeting business travelers and expense reports).

That said - it was never advertised as working with Vista or being Vista compatible (it still isn't), so it's my own damn fault that it got left behind in my decision. However, just because I'm not a business doesn't mean I don't have to consider cost.

At the end of the day - I guess my point is that while I agree with what you said there applies to most situations (i.e., the bulk of...), there are exceptions. That's all. :)
 
slamcmy said:
so with 2 evga 8800gts 640mb on SLI, since they are the newest video cards from nvidia i should be able to run SLI with no issues right ? am i gonna lose performance on vista running SLI or i should be getting the same performance as running SLI on xp ?
those updates you guys are talking about can be downloaded automaticlly once i install vista 64 bits by running the automatic updates or will i have to look for them ? should i also download the newest drive from nvidia or will i have to look for an specific driver ?

thanks for your attention
Click to expand...

There are a few issues noted above (most obviously, SLI antialiasing is not yet supported) but overall things should work fine. As far as drivers/updates...you should probably use the latest beta nVidia drivers. Most updates you would need would be pushed through Windows Update. However, on its driver page nVidia also has links to various hotfixes that may or may not be in Windows Update when you get up and running...
 
What size monitor do you have and what screen resolution do you run on it?
Click to expand...

its a Samsung SyncMaster 216BW 21.6-inch LCD Monitor, my resolution running on windows is set at its maximum 1680 x 1050.....but when i game since its a widescreen monitor i play 1600 x 900 in most games, cause there are some games that dont have a resolution for widescreen like battlefield 2 in those games i play 1280 x 960....is that ok ?
is it true that when you have activated all the aero features you loss performance when gaming ? if its true ? can that be deactivated ? or it wont matter if its acticated or not ?

thanks
 
Aero etc does NOT have a negative impact on gaming performance. Not unless your game is running in a window rather than fullscreen.


At the screen resolutions you are using you should have no problems whatsoever. You're talking here about hardware configurations which have been developed with the capacity to achieve playable framerates on 30" monitors at 2560x1600, and you're using it with much less demanding display equipment! Would it run games like Crysis and beyond, with all the bells and whistles maxxed out, at those high screen resolutions? Prolly not. Nothing yet in existence would, and the next 'generation' of hardware prolly wouldn't either, but regardless you have hardware which will still 'cream' the games in comparison to what the vast bulk of other people playing them would have at their disposal. You're at the pooint where any disctinctions in framerates between one OS version and another become basically only points of academic interest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top