Any case studies showing Vista sound better then XP?

HighlandeR · 19 Oct 2008 at 23:53

Long title I know but one of the reasons ive found myself sticking with Vista 64bit was the apparant sound/graphics improvements and the 4gig+ ram barrier, but I just wanted to find out if Vista really did offer better "sound" quality in say mp3/flac/games etc

yashiro · 20 Oct 2008 at 00:43

veggiemanuk · 20 Oct 2008 at 09:00

Sound or Graphics cannot be improved by the OS, Even DOS can output the same quality sound as XP/Vista, its all in the compression used and the Player, DOS can play raw WAV files which is the closest the PC can get to the Analogue source. With good programming DOS can even out do Any Windows OS when it comes to Graphics its just that Direct3D and OpenGL have made windows the easier option.

TheVoice · 20 Oct 2008 at 14:18

Apparently the soundstack used in Vista is superior to XP's, so perhaps that counts for something.

bledd · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:11

TheVoice said:
Apparently the soundstack used in Vista is superior to XP

yup

but it breaks too many things from old games for me, still on xp64 solely for this reason

mrk · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:38

Older games? I'm a today gamer, I play older games in the olden days and move on! Vista sound is good on my Xonar D2x

bledd · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:44

Max Payne never gets old

Snakedoctor · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:45

bledd. said:
Max Payne never gets old

This man speaketh the truth. Quite looking forward to the film.

mrk · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:48

But Max Payne has no issues in Vista

bledd · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:58

do you get all positional sounds as expected? (i'm not challenging you with a sarcy post btw) with smooth left and right sound changes?

in vista with my xfi, i had to use 'alchemy' but it was still weird with that..

alchemy is a crap way to deal with the problems by creative

might get a xonar if there's no issues with any games in vista

mrk · 20 Oct 2008 at 16:20

I only have 2 speakers so cannot comment on 5.1 but I can test for you in stereo ;p

Max Payne 1 or 2 ?

bledd · 20 Oct 2008 at 16:25

max payne 1, using headphones here (so stereo)

with the xonar, do you have to run any software to get all games effects working properly?

the xfi really rocks in xp, but is far from complete in vista games

mrk · 20 Oct 2008 at 16:47

I had no troubles with them last time I played but will confirm when i get home after work tonight

bledd · 20 Oct 2008 at 16:48

cheers

when i've got a better gfx card and 24" screen (that can play at dx10) i'll consider replacing the xfi too then

atm i've just got an 8800gt, so there's no point in upgrading my gaming rig to dx10

mrk · 20 Oct 2008 at 17:19

I haven't played it on the 24" yet so should be interesting to see how it looks!

mrk · 20 Oct 2008 at 21:43

Ok Just had a quick play after reinstalling and it seemed perfectly fine, in fact no different sound quality wise to how I remember it!

bledd · 21 Oct 2008 at 09:15

thanks mrk

i'm considering getting a xonar for my vista media centre, will check my funds (and will test the card in both machines)

mrk · 21 Oct 2008 at 10:53

You gotta be crazy to not be impressed by the Xonar

I certainly was! and I had a Turtle beach Santa Cuz back in the pre-Vista days! (then got an XFI for games)

bledd · 21 Oct 2008 at 11:07

Same upgrade path i took..

Santa Cruz -> Game Theatre XP -> Soundstorm -> Xfi -> ??

mrk · 21 Oct 2008 at 11:09

I did have the Auzentech HDA Xplosion after the XFI briefly though but it sucked in games whereas the Xonar is great in games!