Dual boot XP + Vista = gaming?

Hi guys, i already have Vista Home Premium on my laptop and im wondering ...if i dual boot XP on Vista, can i use XP for gaming (which, apparently has better gaming performance) and use Vista for normal applications , home theatre use.

If this is a stupid idea or doesnt work, please say so.

Thx. Im new to dual-booting concept.

 

Yes, but it'd just be easier to use either Vista or XP, rather than have both sucking up HDD space.

 

The hardcore gamers on this forum recommend this if you want to extract every last drop of performance out of your system, in exchange you need a lot of free HDD space to accommodate your XP installation.

I don't think it's worth it unless you're a hardcore FPS nut or play the most demanding games available day in day out.

 

second that... just use either... ive found myself loving vista... i just see stuff faster.. dunno why

 

How much HDD space are we talking about here?

 

I tried dual booting. Before Vista SP1 came out, XP had an advantage, but when Vista SP1 came out, both were identical in performance. The game I played was VT3. But take note that I only have an IGP.

 

Yes you will (still) see better performance in XP with certain games, whereas with others the difference can't be seen, IMO. Crysis (the demo) is one which still plays pathetically for me in Vista, but in XP it's justabout bareable. Civilization IV too, if you play on larger maps, then the dreaded late game crash-to-desktop can be delayed or removed entirely by playing in much less resource-hogging XP than Vista. With F.E.A.R I don't notice a difference. As you may be able to tell, I dual-boot on my Asus G1S.

However, do your research first - it takes a little bit of searching to find all that you need to do for dual-booting. Fortunately, there are some great guides out there. The main thing you need to make sure you have is a set of XP drivers for your specific computer. I'm lucky that some few selfless souls found these for the G1S and posted them around here.

All that said, Lithus has a good point. If you want to switch to XP to enhance gaming a bit, then it might well be worth removing Vista entirely. I keep it partly because I had already set up Vista for all my non-gaming requirements and I haven't yet had the time or will to remove it and switch ENTIRELY to XP. The other part is the SINGLE thing in Vista that seems to be different and better than XP - the search function. I seriously don't see any other huge difference, except that Vista takes more system resources.

 

It works very well. As you can see, I have three operating systems. XP uses far less hard drive space than Vista, so adding it will only be like adding a 1GB program. Vista on the other hand, eats hard drive space to no end. I use XP for anything I want to do seriously, as I have it highly tweaked. For FPS gaming, I also use XP, as it seems to give me overall better performance (during online gaming). I use Vista Ultimate mainly for web surfing and such; although it’s the OS I prefer most as I’m not that much into gaming as I use to be. Vista Ultimate has a pretty face, and with UAC disabled, it performs for the most part just as fast as XP. I also have my EA games running with Vista, as it does give better overall visuals. I only have Vista 64bit installed just in case I need it, that’s it.

So if you want to dual boot XP and Vista, have at it. If anything, you won’t have to worry about not having an operating system that might be incompatible with something. LOL!

 

It will work just fine, although if your hardware is up to date and both OS's are properly tweaked,you shouldn't see much more than a 5% difference in recent games.

If you REALLY must have 60fps instead of 57fps, or run really old games, perhaps XP is worth it, but honestly Vista works pretty well now.

I haven't found an older game which won't work in XP compatibility mode or when sound is turned off.

That being said a no-frills XP installation partition doesn't take up much room.

 

Really I don't see any difference in game performance from xp pro to vista business.

 

I think it's a dumb idea. I game fine on Vista. Just use Vista...

 

Ive experienced an overall 80% more ingame Counter Strike source crashes than XP on my old comp.


^

Thats my reason.

 

people come on.... 64 bit Vista FTW!!! that is, if most of your games work ok with it

 

XP also doesn't suffer from stuttering...

I have a couple of games that run fine in XP Home SP3 but stutter in Vista Home Premium SP1, Race07/GTR Evolution to name 2. And when it comes to games such as C&C 3 you do notice the difference in framrates imo. A lot of the games I have I have to run in lower resolutions or lower graphical settings in Vista compared to XP in order to achieve the same framerates.

Besides you only need around 15gb, if that, for an XP install.

I've moved over to Vista now (although I've still got XP installed as well) but not all of my games run as smoothly as I'd like in Vista, and unfortunately if I want to avoid having to constantly switch between OS to watch TV (due to the TV card I have not working in XP, although it should) I have to use Vista and switching OS is a pain to be honest.

But I'd say go for it as it does work and it's always a backup system if/when Vista craps out on you...

 

Why is switching operating systems a pain? You just restart the computer, and choose which operating system you want? If you know what you’re planning on doing, then choose the right one from the get go. I agree with you on all points as far as online gaming goes, but I use XP for other reasons. My system runs much cooler using XP, than it does Vista. It takes all of 30 minutes to partition 20GB of hard drive space and install XP, so no; the idea is not dumb at all. Not being prepared in dumb, at least it would seem that way.

 

Meh, it just is. In the 1 or 2 minutes (average time) or so it takes for me to restart and boot into XP (or Vista depending on which way I'm going) I could be already doing what I planned on doing.

Just my preference I guess.

 

For me I like to keep a million windows open and programs going at once. I don't have ADD, but I can spell it. Anyway, if I were to have to switch OS's much I would find it irritating. I'm using Vista for the first time now, and I'll stick with it. Before I thought there was no way I wouldn't dual boot. Now, meh.

 

I think the main problems with Vista is RAM consume.
People with 1gb or less ram should use XP for gaming cos u will find a huge performance boost compare to Vista. U should dual boot in this case cos u will use vista to work and XP for gaming...
When it's 2gb I don't see any different in gaming between 2 OS and there's no reason for dual boot here.

 

Never had vista crap out on me post sp1, as well as zero stuttering. Vista is not your stuttering or crashing problem, there is something else wrong with your system.

 

Vista definitely crawls without adequate memory. I have seen some people find their new major brand cheapo laptops virtually unusable because they came with way too little memory for Vista.

 

I gotta agree...and disagree. My feeling is that the RAM plays a big part of Vista still being slower for me than XP, but I already have 2 GB RAM. Maybe if I had 3 or 4 GB things would be more even, but XP at 2GB RAM is still clearly better in some games, and is a tad more responsive in program loading and startup.

 

Oh yes of course, it can't be Vista it has to be something else wrong with my system....

...That's why the games concerned run fine in XP. Perhaps it's the Vista drivers (which are all up-to-date), or the coding in the game may not be up to running in Vista but I know that XP does not stutter while Vista does. This is only evident for me in games such as Race07/GTR Evolution, GTR 2 on occasion and Oblivion. C&C 3, CoH OF and a number of other games I have run fine in Vista though...

Tell me about it. My buddy has a Compaq he bought for £400ish, it came with Vista Home Premium and 1GB of RAM, he wondered why it was running sluggishly...