Add to 
Usually everyone wonder about how gaming on vista will be. Will it better when compared to XP or bad. So here are some tests that were conducted with the following pc configuration:-
E6300 Core 2 Duo
Asus P5NE SLi
2GB corsair RAM
250GB Seagate Barracuda
XFX 7900GT
SONY DRU 830A
The tests were tested on Vista Ultimate edition build 6000 with Nvidia drivers 100.65 and on Windows XP professional 91.47. A few games like Half life 2 Ep1, GRAW, Oblivion , etc were tested.
First of all Futuremark 3D mark 2001 and 3D mark 2006 software was used for benchmarking Vista and Xp
Heres the results that we got:-
The above results clearly indicate that gaming in Vista is bad. And an addition to that Vista will struggle in playing old games. In this test Xp continues to be really good for gaming. But in the 3D mark 2006 theres not much difference in the score as there wont be much problems in playing new games.
Ok, so now lets carry on with some tests with games, first lets take Half Life 2 Episode 1. Below are the results that we got in 1280*1024 resolution both on Vista as well as XP
This graph again clearly indiacates that Vista gives less FPS, theres about 5-7 FPS difference.
Ok now some tests with GRAW, Oblivion and Quake IV. Here are the results that we got:-
Quake 4 and Oblivion were tested with 1680*1050 resolution but GRAW was tested with 1280*1024. So when we compare these games on both operating systems, theres very minor difference in the frame rates, this is a really good point to be noted. There are differences but they are hardly 1-3 fps. so these games will be great on Vista as well.
The Nvidia drivers used in Vista in the test are still not yet fully supported by Vista, they still have some Open GL problems. Hence Doom3 has some problems in Vista.
Vista is a very good operating system but it seems like they have not made it quite good for gaming, in case you really want to game on an average pc then i would recommend Xp. But in case you have a hefty machine then gaming on Vista isnt a big deal. Even though the tests are conducted on an Nvidia card, even ATI would have given almost same results.
Leave a Comment