Vista without Sidebar and Aero vs. XP

Hello all,

I'd like to know how XP and Vista compare if one uses Vista (Ultimate, if it matters) without Aero and Sidebar, and other graphical eye-candy disabled as well. Please compare:

- Robustness (crashes of programs or OS)
- Speed (boot, shutdown and hibernation times, and others)
- Resource consumption (disk space, RAM, CPU, GPU)
- Gaming
- Other items

Thanks in advance!

 

hmm I don't see any major difference even i disable WDM and Sidebar .. Difference what maybe its save me maybe around 100-200mb of Ram , then why do i have 4GB ram

then games i didn't see any difference in FPS or Gamplay between XP and Vista ( With or Without WDM / Sidebar) , AFAIK there are superficial values if you ask me and if you're comfortable with XP / Vista then stay with it

 

My opinion

-Robustness =Same
- Speed =Same
- Resource consumption
15gb hdd vs 5 gb for xp
1.1gb ram vs 300mb for xp
cpu gpu looks equal or close
- Gaming not into gaming
- Other items Software compatability is why I use both xp and vista
I think vista has less security issues for internet use so I prefer vista for online


Alex

 

So you would say that as long as I have plenty of disk space and RAM, there are no major differences. That's good, because I won a retail Vista Ultimate in a contest and would like to use it in my new laptop.

I'd still like to hear opinions from mild gamers. I would like to play some slightly old games (2 to 5 years old) and will have an Nvidia Quadro NVS 160. I know this is not a great gaming GPU (I want a compromise between mild gaming and portability), but would like to know whether it can handle Vista and some games.

By the way: do old games work as well in Vista as in XP? Is there some compatibility mode that works well?

 

it should handle vista with no problems. aero doesn't get in the way of the games as well.

old games work or not, they sometimes need to be run as admin as they want to access their c:\program files\game folder. or you can access the permissions for the specific game folder to let ordinary users write to it. that'll be more clean (no uac popping out every time the game starts) and is the same way steam handles vista security.

 

If you want to have an OS that can do exactly what XP does, looks nice, is a useless resource hog, you don't mind having to do 3-5 steps to do something such as deleting a file or renaming it. Then go with the POS Vista

I got a new laptop (you can see it in sig) that came with Vista Home Premium, I uninstalled it after 3 days and installed XP and oh what a relief!! I feel like a bought another new laptop !!

even with my high specs on my laptop, Vista wasn't as responsive as I wished it to be.

 

well, IBO, you're one of those less and less that believe in that. Vista runs very well. A fresh install of Vista without all the bloatware should have helped just as much.

But have fun with your setup.

 

For me, overal Vista runs very well too.
Better than XP I'd say - and more stable too.

(notice - opinion only)

 

I think we are all looking forward to W7
XP was great for me from day 1
Vista not so good


Alex

 

Vista (with SP1) runs very well. As a mild to moderate gamer, it handles quite good with the games I play: Tomb Raider Legend, Call Of Duty 4, Counter Strike Source, Half Life 2, and World of Warcraft.

Yeah, I'm looking forward for W7 also. It's my main OS on my laptop now. XP was pretty good from the day it was released, and Vista did have problems on my desktop back when it was first released. But with SP1 for Vista, it's rock solid now.

 

One further question: how does Vista 32bit compare to Vista 64bit regarding the items I mentioned in the first post? I already know about the 4 GB limit.

 

I think its a tad faster overal - but its debateable if its worth it.

 

What is faster than what?

 

64 Bit faster than 32 Bit

Edit:
Sorry, I was a bit unlcear.

 

OK, thanks for that. Don't you have problems with compatibility issues (old programs, old games, freeware, etc)?

 

I personally use 32 Bit - and I've been in a couple of discussions about it.

As far as I'm aware most people haven't got compatebility issues - but there is the odd application that won't work - also, driver support varies greatly depending on your manufacturer.

 

Most applications work fine with 64-bit Vista, but a few applications (like Rhino) have problems with the 64-bit Vista. Whats the oldest program or game you have? Chances are that if it runs fine in Vista 32-bit, it will run fine in Vista 64-bit.

 

Oldest game would be Rainbow Six 3.

 

I suppose you don't use 16-bit applications anymore. Only 32-bit and 64-bit applications work on 64-bit operating systems.

 

32 bit and 64 bit would make no difference in regards to your first post. 64 bit is not "faster" than 32 bit.
Unless your gaming involves super high end graphics and amasses large amounts of ram, 64 bit and 32 bit would handle it the same. 64 bit is the future, but 32 bit is just fine.