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Vista slows down new gaming PC

roland.g

roland.g

Suspended
Original poster
So a guy I work with built himself a new PC, what he dubbed his 'PS4', his ultimate gaming computer.

He got a crazy big box with 3 or 4 fans that can add liquid cooling. An Evo something or other motherboard, I beleive sporting a 1066mhz Front Side Bus. A Conroe Core 2 Duo Extreme 2.4gHz (I think - I want to say it was a T6600 or T6700 whichever that is).

His graphics card is an nVidia with 640MB VRAM. He has DDR 667 or 800 something RAM, 2GB. And 2 Seagate 320GB SATA II drives. He also got a pair of 16X superdrives, sorry don't know the model. Also a nice audio card, Soundblaster or something. He built this thing for about $2,200.

Problem is, he put Vista on it. He said it runs like a pig. He can't achieve the same FPS in many games as he can on his 3 yr old box because Vista is such a resource hog. He is considering throwing XP on it after all. Pretty sad when a brand new highly specced computer built by a guy who knows what he is doing, is that hindered by the new OS. So if Vista is selling that many copies, how miserable must people be.
 
The two biggest ways to improve the responsiveness of Vista:

1. Throw the computer away.

2. Buy a Mac.

Okay, all jokes aside:

1. Add more memory. Really. Even if you already have 2 GB. Vista is much happier with 3-4 GB of RAM.

2. Plug in a fast 4 GB USB flash drive, and use Vista's 'ReadyBoost'.

And one other thing: If he's running the 64-bit version, go to the 32-bit. He is not going to actually use the 64-bitness of it unless he is doing computationally-intensive mathematical or scientific work, or if he has more than 4 GB of RAM. The 64-bit version has less mature drivers, and will be slower than the 32-bit version on the same hardware. (Unless you happen to have an exact set of hardware that has good 64-bit drivers. nVidia hardware is *NOT* one of those.)

P.S. This thread doesn't belong in the 'Apple Hardware' forum. 'Community Discussion', or, being generous, 'Windows on the Mac', would be more appropriate. (Of course, others would argue Wasteland.)
 
Out of curiosity, what does the "Vista better experience app" that scans your computer to see how it'll fair with Vista installed report for his computer?
 
Turning the UI stuff down isn't going to affect game performance since that's all turned off when a game is running anyhow. Memory is going to make the biggest difference. And the 32 bit if he's on 64. What it comes down to though is that drivers just aren't as mature on Vista, doubly so on 64 bit, so the slow down really isn't hugely surprising.
 
roland.g said:
So a guy I work with built himself a new PC, what he dubbed his 'PS4', his ultimate gaming computer.

He got a crazy big box with 3 or 4 fans that can add liquid cooling. An Evo something or other motherboard, I beleive sporting a 1066mhz Front Side Bus. A Conroe Core 2 Duo Extreme 2.4gHz (I think - I want to say it was a T6600 or T6700 whichever that is).

His graphics card is an nVidia with 640MB VRAM. He has DDR 667 or 800 something RAM, 2GB. And 2 Seagate 320GB SATA II drives. He also got a pair of 16X superdrives, sorry don't know the model. Also a nice audio card, Soundblaster or something. He built this thing for about $2,200.

Problem is, he put Vista on it. He said it runs like a pig. He can't achieve the same FPS in many games as he can on his 3 yr old box because Vista is such a resource hog. He is considering throwing XP on it after all. Pretty sad when a brand new highly specced computer built by a guy who knows what he is doing, is that hindered by the new OS. So if Vista is selling that many copies, how miserable must people be.
Click to expand...


NVIDIA cards are NOT compatible with vista at this time

and if hes a gamer he needs more ram
 
Joe Average that buys a PC will be using a $600 to $800 PC and they will notice it be more dramatically slower.

Of course, Joe Average has spyware and tons of applications loading into the system tray from their older XP system with 256/512 ram and a clean Vista PC probably will be faster for them at first.
 
I have Vista on my desktop PC and it's actually a little quicker than my XP install.

Nvidia Vista drivers are pretty bad at the moment. Probably the slowness.
 
just count how many ppl jump on and start bashing......😀

1. Vista has new version DirectX in it (if u don't know what this is, plz stop reading right away, coz u need some basic clue first),

2. and as any new OSes, the hardware drivers will need to be re-polished before the real power can be released(This has to be true, right?).

3. and as a gamer, he got 640VRAM? I might be a little bit out of touch with industry, but I thought the VRAM are 2^* in numbers? Anyway, if he can afford a graphic card with more than 512MB VRAM, he should have a system ram of at least 3G.

4. Last point, in gaming area, OSX still no match for windows, even if the guy got a super, even better config machine (if possible), he can't play most latest game at all on a Mac w/o windows.

(I honestly think the problem is the optimization of software/hardware driver for the Vista, which is nothing to be bashed for.)
 
oh bs vista does not suck THAT bad... it does suck though

Put XP on it and maybe when they come out with a version that DOESENT involve bugs he can make the switch.
 
crees! said:
^

Roland.g, can you get your friend to run said test?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't know him that well other than I saw all his stuff come in and talked to him about performance. I have no real interest in helping him have a better Windows experience.

Add to which, have you seen this
 
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