Windows Vista Gaming Performance Reports

[Rob Williams]

I was actually considering buying vista myself untill i read this article, i had seen the beta on a laptop during my work experience and it it looked quite nice, however, i was having doubts about the gaming side of things i hadnt heard much and most was negative, this article confirms that doubt.

Thanks
Gubber

I imagine that 6 months down the road, things will be a lot smoother. A few people I know have bought Vista in the past few days though, and neither of them are terribly impressed regardless. The biggest beef they all have is as to why Microsoft would change things around so much, and confuse people.

 

[Kilamon]

In summation: WoW = more actual objects in your area of the game physics wise being proc.

EQ2 = twice as much being run for a single object with less objects overall.

No bash. Youre right. EQ2 has morebloat than a Fugu. That's why processor is important for EQ 1 and 2. In all actuality, the comparison for any mmorpg should be interesting as long as everything, including connection speed, server and other variables, are accounted for.

Have you thought about using prime to see any difference?

 

[madstork91]

Wow... I really expected to get some serious bash from this.

Kilamon: Although I havent run actual tests, I can run WoW on max settings just fine. Any lag was actually server side. My friend with a decent AM2 proc 2gig of ddr2 and and a 7900gtx was seeing lag both on the server side and general gameplay. EQ2 i.m.humble.o is just coded horribly. I remember seeing reports on their beta testing that were something like this "Omg its running so slow now","why did they do this? are they trying to rush so that they beat WoW's expected launch date?" (wow pushed that back too, thats funny), "I'm no longer beta testing as the last update completely moved my comp specs out of the min req", "I hope this isnt the final product" (that one I read ~ a week before launch)

I just dont think that it would be a great game to test anything out on your pc. It alone has WAY to many problems on good rigs. I suppose a "how will my pc handle a jacked up online game" test would put this at the top of the list, otherwise no.

(those quotes were a summation of posts and reviews that i read pre eq2 launch.)

 

[Rob Williams]

I just dont think that it would be a great game to test anything out on your pc. It alone has WAY to many problems on good rigs. I suppose a "how will my pc handle a jacked up online game" test would put this at the top of the list, otherwise no.

Personally, I don't believe any MMO would be a good title for use in a benchmarking session... too much comes into play. There are two aspects that could drastically affect avg FPS in two different runs. In one run, there may not be many other players around you, but in the second there may be a LOT. Same goes for mobs. Then the other issue is latency with the server or your connection. If you run into a high ping at any given point, it can decrease the overall FPS.

So.. I think that the only way to seriously gauge how well each OS would handle WoW for instance would be to play it for a half hour at a time, instead of the usual 5 minutes we usually do.

We are always up for other ideas, or corrections if you think I have my facts wrong.

 

[Unregistered]

Ok here is a question - i Hope someone can answer me without bashing

I am with a clan that uses Call Of duty UO still and the problem i have is that i keep getting booted from the game due to PB being unable to update itself - i tried to manual update but i still get booted with the same message to manually update the game - is VISTA doing this and if so then what thing do i need to turn off to be able to play the game? Other than this problem i have had no issues with Vista so far...

 

[Unregistered]

ok me again - when i do update PB, COD no longer runs! lol man i am doomed for this game i guess.... again any solutions here???

 

[Rob Williams]

Hah, I think you are doomed for Vista. There are still so many bugs related to Vista, it's one reason why I don't recommend anyone to upgrade right now.

Did you happen to check out the official forums for the game and see if there is any info there? You may want to try to run PB or CoD in Compatibility Mode... for Windows XP. Just right-click the game or PB and hit up the Properties and you can change it in there.

You may also want to make sure you don't have an Anti-Virus or Firewire installed, as they are are the cause of a lot Vista gaming related problems.

 

[Unregistered]

Got the answer - Right Click the Desktop Shortcut, Properties, Compatibility, Check off Run as Admin - the game runs fine now

 

[Unregistered]

i just upgraded to vista and am a die hard gamer.
Farcry has a big performance drop, frames rates are terible and game is sluggish.
Gothic 3 no longer runs even after patching.
Lineage 2 wont run and NCsoft said they are not updating. although i did find a fix to get the game to run.

20 percent of my apps wont work and there is a problem running commands in DOS, some wont work giving errors.

all in all i find that to get a game to run you have to spend 1 hour on the net looking for a fix.
the gui is nice but i take performance over style.

I am going back to XP and will wait a few more months, just not worth it for me.
SaD

 

[Greg King]

As much as I loved Vista, and still do for everyday use, the honeymoon ended when I started installing my applications. While it's a hassle, this isn't anything that we all didn't see when XP first dropped 5 or so years ago. Back then, most endured it because it was either wait for decent drivers or go back to 98 or, dare I say it, ME. With Vista, we already have an arguably incredible OS to use in XP so to me at least, the jump to Vista entirely is just a difficult one to make.

Needless to say, I am right there with you anonymous poster.

 

[Unregistered]

Um, no one went back to '98 when XP was a bust. They went back to 2000. How did you forget about that rock solid OS?

I'm running Vista, no problems thus far but I only play Company of Heroes.

 

[Greg King]

Good point. However, I didn't necessarily forget about 2000 and your right, it was a decent OS. However, I would venture to bet that more people had 98 than they did 2000.

 

[Unregistered]

unsure about vista

Dear Rob,

I am thinking of purchasing a new computer from Dell or Cyberpower PC. Dell does not offer Windows XP on there Dimension XPS 410 only Vista on there higher end XPS 710 they ONLY offer XP. Cyberpower offers XP on all of there systems. Being an avid gamer what is your opinion if you have to purchase a system now if you had your choice. Please let me know when you get a chance.
Thanks so much, greatly appreciated
Dave

 

[Unregistered]

my set up is almost identical to yours Rob.
I ran the tests at pcpitstop and my graphics score was
like 100 MP/s under vista
i check my previous score under xp for the same hardware and it consistenly scored 450-480 MP/s

my vista was a hp upgrade version.. another poster mentions drivers for the MB that are written for vista.. wonder if hp bothered to include those.. my graphics scores were dismal.. the onboard video beat my 7900gs card!

Under xp i can run nwn2 smooth as glass at 1280x1024
with vista its unplayable..

I wiped the drive and reinstalled xp.

hope nvidia can get the drivers fixed
and no decent eax3 from my audigy 4 card stinks.

vista looks really good.. but I wish i could get my games to work with it.

 

[Unregistered]

Have just installed Vista Home Premium - most apps OK.
However Doom 3 demo1 runs at 48fps with the latest Nvidia Beta driver
compared to 73fps with XP !!!
Doom is playable with no glitches but it backs up what others have found
any other Doom players out there ?

 

[Unregistered]

Any chance you will do another review with the latest driver rev? Also can you test how WoW performs, I know it relies on Internet connection but I want to see you do it on XP vs Vista on your machine.

 

[Unregistered]

Ram anyone?

Rob,

So you used the SAME amount of ram for your vista test install as you did with your XP test install?

If so, well then to be frank your test is completely inaccurate. Last I checked, Vista has steeper Ram requirements just for the OS. I ran some benches of my own with HL-2 and after doubling my ram from 2gb to 4gb... no performance drops at all between XP and Vista.

Thanks for a biased review.

Sincerely,

You should know better

 

[Rob Williams]

Rob,

So you used the SAME amount of ram for your vista test install as you did with your XP test install?

If so, well then to be frank your test is completely inaccurate. Last I checked, Vista has steeper Ram requirements just for the OS. I ran some benches of my own with HL-2 and after doubling my ram from 2gb to 4gb... no performance drops at all between XP and Vista.

Thanks for a biased review.

Sincerely,

You should know better

Do you really have a clue what you are talking about? You are saying, that I should have UPGRADED the computer before proceeding with Vista testing? Give me a break!

 

[madstork91]

Rob,

So you used the SAME amount of ram for your vista test install as you did with your XP test install?

If so, well then to be frank your test is completely inaccurate. Last I checked, Vista has steeper Ram requirements just for the OS. I ran some benches of my own with HL-2 and after doubling my ram from 2gb to 4gb... no performance drops at all between XP and Vista.

Thanks for a biased review.

Sincerely,

You should know better

The purpose of any experiment is to keep as many thing the same from one group to another and then evaluate the significant effects upon changing what is called a variable. (or X)

In this case the variable was which OS. The control set up was XP, what was and still is the one a lot of people use. The variable set up was Vista. The ONLY thing changed between the two was the OS.

Changing ANY of the hardware from one system group to the next would have made the results MEANINGLESS. So yes... The SAME amount of RAM was used on for both operating systems.

While I would like at this time to call you a noob/troll/misguidedsoul I wont (or did I?), because perhaps you missed the day of ANY junior high/high school science class where they went over the Scientific Method. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method)

Please read the above wiki entry that was linked and realize that it applies to more than just chemicals, bunsen burners, lab rats, and physics (not in that order or even as a grouping, LOL)

Sincerely,

The Aves de Informaticus.

 

[Rob Williams]

/me note to self. Don't rub Stork the wrong way.