Are notebook gamers doomed from that start?

We've been having discussions about Vista's apparent memory hogs; how it's supposed to take 2GB+ of memory to run a game smoothly. We've been having arguments with forum member 64-bit about how 32-bit wouldn't be obsolete within 2-3 years and won (let's say the dude no longer visits lol). Now, it seems as though Vista's going to heavily rely on DX10 and set a new standard within a year or two. As all of you should know, there isn't a single notebook out there that's DX9 capable. Would all hardcore gaming notebooks be obsolete by the year's end? Are gamers who bought their machines to run the latest games for 2-3 years straight out of luck this time around? Discuss.

 

No, because it'll take at least a couple of years after Vista's release for even half of Windows users to take the transition. No one really needs Vista - it's just got a few nice new features (more aesthetic customisability, nicer aesthetics, new searching features, updated software).

 

No your notebook will be fine for now. There will be a transition into Vista. It won't change overnight.
Tim

 

is it a good idea to get it right away? i mean the price will never decrease right?

 

I would deffienetly not get it right away. It will be riddled with bugs and security flaws. Wait for service pack one.

 

I agree. Nothing changes overnight. This is very similar (actually a smaller magnitude) to the VHS to DVD movement. Sure DVD is great, but you can't tell me that everyone has a DVD player. In fact, most movies are still released on VHS 10 years after DVD made its presence known.

Vista will be a very large step up from XP. Security-wise, functionality-wise, BIG TIME appearance-wise, and I'm sure much more.

However, I don't believe it'll take a monster to run it. Most typical consumers do not run computers with 1gig of RAM yet. Since RAM is cheap now, I'm sure many will not have trouble. When XP came out many people would try to run it with 128 or 256 megs...that just wasn't cutting it performance-wise. I don't think the step will be the same, but to have all the pretty lights and colors you'll need at least a gig I'd say.

 

Personally, I can't see a huge difference from XP to Vista, especially in the graphical department, all I've seen there is a bit of transparency effects which is possible in XP I know and when you switch windows, you get a 3d effect. They need at least an ATI X200M or similar to run that but I feel that even Intel's integrated graphics could handle those measly effects. Whatever.

 

You make a good point but I was more talking about high-end gaming. Sorry if I wasn't being clear enough.

Oh, love your sig BTW. IDIOT!! lol.. hilarious.

 

The biggest thing for gamers is the coming of direct x 10 which at the moment their are no GPU's for although they are coming, for desktops anyway. I'd buy a gaming laptop with xp even a year from now as long as it could handle vista later and a few years from now (2+?) they will have directx10 GPU for laptops.

From what I hear it will be excellent, gamespot has an article on X10 and vista-check it out.