Vista vs WinXP for gaming

runswithascript · 07-05-2008 11:18am

If you're playing games that aren't on the bleeding edge like Counter Strike or World Of Warcraft Ubuntu 8.04 really does run them better and even COD4 runs under wine these days. Just something to consider if you haven't got an uber PC.

IrishMike · 07-05-2008 11:37am

LA3G wrote: »

If you're playing games that aren't on the bleeding edge like Counter Strike or World Of Warcraft Ubuntu 8.04 really does run them better and even COD4 runs under wine these days. Just something to consider if you haven't got an uber PC.

Are u talking about emulation LA3G?

runswithascript · 07-05-2008 12:15pm

For all intents and purposes yes, though the program I use for it is called WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator). It gives you a choice of Windows OS modes in which to run the game but I'm not exactly sure why technically it's not called an emulator. I have an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE, Core 2 Duo 4200 @ 1.80Ghz and 1 GB or ram and I get a major performance boost playing games like this. Guides and the list of the 27,000 games that are confirmed to work is here.

Tea drinker · 09-05-2008 5:32pm

kaimera wrote: »

You didnt read it properly.

It just allows Vista to display the full 4gigs of ram. A 32bit os cant address over 3.25gigs.

I heard on de innernet that you need to subtract from that your GFX card memory (double for crossfire etc) and swop file size too.... but dunno for sure.

MooseJam · 09-05-2008 5:35pm

kaimera wrote: »

You didnt read it properly.

It just allows Vista to display the full 4gigs of ram. A 32bit os cant address over 3.25gigs.

how pointless is that

Cuddlesworth · 09-05-2008 5:48pm

Tea drinker wrote: »

I heard on de innernet that you need to subtract from that your GFX card memory (double for crossfire etc) and swop file size too.... but dunno for sure.

Xp/Vista can use exactly 3.2 gigs of memory in total. Use, not see. That includes memory on Gfx cards. So if you have a 1gig card, then the 32bit OS can effectively only use 2.2 gigs.

No single application running on a 32bit OS can use more then 2 gigs of system memory.

Swap file does not register as memory address allocations.

kaimera · 09-05-2008 6:10pm

MooseJam wrote: »

how pointless is that

lose/lose for MS and it aint even their fault.

Dont display the full amount and people bitch about where their RAM is gone.

Display it and people think they can use all 4gigs.

Cuddlesworth · 09-05-2008 6:35pm

MooseJam wrote: »

how pointless is that

It was quite a good idea, since 4+gigs of ram has become common the amount of people bitching on the internet that Windows only sees 3.2gigs is amazing. The amount of phone calls Microsoft and relevant hard-ware support lines have been getting must have been so bad that they actually bothered doing it.

Now it sees the ram(motherboard dependant) so they won't ring/complain any more.

MooseJam · 12-05-2008 11:51am

I've got 8800gt sli and 2 gigs ram, I'm guessing it would be totally pointless buying more so, is it possible to upgrade from vista to vista 64 ?

Sephiroth_dude · 12-05-2008 12:42pm

Im going building a new rig soon,would ye recommend I use vista 64?

Cuddlesworth · 12-05-2008 3:06pm

MooseJam wrote: »

I've got 8800gt sli and 2 gigs ram, I'm guessing it would be totally pointless buying more so, is it possible to upgrade from vista to vista 64 ?

Its not pointless buying more, you will end up using most of it. Just not that last fifth. If you have a proper copy of Vista then you have the option at install to install a 64bit or 32bit client. But OEM licenses only come in 32bit flavour. I think its so OEM's can market the 64bit as more expensive,

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Im going building a new rig soon,would ye recommend I use vista 64?

Yes, I use it myself and have seen no ill effects for 5 months. Its handy for the extra ram(due to caching) and games will start using 64bit extensions soon as they are hitting the limits of what a 32bit OS can handle. Age of Conan is a good example.

Sephiroth_dude · 12-05-2008 4:35pm

age of conan needs 4gbs of ram :-o?

MooseJam · 12-05-2008 5:06pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Its not pointless buying more, you will end up using most of it. Just not that last fifth. If you have a proper copy of Vista then you have the option at install to install a 64bit or 32bit client. But OEM licenses only come in 32bit flavour. I think its so OEM's can market the 64bit as more expensive,

yes but I've got 2 gigs already and 1 gig video memory so if I went out and bought another 2 gigs I could only use 250 megs ? am I right in thinking that, someone said 3.25 is the max a 32 bit os could address

Cuddlesworth · 12-05-2008 6:44pm

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

age of conan needs 4gbs of ram :-o?

From what I have read AOC uses 64bit memory allocations in a 32bit app. Which is really odd but seems to work.

MooseJam wrote: »

yes but I've got 2 gigs already and 1 gig video memory so if I went out and bought another 2 gigs I could only use 250 megs ? am I right in thinking that, someone said 3.25 is the max a 32 bit os could address

Sorry most people don't have 1 gig memory cards. But the game would need to use 1 gig of textures in order for that to happen and from my understanding most don't. In your case though I would say get 64bit.

uberpixie · 12-05-2008 11:14pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

If you have a proper copy of Vista then you have the option at install to install a 64bit or 32bit client. But OEM licenses only come in 32bit flavour. I think its so OEM's can market the 64bit as more expensive,

OEM comes in either 32bit only or 64bit only versions. both are priced the same more or less.

Home premium 32bit @€;92.50
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=350140

Home premium 64bit @€;93
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=350141

Cuddlesworth · 13-05-2008 8:30am

uberpixie wrote: »

OEM comes in either 32bit only or 64bit only versions. both are priced the same more or less.

Home premium 32bit @€;92.50
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=350140

Home premium 64bit @€;93
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=350141

Both are priced the same on Komplett, spec up a pc in Dell and tell me how much it costs to go to 64bit.

0ubliette · 13-05-2008 1:43pm

Ive been using Vista64 bit for about 2 months and its been fine for gaming.
The onyl problem i have is that occasionally ill get a blue screen of death but its quite rare.
Playing STALKER, ET:QW, Crysis, Gears of war, HL ep 2 & TF2, and not had any problems or hitches.

pwd · 14-05-2008 2:47pm

vista has a lot of unnecessary services running by default.
You can speed it up very noticeably by turning these off.
I was a little overzealous when I did it on my old laptop (though I noticed a BIG difference): I found myself having to go through the disabled services to do things like network it with another computer.
So it's a better idea to make two bat files to turn services off and on for when you are playing a game or some other intensive task. Also this way you can turn off stuff like virus protection that you don't want to stop permanently but might like to disable for your gaming session
( Make sure you know what each service does before you turn it off of course. You can google to find out usually )

here's a howto that probably works:

http://forums.ebuyer.com/showthread.php?p=256306

Vista vs WinXP for gaming

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