Sqrl said:
I think you seriously underestimate my computer knowledge. To be clear I'm not telling you to take my word for it because I'm smart, I just want you to be aware that I know a bit more about this stuff than the average joe smoe on the net. I'm a senior with a double major in Computer Science and Computer Electronics Engineering. In short what that means is that I'm not only a programmer knowledgeable about how to write software, but also how to build hardware and as a result, obviously, how it functions. This combination is especially relevant in regards to Operating Systems because the operating system is in essence the layer between hardware and software. As someone who is proficient in these fields and experienced in all manner of PC building, I want to assist you in avoiding paying far too much for your PC parts as you've mentioned you are planning to. You can purchase a 500GB Seagate HD for $99 from newegg.com. As I'm also unaware of your PC knowledge level as you were of mine I will offer to assist you in selecting the right type of hard drive for your PC (SATA vs IDE100/133) and if necessary explain how to install it (very simple). As for memory it is also quite simple and I will extend the same offer of selecting the correct type if you need it and I point out that 2GB of DDR2 800 is only $40 on newegg and that both the hard drive and memory typically offer free 3 day shipping. With that out of the way, I'd like to address the topic: I encourage you to surf the net for a myriad of articles discussing that Vista is slower relative to XP. Most of those issues aren't a big deal to me. What is a problem is specifically when you lose framerates playing video games and this is where the problem is actually at its worst imo. Here are some examples of what I'm referring to on modern games on modern PCs that are up to date on drivers: Encoding Video (lower is better):
Benchmarking software (ie test application not real world):
Now we get into gaming, which is where I mentioned before my issue was:
Summary of more benchmarks:
I tried ot grab as many different benchmarks as I could to alleviate concerns that it was a fluke. But I can attest to the fact that I've personally tested Vista against XP on my PC in a dual boot configuration and it was pretty conclusive that Vista on the exact same settings using up to date drivers and doing the same things in the game will cost you about 4-12 FPS depending on the game. As PC gamer this is unacceptable..its that simple.
@Gnizmo, A lot of gamers are putting hope in Vienna right now and pretty much plan to skip Vista altogether if at all possible. I'm leaning this way myself currently. |
). Like I said, my computer can run FFXI flawlessly. The ONLY problem I had to play the game on my once-new Vista computer was that on S-E's FFXI website, you had to download their Vista-compatible PlayOnline viewer.
these benchmarks are not after SP1. SP1 kills it even more.
