Quick Q: Vista or XP for new T61 (gaming)

I'm just about to order a T61 with Quadro 570 graphics that I will be using for traveling (internet and gaming). I have zero experience with Vista but I've heard stories of it being slow for gaming so far. I use XP pro now on my desktop with no problems. What should I go with for my new laptop?

XP pro or Vista Home Premium?

 

XP Pro.

10 chars.

 

Get Vista. Even if it is a bit slower right now, you are going to get stuck with it anyway when more DirectX 10 games come out.

 

XP for now. In 2 years, it will be Vista.

 

Personally, I'd go with Vista. It's much easier and cheaper to get XP from school.

 

Well, I'm all out of school now, so that isn't an option.

Hmm, I was hoping for a massive consensus.

In 2 years I will probably buy another laptop.....directx 10 won't run on XP?

 

directx 10 will not run on xp.

 

direct X 10 can work on XP using a hacked up version(alky project). It will not be as good. i would get vista if I were in your shoes. It really is not that bad, after the patches revealed by MS not too long ago, it runs pretty dam well.

 

Ok, thanks for the inputs. I didn't have much time to decide. Went with XP Pro. I guess I know I'll have to upgrade to Vista later, but for now I'm hoping for less headaches. Thanks again.

 

XP Pro will be the defacto standard for games for the next 2 years.

Vista adoption is too slow for publishers to move to it, if they release DX10 only games they will cut out 90% of their market, as the dark secret in the programming world is : Most people aren't living on the bleeding edge.

Also with Vista using resources like it does, I can't help but wonder how a game will run. If you take an XP Pro machine, and kill all no essentials you can get the OS down to 100-200MB ( if not 50-60MB ). This is not a memory issue, it is the fact all of the stuff requires CPU time, even if it is tiny. Vista's footprint ( the smallest I can go ) is around 400-500MB memory with about 40 background processes. That is HUGE.

Before I go with Vista I want to see some real world performance from high end games.

PS: I honestly thinkg MS is intentially limiting demand for Vista for gaming...... what are you alternatives then? Xbox, Nintendo of PS3..... what a coincidence they own 100% stock in one of those.

 

There are too many compatibility problems and not enough incentives to endure the headache that is Windows Vista. Maybe Vista SP1 or Vista SP2 will change things, but at the moment, most games will not benefit from Vista. Future-proofing is a pipe dream.