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What is the best/most efficient OS for gaming?

V

vader1990

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 23, 2008
220
2
Hi,

I have the 2.4Ghz/2GB DDR3/250GB HDD stock UMBP, I was wondering what the best OS is for me if all I'm going to do with that bootcamp partition is gaming. I plan to play games like Call of Duty 4 level--not crysis intensity, lol.

What OS should I use for my bootcamp partition? Is Vista Ultimate a god choice? What about Windows 7? XP? I want to squeeze every frame possible, lol...

Also, how much HDD space should I allocate to my bootcamp?
 
I would wait for Windows 7 Ultimate to come out in a few months. Whatever you do , don't install Vista. 2GB of DDR3 is not enough to run Vista and a game like Call of Duty. But if you really don't want to wait, you could get Vista Premium and a 4GB Memory upgrade from OWC to make it run smoother.
 
XP is the more efficient OS, but I would recommend Vista 64 over it.

Edit:

As the above poster mentioned, Windows 7 is shaping up nicely. However, I wouldn't bother waiting for it. Get a copy of Windows and start playing already!
 
XP's reliable, Vista is a resource hog but it does have direct x 10. Personally between the 2 I'd go for XP.

However on the 7 front, MS are releasing the Release Candidate (final test version before full release, pretty much how the O/S will be shipped), on May the 5th for general public. MS has confirmed that the license won't expire till June 2010, so why not download and install on Tuesday, it's what I'm going to be doing :)
 
alexbates said:
I would wait for Windows 7 Ultimate to come out in a few months. Whatever you do , don't install Vista. 2GB of DDR3 is not enough to run Vista and a game like Call of Duty. But if you really don't want to wait, you could get Vista Premium and a 4GB Memory upgrade from OWC to make it run smoother.
Click to expand...

I played CoD4 in vista 64 bit with 2 gb of ram and it runs fine.
 
So, is the Final RC for Windows 7, the way to go? Like, are all the graphics card and sound drivers all working and integrated for bootcamp? Is it as simple as me inserting the OS X disk and installing all the drivers for sound/graphics/trackpad/etc??
 
Well it seems silly to buy XP at this point, since games coming out today almost all use direct X 10 for best graphics, and XP doesn't support that.

I would get the W7RC because it's free and has DX10, and people are liking W7.
 
For me definitely XP. I am not a fan of vista however i have to install vista 64 on on mbp if i want it to detect all the memory.
 
Unless you have mental issues you should get Windows 7, you dont need any drivers like you do with XP and Vista, its nippy (actually lighter and faster than XP) so it doesnt use lots of resources your games need! and so you get high frame rates. Its also got all the latest features which XP doesn't have such as Direct X 10 etc. Its also much more secure than XP, and actually i think more stable. Its completely compatable with ALL XP software, which Vista isn't. Oh did i mention its completely free for 13 months?
 
Windows XP.

DirectX 10 graphics are better than DX9 graphics, but there's no point in using Vista to get DX10 if you're going to have to turn down the graphics settings because the MBP lacks graphics enough power to really make the difference between DX9 and DX10 stand out.
 
kastenbrust said:
Unless you have mental issues you should get Windows 7, you dont need any drivers like you do with XP and Vista, its nippy (actually lighter and faster than XP) so it doesnt use lots of resources your games need! and so you get high frame rates. Its also got all the latest features which XP doesn't have such as Direct X 10 etc. Its also much more secure than XP, and actually i think more stable. Its completely compatable with ALL XP software, which Vista isn't. Oh did i mention its completely free for 13 months?
Click to expand...

IS it out yet??? Where would I get it and how do I get it free for 13 months
 
It's been mentioned MULTIPLE times in this thread that Win7RC Final is out on the 5th of May. It's out now if you subscribe to TechNet or some of the other Win dev networks. There are several valid torrents out now with SHA1 sums that match Microsoft's (so nothing to worry about) and the Win7 public beta keys work with them. This RC is more or less the same version that will be in stores and will be valid until 6/2010. That's a full 13 months of free usage.
 
Signal-11 said:
It's been mentioned MULTIPLE times in this thread that Win7RC Final is out on the 5th of May. It's out now if you subscribe to TechNet or some of the other Win dev networks. There are several valid torrents out now with SHA1 sums that match Microsoft's (so nothing to worry about) and the Win7 public beta keys work with them. This RC is more or less the same version that will be in stores and will be valid until 6/2010. That's a full 13 months of free usage.
Click to expand...

thanks
 
There are no drivers for the trackpad (It's OS agnostic), and Vista drivers all work well with Windows 7. In addition, there are a few drivers already availible for Windows 7. I haven't tried them myself.
 
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