How does Vista affect gaming?

Does it just use up more RAM than XP?

Or is there more to it than that?
(Sorry for the noob-ish question)

 

Well it depends, if you are using a Single Card config then its the more ram usage, but if you are using stuff like SLI then XP would outperform Vista.

 

since sp1 i have zero issues running games, my vista machine is not expierincing more game crashes than my previous xp, actually less.
vista do require more ram, but with today ram prices it is a crime to have less 2gb. and that is enough for any game.

 

I agree with royk, if you have at least 2gb, youre gonna be fine gaming in Vista(given the fact that you have a decent video card). Heck, Im running Vista 64bit and have yet to come across a game I couldnt run.

 

I have 3GB RAM, but I tried running Bioshock and FEAR in both XP and Vista on the same computer.
Both ran a bit slower in Vista... why is that?

 

what computer you have, what video drivers are you using ?

 

can you show me where sli outprefomrs vista? I'm interested

 

I have a Vostro 1700
XP Pro (got rid of Vista a while back)

2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo
3GB RAM
256MB 8600m GT
174.?? drivers

 

i still have my Vista Recovery dvd, but sorry i cant do the painful install of Vista and go through all that crap... but originally i had Vista on my Laptop, but it was still falling behind in many games ( mostly Unreal Engine 3 Games, which are almost everything) but the only game i had the same performance was COD4

 

I also had trouble with Unreal engine games...

 

To answer bluntly, there is no real advantage of Vista over XP.

The only possible advantage would be DirectX 10 support, which at this point has few games that use any of the new features. To date XP still performs better for gaming, with better compatability for older titles. Vista SP1 apparently remedied a lot of issues, so that statement may not be entirely true. Although many credible sources have proven DirectX 9 in XP performs better than Vista in most cases (by approx 10%).

If you're getting a new PC might as well go with Vista, since it's "the next best thing". But if you have the choice, for gaming I'd personally get XP.

 

meteor, most of those are driver issues... later vista drivers are much improved.

That being said, even when both XP and Vista are tuned, Vista results in slightly lesser FPS (5-7% for me) due to simple overhead.

granted, if you install the proper security programs Vista starts with you lose most of that.

 

You're also using a X7800 and 8800M GTS.

 

LOL. True, but I was focusing more on the compatibility aspect and not so much how well they play, if that makes any sense. I'm kinda running a fever, so it may not.

 

I believe Vista 64 would prove to be the premium for gaming with 4+ gb of ram.

Which is hardly too expensive to be considered. If i built a desktop it would have 4-8gb RAM.