Windows 7 Beta Gaming Performance: XP vs Vista vs 7

**MIG-31** · Jan 24, 2009, 03:18 PM

Since its release, Windows Vista has gotten a fair share of controversy and criticism. The move to a new driver model rendered many legacy hardware products, like printers and scanners, obsolete while the Vista-only DirectX 10 API has never quite lived up to lofty performance expectations. Microsoft has taken the brunt of this criticism and made a pledge to not make the same mistakes with the follow-up to Vista, Windows 7. They are attempting to take what worked with Vista and drop what didn’t, as they make overall system enhancements that range from performance to interface usability. Today we are going to take a closer look at the performance of Windows 7 to see if it compares to the venerable XP or more along the lines of Vista.
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Source: Firingsquad

Judas · Jan 24, 2009, 03:24 PM

i still find it strange that for me.. xp is the worse performer, vista is mostly the best still... and win7 is a toss up between vista/win7

Customgamer1 · Jan 24, 2009, 04:43 PM

Very cool review!

Looks like XP does a little better job for what it is built for. DX9 and Vista and 7 seem to start to pull away in DX10.

I am assuming that 7 will be even faster by the time it comes out for retail!

Also noticed that Vista and 7 both do really good on new systems or the "high end" and considering Vista and 7 are built for new more powerful systems I guess I am not really surprised and am happy to see the results.

nicnik · Jan 24, 2009, 05:07 PM

I reckon a properly tweaked vista will score allot higher and be closer to XP in some of those tests. I have no doubt that vista and windows 7 will be similar in terms of gaming performance, and edging towards windows 7 being superior out of the box.

However, Windows 7 will have far more advantages in other aspects anyway.

OmegaRED · Jan 24, 2009, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicnik

I reckon a properly tweaked vista will score allot higher and be closer to XP in some of those tests. I have no doubt that vista and windows 7 will be similar in terms of gaming performance, and edging towards windows 7 being superior out of the box.

However, Windows 7 will have far more advantages in other aspects anyway.

How do you tweak Vista for performance?

Customgamer1 · Jan 24, 2009, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaRED

How do you tweak Vista for performance?

There are some performance tweaks that really help!

I think Vista was fast when playing games and whatever and now 7 is just as good IMO.

I mean even like that test shows. The little FPS difference is not really going to make a difference and I have not noticed any difference.

Gastrian · Jan 24, 2009, 09:48 PM

I'm not putting too much stock in that article. It doesn't state whether the Win7 they are testing is the 32 or 64bit and at the entusiast level they are testing XP (32bit) and Vista 64 bit with 3GB RAM.

I know the 4GB cap isn't the only major selling point of 64bit software but its well known that 64bit processing is more intensive than 32bit so will always have a performance hit so running an enthusiast testbed with 3GB RAM is playing into the hands of a 32bit OS.

Jan 24, 2009, 03:18 PM	#1
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 56,854 Rep Power: 471 System Specs	Windows 7 Beta Gaming Performance: XP vs Vista vs 7 Since its release, Windows Vista has gotten a fair share of controversy and criticism. The move to a new driver model rendered many legacy hardware products, like printers and scanners, obsolete while the Vista-only DirectX 10 API has never quite lived up to lofty performance expectations. Microsoft has taken the brunt of this criticism and made a pledge to not make the same mistakes with the follow-up to Vista, Windows 7. They are attempting to take what worked with Vista and drop what didn’t, as they make overall system enhancements that range from performance to interface usability. Today we are going to take a closer look at the performance of Windows 7 to see if it compares to the venerable XP or more along the lines of Vista. ____________ Source: Firingsquad __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here

Jan 24, 2009, 04:43 PM	#3
Customgamer1 Fell off the tech wagon Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,273 Rep Power: 74 System Specs	Re: Windows 7 Beta Gaming Performance: XP vs Vista vs 7 Very cool review! Looks like XP does a little better job for what it is built for. DX9 and Vista and 7 seem to start to pull away in DX10. I am assuming that 7 will be even faster by the time it comes out for retail! Also noticed that Vista and 7 both do really good on new systems or the "high end" and considering Vista and 7 are built for new more powerful systems I guess I am not really surprised and am happy to see the results. __________________ Asus Laptop: 2.5 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4gigs DDR 2, Windows 7 64bit! Windows 7 > OSX!

Jan 24, 2009, 05:07 PM	#4
nicnik In the Land of Snow Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: London, UK Posts: 569 Rep Power: 46 System Specs	Re: Windows 7 Beta Gaming Performance: XP vs Vista vs 7 I reckon a properly tweaked vista will score allot higher and be closer to XP in some of those tests. I have no doubt that vista and windows 7 will be similar in terms of gaming performance, and edging towards windows 7 being superior out of the box. However, Windows 7 will have far more advantages in other aspects anyway. __________________ Follow Me on Twitter Battlefield 3 \| youtube \| TwitchTV

Jan 24, 2009, 09:48 PM	#7
Gastrian HardwareHeaven Addict Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 266 Rep Power: 56	Re: Windows 7 Beta Gaming Performance: XP vs Vista vs 7 I'm not putting too much stock in that article. It doesn't state whether the Win7 they are testing is the 32 or 64bit and at the entusiast level they are testing XP (32bit) and Vista 64 bit with 3GB RAM. I know the 4GB cap isn't the only major selling point of 64bit software but its well known that 64bit processing is more intensive than 32bit so will always have a performance hit so running an enthusiast testbed with 3GB RAM is playing into the hands of a 32bit OS.