Which windows OS and what to run it on.

[blitzraider]

Hi I want to use windows to play games on my unibody macbook pro 17 inch and maybe also surf the internet. What should I use, XP, Vista, Windows 7?

Also, is parallel pc or vm ware better for games with the discrete graphics card? I remember in one of the threads that I need to install drivers. Can someone direct me please.

Thanks

 

[jonbravo77]

If you are going to play graphic intensive games (meaning games that need 3D rendering not solitare ) That you will need to run BootCamp. I would suggest XP, Windows 7 is only in beta form and may still have some bugs you may not want to deal with in day to day use. I am not going to even mention Vista.

As far as Parallels and VM, good programs if you are not going to game but need to use Windows. The graphics driver is a generic one that is used in both of those virtual programs and you will not be able to run 3D games, but you can run solitare.

 

[blitzraider]

If you are going to play graphic intensive games (meaning games that need 3D rendering not solitare ) That you will need to run BootCamp. I would suggest XP, Windows 7 is only in beta form and may still have some bugs you may not want to deal with in day to day use. I am not going to even mention Vista.

As far as Parallels and VM, good programs if you are not going to game but need to use Windows. The graphics driver is a generic one that is used in both of those virtual programs and you will not be able to run 3D games, but you can run solitare.

So I have to use bootcamp, even on the new 17 incher. I was thinking that the hight specs would allow me to use virtual os to game. Seems like I am quite a noob

Thanks for enlightening me....

 

[vm7118]

the graphics driver loaded in vmware is not generic, but you cannot run anything higher than DX9.0 games, and even those will be a slightly (sometimes moreso) reduced performance. so using a full installation is the way to go, and as an added bonus you can access that partition through vmware fusion itself, for quick tests/trials of programs that run only under windows.

and i'd recommend vista. there is nothing wrong with it these days; it has been greatly improved. the fanboys here would have you think otherwise, but vista x64 has been rock solid for me, as has ubuntu. really can't go wrong if you know what you're doing.

 

[DaveDaveDave]

and i'd recommend vista. there is nothing wrong with it these days; it has been greatly improved. the fanboys here would have you think otherwise, but vista x64 has been rock solid for me, as has ubuntu. really can't go wrong if you know what you're doing.

I *tried* to see Vista a couple months ago - it was "preinstalled" on a new dell I got for use as a home server. After over 45 minutes of its bootup and "setting up my user profile" for what it purported would be a wonderful new kind of experience, I couldn't wait any longer - I cycled power, popped in the Ubuntu CD, and 11 minutes later I was up and running.

I'm going too hold out for Windows 7... but only in a VM.

 

[jonbravo77]

the graphics driver loaded in vmware is not generic, but you cannot run anything higher than DX9.0 games, and even those will be a slightly (sometimes moreso) reduced performance. so using a full installation is the way to go, and as an added bonus you can access that partition through vmware fusion itself, for quick tests/trials of programs that run only under windows.

and i'd recommend vista. there is nothing wrong with it these days; it has been greatly improved. the fanboys here would have you think otherwise, but vista x64 has been rock solid for me, as has ubuntu. really can't go wrong if you know what you're doing.

Please tell me what the driver is in VMWare if it is not a generic driver. Is it a Nvidia driver, an ATI driver? Will it allow you to install those drivers for the hardware that is on the Mac computer? Nope, therefore it is a generic vga driver.

Thanks for being able to express your views without insulting anyone, oh wait, you couldn't. I told the OP that he should just run XP, vista is not the most stable and has a lot of annoying things that it does to even get a program to run. And if you are not an experienced computer user those things will become frustrating very fast. Not insulting Windows, just saying that XP would be the way to go for now, don't know anything about Windows 7. My post is going off the fact that x32 bit will be used as the OS, x64 will be a lot more stable.

 

[m85476585]

Please tell me what the driver is in VMWare if it is not a generic driver. Is it a Nvidia driver, an ATI driver? Will it allow you to install those drivers for the hardware that is on the Mac computer? Nope, therefore it is a generic vga driver.

Thanks for being able to express your views without insulting anyone, oh wait, you couldn't. I told the OP that he should just run XP, vista is not the most stable and has a lot of annoying things that it does to even get a program to run. And if you are not an experienced computer user those things will become frustrating very fast. Not insulting Windows, just saying that XP would be the way to go for now, don't know anything about Windows 7. My post is going off the fact that x32 bit will be used as the OS, x64 will be a lot more stable.

It is a VMWare driver. VMWare creates a virtual graphics card for host OSes to use, and they provide a driver when you install VMWare tools (if you don't install VMWare tools, you will get a generic VGA driver.) VMWare does the same for other hardware. It creates a virtual hard drive, a virtual CPU (though it identifies as a Core2Duo so applications can take advantage of the most optimized instruction set, SSE4.), and a virtual sound card. VMWare takes anything done on the virtual hardware and puts it on your real hardware, so sounds played on the virtual sound card actually come out of your physical sound card, etc.

The latest version of VMWare added limited support for DirectX9 in Windows XP and Vista, but it is still somewhat buggy. A lot of games will not play at all in VMWare, and if they do play, you will probably get significantly reduced performance. As people have already said here, you really need bootcamp to play games, and I would use Windows XP.