Upgrade to Windows 7 from XP?

I am looking for a new laptop and I am trying to figure out if it is worth upgrading to Windows 7. The new machine I am getting will be a portable gamer, 15" or so.

Are there significant problems with 7 slowing down the computer or sucking up memory? Are there feature in 7 that make it worth it? Like more security, user friendliness?

Thanks

 

For the average person, there won't be any problems running Windows 7. It runs most programs well, and most games, especially recent ones (2007 later especially should have absolutely no problems) well.

In general use, Windows 7 will not be slower than XP. This was not necessarily the case with _Vista; at least in the first year after its release it could noticeably slow the computer down for several minutes after boot-up while loading programs into its SuperCache. As far as I remember from when I ran Windows 7 natively, this problem was significantly ameliorated by delayed SuperCaching options. The exception to this is computer with, for example, 512 MB of RAM, where Windows 7 might be slower than XP in everyday use.

For most games, Windows 7 will be within a margin of error of XP in performance - the type of difference only enthusiasts who benchmark games will notice. However, there may be noticeable degradation or incompatibilities in some older games. One example is Microsoft's Halo, which runs much more choppily on Vista/Win7 than XP on the same hardware. If one of your most-played games falls into this category, you may want a native XP install, as Windows 7's XP Mode will not suffice for graphically-intensive games. This is the primary, though not sole, reason I run XP over Windows _Vista or 7, despite my computer being "designed for Windows _Vista".

For memory, Windows 7 does use a bit more than XP, but it uses less than Vista. The 64-bit version also uses more than the 32-bit version, although if you will have 3 GB or more to begin with, this shouldn't deter you from the 64-bit version. Note that Windows 7 caches programs into memory, so it will often report 90% physical memory usage when it only actually *needs* 20% and can easily unload the other 70% with no ill effects.

Features that make it worth it - as someone who's actively chosen to use XP over Vista/7, I'm not the primary advertiser there. The window previews from the taskbar can be nice, although they don't work with Adobe Flash (i.e. YouTube). Search from the Taskbar is a popular feature that can help find files/programs faster, and the Search options in Control Panel, for example, are nice and work well. Microsoft's free anti-virus works on XP as well as 7/_Vista. User Account Control is a security feature, but is user unfriendly, so it's not a net plus on average. But I wouldn't say there's a killer feature you have to have - I don't find myself missing anything when using XP (granted, that's 95% of the time, and much of the other 5% is Linux).

DirectX 10/11 is the one feature that may be a killer feature as more games are released that support it. So far only two games require _Vista - Halo 2 and Shattered Horizons. Eventually more will - how soon, it's hard to say. DX 10 hasn't proven to be a revolution yet, DX 10.1 (ATI/a few nVIDIA/S3 only - but don't buy S3 for games) has shown some noticeable performance improvements, and DX 11 (ATI desktop only so far) has very good potential. Right now it's not critical, but as a gamer it may be in a couple years, and if you're going to get a top-end card (GTX 8800/260 or better, or ATI 3850 or better), that may alone be worth justifying Windows Seven. If you get a mid-lower end, the card won't be powerful enough to make DX 10 worth it.

In summary, unless you know _Vista/7 will cause problems for you (and really, if one will, they both will), go for Windows 7. If you're really paranoid, try to find someone with a _Vista/7 computer where you can test your programs/see how you like it. If that's not possible, Windows 7 Professional lets you downgrade to XP Professional (so long as you can find any XP Pro disc).