Macbook Pro: Windows 7 vs. XP for gaming

[heatfanaman]

Hi, which operating system should I pick for playing games. A friend told me that XP is better on older games, 7 is better for newer games. Is this true?

 

[Hellhammer]

It is quite true. Some older games don't like Vista or 7 that much. On the other hand, newer games are made for W7 and it also gets the latest drivers.

I would go with W7

 

[RichardBeer]

You'll also get DirectX11 support rather than the old DirectX9, although a lot of games probably still only run on DirectX10 which with Windows 7 you'll still have.

It would be nice for OS X to get graphical drivers on par with Windows but considering that Windows has Direct3D which was built with gaming in mind and OS X machines only make up around 10% of the market with only a percentage of those playing games; there isn't much of an impetus for improvement. (Though admittedly things are moving in a better direction lately).

 

[Hellhammer]

You'll also get DirectX11 support rather than the old DirectX9, although a lot of games probably still only run on DirectX10 which with Windows 7 you'll still have.

The GPU in MBPs does not support DX11

 

[Dr McKay]

I would just go with Windows 7 in which to remain more future proof. Plus XP is more likely you plague you with annoyances not related to gaming.

 

[Clackamas]

I would just go with Windows 7 in which to remain more future proof. Plus XP is more likely you plague you with annoyances not related to gaming.

Windows 7 distracts me with annoyances too....

 

[c1phr]

I would say Win 7 hands down.

I've seen it improve game performance on older machines my relatively significant amounts over XP, I would only imagine that it would work wonders on the MBP.

Plus, I assume you're getting a 64 bit version either way, in which case, Win 7 is far more stable in 64 bit than XP is.