Well, waddya know... RC1....

Gandalf501 · 12 Sep 2006 at 17:26

Having rubbed a few people up the wrong way with my comments about windows vista, i have a few things to say about RC1

I have been testing both the x86 and the x64 versions over the past week (yes, your beta 2 serial will work and validate your x64 and x86 versions...)

What can I say, im eating my words.

Its good, isn't it? Me thinks so. Well done Microsoft, you pulled it out of the bag...

gizmoy2k · 12 Sep 2006 at 17:40

im using x86 but would like to give the x64 a try cause at then end of the day eveyone with a 64-bit cpu should be using a 64-bit os on release or else whats the point,

a few probs i have are my tv card (nebula, BDA work in XP, Creative audigy 2 drivers and my 7950GX2(only works if you disable 1 card)

Did you have any probs setting it all up?

And as a side question, how much difference is there between Nforce4 on board Audio and an audigy 2 zs performance wise, O could drop the Audigy 2 and i aint touchin a x-fi with its probs

tr6richp · 12 Sep 2006 at 19:07

I'm a bit underwhelmed to say the least.
Billions of dollars and five years developement I can't see any "must have" features. :eek:

No problems with x-fi BTW.

Gandalf501 · 12 Sep 2006 at 19:20

tr6richp said:
I'm a bit underwhelmed to say the least.
Billions of dollars and five years developement I can't see any "must have" features.

No problems with x-fi BTW.

I can understand where you are coming from. You can emulate everything Vista does on XP with the help of 3rd party applications. My main gripe was the usability of Vista over XP. Due to the age of XP, even 'novices' are pretty clued up on Windows these days

Now, looking at RC1 nearly all of the UI issues I was complaining about have been resolved... (They were subtle, but added a layer of complexity that wasnt required --- Networking, for example was one major area of poor UI)

Given the performance increase in RC1 over both Beta's, the improved UI, and that you can do without a plethera of 3rd part applications I can recommend Vista...

Something I wasn't prepared to do earlier, despite people complaining its 'beta'. I knew it was beta, but I though it was crap. Now RC1 is here, I no longer thing that. I was told to wait, and those people have been proved right. However, even they have to admit, that when I was complaining about Vista, Vista was indeed crap.

Gandalf501 · 12 Sep 2006 at 19:26

gizmoy2k said:
im using x86 but would like to give the x64 a try cause at then end of the day eveyone with a 64-bit cpu should be using a 64-bit os on release or else whats the point,

a few probs i have are my tv card (nebula, BDA work in XP, Creative audigy 2 drivers and my 7950GX2(only works if you disable 1 card)

Did you have any probs setting it all up?

And as a side question, how much difference is there between Nforce4 on board Audio and an audigy 2 zs performance wise, O could drop the Audigy 2 and i aint touchin a x-fi with its probs

x64 vista loaded all my drivers on first boot (apart from sound card, but that was downloaded from MS)... something that XP64 couldnt do...

I have noticed that my x64 version of Vista is faster... The screen seems more responsive, as does explorer...

Have you checked with Nvidia for updated x64 drivers?

Regards the difference between Audigy 2 and the onboard sound, the Audigy2 will be miles better. It will have a better signal to noise ratio, probably 24-bits (meaning the sounds in games, DVD-audio is clearer and has a wider dynamic range)... Lower latency (for audio mixing, editing, producing, etc).. However the sound you hear will only ever be as good as the weakest link in the chain... This could be the speakers, your amp, your stands, the position of the speakers, the size of your room in ratio to the size of your speakers, the source material, and even the cables themselves, (no point in spending £2,000 on a hifi and using low grade speaker cables.... )

doran1801 · 12 Sep 2006 at 19:32

Gandalf501 said:
x64 vista loaded all my drivers on first boot (apart from sound card, but that was downloaded from MS)... something that XP64 couldnt do...

I have noticed that my x64 version of Vista is faster... The screen seems more responsive, as does explorer...

Have you checked with Nvidia for updated x64 drivers?

Regards the difference between Audigy 2 and the onboard sound, the Audigy2 will be miles better. It will have a better signal to noise ratio, probably 24-bits (meaning the sounds in games, DVD-audio is clearer and has a wider dynamic range)... Lower latency (for audio mixing, editing, producing, etc).. However the sound you hear will only ever be as good as the weakest link in the chain... This could be the speakers, your amp, your stands, the position of the speakers, the size of your room in ratio to the size of your speakers, the source material, and even the cables themselves, (no point in spending £2,000 on a hifi and using low grade speaker cables.... )

it's all well and good having the capabilities to hear great sound on the games in x64, but if the games won't install in the 1st place it dosen't really matter.
that is what i found, and why i am using x86 for now

Gandalf501 · 12 Sep 2006 at 20:56

doran1801 said:
it's all well and good having the capabilities to hear great sound on the games in x64, but if the games won't install in the 1st place it dosen't really matter.
that is what i found, and why i am using x86 for now

Eh? What you on about? I think your getting confused. I was talking about Sound in general, what speaker wire your using has nothing to do with x64 vista. The info on sound was general...

But point taken on Vista x64. Its not really for playing games on, its mainly got extra security and a few esoteric things only needed by corporations...

gizmoy2k · 12 Sep 2006 at 21:30

thanks for the ot replys about sound, i figured that would be the case

I am now downloadin x64 to give it a bash, i have played company of heroes and even HL2 on vista so far and they are ok, obviously not as graphically good as i said 1 card doesnt work on the GX2.( it just BSODs on boot with 2 enabled)

I still have a fully working XP install on another partition if i ever have any serious probs, but i have pretty much been using vista full on since Beta 2

doran1801 · 13 Sep 2006 at 19:46

Gandalf501 said:
Eh? What you on about? I think your getting confused. I was talking about Sound in general, what speaker wire your using has nothing to do with x64 vista. The info on sound was general...

But point taken on Vista x64. Its not really for playing games on, its mainly got extra security and a few esoteric things only needed by corporations...

speaker wire?