what OS most enhances gaming?

which Operating System will best enhance games like Crysis? how significant is the OS's impact on gaming performance? does it have any?

 

Since the OS is a hardware control interface (meaning that programs use the OS to interact with the hardware), the OS you choose will have a big impact on gaming performance. Although Vista is Microsoft's most current OS, XP still yields superior gaming performance (although it has no DirectX 10 capabilities). Alternative gaming platforms such as Mac OS X and Linux don't offer much in the way of games.

 

If you want DX10 eye candy, it's Vista. I've heard XP is supposed to be a little faster, but I couldn't tell any difference.

 

For now DX 10 isn't much of anything so I'm guessing XP would be better... for now.

 

From what I hear XP, is the best for gaming atm.

 

Unless you're really desperate to see what the fuss is about with DX10 enabled eyecandy stick with XP.

 

I still stick with XP. DX10 is way to go if your laptop comes with very high end SLI GPU

 

For Crysis? Vista Home Basic or the other versions with Aero turned off.

For older games? XP Pro

Your OS should not have a major impact on games if you have a high end laptop. Otherwise, Vista will hurt gaming performance significantly versus XP because it uses much more system resource.

 

I think Vista Home basic offers a perfect balance of Vista & XP....i rarely use sidebar...& will never need aero...

 

The absolute fastest OS's for gaming is either Windows 2000 or W2K server.

The provided you can get the games to run and the OS to operate like a desktop OS it'll yield anywhere from 10%-30% better results. A comparasion was done a long long time ago. It's safe to say that Vista is the slowest OS.

 

Wait for SP1. It will improve game performance!

 

Are you serious? Most games don't even support Windows 2000 anymore. Most graphics card don't have drivers for Windows 2000. Where did you get the comparison? It must be significantly outdated.

 

They don't need to support Window 2000. XP and 2000 are very very similar.

The only time it won't actually install is because the installer runs a check.

It's not outdated. A lot of people with dedicated LAN gaming rigs have either W2K or W2K3. It's part of the life style to get games to install games on those OS to get every edge they can. W2K3 handles memory better, no bloat, better network stack the list goes on.

 

ooh ooh... get MacOS Leopard and "crash better!"

PC users will feel right at home with a nice blue screen crash, but Apple has reminded users (and banned anyone for saying so) that it is not a "blue screen of death".
(kidding, Mac OS is an interesting sideshow right now, but not a gaming OS due mostly to support... and cost... and the fact Apple tends to screw its support framework and distributers even harder than Microsoft does)

Are you a hardcore tweaker? Windows 2000 as someone mentioned... if you had to ask you more than likely do not have the knowledge involved to make current drivers work on the older OS. (less overhead = more performance)

Wanna try something new? Vista... less performance by a little bit, kinda annoying with some of its policies, but makes repelling viruses and the outside world a little easier. Gonna have to figure out tweaks by yourself for a bit though...

More of a follower? XP, lots more help on this one right now and higher performance by a nose.

 

I haven't seen any articles that say so, all of the reviews of the pre-release service pack say that performance hasn't changed at all. Do you have any links to back that up? On the other hand, XP SP3 should give you up to a 10% performance boost.

 

It's all the about the hardware

 

EXACTLY! When SP1 comes out we'll have faster processors, GPUs and lower RAM prices. Comparing a SP1 system to today's equally priced Non-SP1 systems, it'll be much faster.