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Thursday, January 25, 2007
Hasta la Vista, XP?
About every 2 years I buy a new computer, giving my 2-year old computer to my wife, and dumping her 4-year old computer. Next new computer is due somewhere in the middle of this year. But when I buy a new computer, I automatically buy an operating system that comes pre-installed with it. And by the time I buy my new computer, that operating system might well be Windows Vista instead of Windows XP, as the official mass-market release date for Vista is in 5 days. Which of course makes me wonder whether everything will run under Vista.
Apparently the first game people tested when seeing whether Windows Vista runs games is World of Warcraft, like in this Extremetech article. The only games that don't run well are those that use the Starforce copy protection program. But Tom's Hardware reveals that with the current drivers games play slower on Vista.
I don't think that is a big problem. In a few month the driver problem should be solved, and most games should be patched to run perfectly under Vista. If I would still buy a Windows XP computer in 2007, and keep it until 2011, I'm more likely to run into the other problem, the games of 2011 not running under XP any more. I guess going for the future-proof option will be the better bet.
I looked at the gazillion different versions of Windows Vista, and think that if I get the choice I'd prefer the Home Premium edition. Hey, I'd take the Ultimate edition if I get it for free, but I'm not willing to pay money for a bunch of extras I'm not likely to use. But the Home Basic edition is too basic for me, and doesn't have the fancy Aero UI. Not that I'd really need it, but it would be nice to actually see that something changed.
- posted by Tobold @ 5:00 PM Permanent Link
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How about going away from pcs to mac instead? I am thinking along those lines...appearently macs play WoW very well...but then you would have to buy new software.
# posted by 
: 25/1/07 17:50
: 25/1/07 17:50
I am with this one. I am moving to Mac OS X and whatever comes beyond. I posted about Windows Vista, and why I am not going to it. Yes, not going to it, not a chance.
# posted by : 25/1/07 18:46
: 25/1/07 18:46
Mac is the devil. Beware of its seductive ways. It will consume you and make you believe it is the endall-beall of OS's. It is not return to the root. Commodore64 is the way to go!!!
# posted by : 25/1/07 22:08
: 25/1/07 22:08
No one knows what the true Windows Vista profit will be. There are tons of skeptics, especially because of the DRM video quality downgrade feature, plus many more faults, but there is also a lot of hype among general consumers. One analyst, though, predicted that this will be Microsoft's last major OS release, and the market will shift to another company (Apple could be the next Microsoft...)
# posted by : 26/1/07 00:03
: 26/1/07 00:03
Sorry, I won't go Mac. I don't want to be forced to play WoW until the end of my days, because there is no other MMORPG on that system. The amount of games released for the Mac is tiny in comparison to the PC, and that will forever condamn it to niche status, regardless how superior the operating system is.
My private system is primarly used as a gaming rig. So i do not plan to upgrade to Vista anytime soon, although i just bought a beefy new system.
As a fellow gamer, i want the best performance, so lowered performace caused by worse drivers is not acceptable.
For me the only reason to install Vista will be DX10. It's a shame they bundle DX10 with Vista only. Matured DX10 games still are way way ahead. Crysis release date was changed to TBA and their other DX10 flagship title (Conan MMO) has choppy framerates even in its PR movies. So there really is no good reason for me to upgrade to Vista yet.
Vista will land on my rig, if the drivers reached XP level or if they come up with some neat PC-XBOX360 cross-over games. That could be real fun.
As a fellow gamer, i want the best performance, so lowered performace caused by worse drivers is not acceptable.
For me the only reason to install Vista will be DX10. It's a shame they bundle DX10 with Vista only. Matured DX10 games still are way way ahead. Crysis release date was changed to TBA and their other DX10 flagship title (Conan MMO) has choppy framerates even in its PR movies. So there really is no good reason for me to upgrade to Vista yet.
Vista will land on my rig, if the drivers reached XP level or if they come up with some neat PC-XBOX360 cross-over games. That could be real fun.
# posted by : 26/1/07 08:54
: 26/1/07 08:54
Tobold
Instead of buying a computer every 2 years, why don't you just upgrade the ones you have? It's really not as hard as it sounds.
Instead of buying a computer every 2 years, why don't you just upgrade the ones you have? It's really not as hard as it sounds.
# posted by : 26/1/07 12:40
: 26/1/07 12:40
Hehe, I get that sort of comment every time I say I'm buying a computer, especially when mentioning Dell. "Why don't you build your own?" "Why don't you upgrade your old one?"
Fact is that these are very good options if you have some knowledge, lots of time, and little money. If you have few knowledge, no time, and lots of money, Dell is just plain better. Even upgrading isn't that easy, because CPUs and even graphics cards regularly change their bus dimensions, and then you need a new motherboard to upgrade. My 4 year old computer still has an AGP video card, not PCI express. And the motherboard wouldn't be able to hold a dual core CPU.
I don't agree that being able to build a computer is part of being a gamer. You don't expect a musician to be able to build a violin either.
For me the only reason to install Vista will be DX10.
Very good point. Especially if you consider the same computer still being around in 4 years. I'll definitely need Vista to be future compatible.
Fact is that these are very good options if you have some knowledge, lots of time, and little money. If you have few knowledge, no time, and lots of money, Dell is just plain better. Even upgrading isn't that easy, because CPUs and even graphics cards regularly change their bus dimensions, and then you need a new motherboard to upgrade. My 4 year old computer still has an AGP video card, not PCI express. And the motherboard wouldn't be able to hold a dual core CPU.
I don't agree that being able to build a computer is part of being a gamer. You don't expect a musician to be able to build a violin either.
For me the only reason to install Vista will be DX10.
Very good point. Especially if you consider the same computer still being around in 4 years. I'll definitely need Vista to be future compatible.
Hi Tobold, how about waiting a few months for the better Vista drivers and more reviews on how WoW runs on them? No need to be on the bleeding edge unless you are trying to make a special date (like your birthday?) or your current setup is too slow.
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