Vista vs XP

-)G(-Sawyer · 23 May 2008 at 18:57

I Have been using Vista 64 Ultimate for over a year now for the most part I like it but as all my games still run faster on XP I find my self never using Vista now as I game most of the time. It's all upto date with drivers etc and both XP and Vista are on the same PC with the same hard Drives.

I have run many benchmarks and also some of my own and in all cases XP wins by a lot, Now I would just like some advice, info, help I would rather not go into a OS war in this topic.

CSS Stresstest
Vista = 244.46fps
XP = 272.85fps

GTR2 Test
Vista = 76fps
Xp = 111fps

GTL Test
Vista = 74fps
XP = 109fps

3DMark06
Vista = 13753
XP = 14844

No test with Team Fortress 2 but it does run much better in XP.

Processor: Q6600 @ 3.40GHz
Motherboard : Asus P5N32-E SLi nForce 680
Memory: OCZ 4GB -6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 320GB X3
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640 X2
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1

-)G(-Sawyer · 23 May 2008 at 21:32

snowdog said:
Do you notice a difference between 244 and 272 fps? Or even between 74 and 109?

I thought so.
Notice running faster ? Placebo effect tbh, dump the fps counters, unless you truly see games running below 40-45 fps.

Although XP gives more fps in games indeed, the OS itself is a lot slower due to not being able to use ram properly.

So you claim, that your SLI 8800's cant run TF2 fast enough ( xp runs it ''much'' better ?) yet I seem to have no problem playing it at mostly high settings on a 6800GS ( sure it aint sky rocketing above 30 fps, but it's playable, and 2 gpu's each 4x the power of mine shouldn't run it 100% smooth @ sky high fps in any OS) ?

Finally: is it me or is your 3dmark06 score way too low?
I score 11965 with a single 8800GTS and an E6420.

But anyways, 74 fps aint nowhere near running slow , and I highly doubt 100 fps runs better than 74.

ps. I'm not a Vista fanboi, I love xp, the durability and compatibility are far better than in Vista imo.
I just disagree with what you said, the fps gains you named are no reason to use xp.

I paid a lot of money as most do for this PC and the games I play on it so I want them to run the best there can and that is on XP.

I run all my games with Vertical Sync on so the higher the frame rate the less chance there is of frame dropping below 60 Hertzs, because GTR2 on Vista drops below at points in the game it stutters and the same in TF2 but on XP both games run well with no stutters.

My post was about facts not claims as you put it try reading it again all I wanted was for someone to explain why Vista is slower.

-)G(-Sawyer · 23 May 2008 at 22:18

memory said:
vista has always been a bit crap compared to xp when it came to games in its early days....especially ones that use cpu power more.

from what ppl have been posting in these forums (of late)i gathered that with sp1 on vista there is no difference....ive just installed vista today with sp1 but havent got round to do any fps tests to see if its improved any.

im hoping it will match xp for performance or atleast stay close but from your results it seems to still be way behind which isnt good.

just curious do you have sp1 installed on vista ?

Yes SP1 installed and no SP1 made no changes to the poor 3D performance, it was some time after SP1 when a gave up using Vista sure like me you can have dual boot but the problem with that is as I play games most of the time I never need to use Vista anymore. I was hopping by now that I would be talking about XP in past tense but the fact is when my games run in XP its like XP was the upgrade.

Worst thing is it's not just my PC I belong to a gaming clan hence the -)G(- tag and we have many members who have the problems. It's a shame I like Vista for everthing else but one i'm in a full screen game I dont care about how pretty the desktop looks or how fast IE opens.

-)G(-Sawyer · 24 May 2008 at 23:24

memory said:
could it be because i used an opengl game ?

We have tested with so many games now and all are slower then XP I think the people who claim Vista has the same 3D performance level as XP have just come to except the lower speeds.

-)G(-Sawyer · 25 May 2008 at 17:03

Elevon said:
Tests/Benchmarks are penny a dozen,who's right and who's wrong?

It means everthing when all tests show one os is faster in the test, what I was interested in is why it's slower as I no loger belive in the driver reason.

I know some people are happy with Vista and good for them but there has allways been a problem with Vista and games and considering we only really have Microsoft for gaming PCs I find it a worring trend for the furure.

For me as I said before I cant help but like a lot of the new bits in Vista and XP does look and feel old at times, but like when ever I buy something new like a CPU or a GPU I expect it to outperform the replaced parts and this is what bugs the hell out of me that my old XP outperforms Vista with my games.