Hae-Yu
02-07-2007, 01:01 PM
Extreme Tech (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2090571,00.asp) gives a rundown of how 25 games perform on a Vista system including installation, compatibility, drivers, performance, and so forth for each game. Performance isn't accompanied with ubergeek numbers; but it basically answers the question "is the game reasonably playable or not?"
The basics: the vast majority of games will run fine. Their test system was an unoptimized but clean install with defaults intended to replicate normal conditions. Most glitches will be solved by clicking "Unblock this Program" in Windows Firewall (usually for patches and such) or going into the Games Explorer, right-clicking the shortcut and selecting "Run As Administrator." This is required for Punkbuster servers or the occasional patch. Occasional oddball popup warnings can be dismissed with an OK. Steam doesn't work well with the Games Explorer and this was recurring through the beta process as well.
For those who haven't heard, EAX and other fancy surround sound will not work under Vista due to the audio stack being rewritten. Creative and others have a workaround available for now. Graphics drivers, particularly OpenGL, isn't as mature as they could be, but are definitely usable. Give both issues a month or 3 to work themselves out.
For more by-the-numbers XP vs. Vista benchmarks, Tom's Hardware (http://www6.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/) runs enough numbers to let users know that performance doesn't beat XP and users with particular needs should be wary. SuperFetch (precaching applications in memory) and ReadyBoost (using USB thumb drives) are benchmarked (http://www6.tomshardware.com/2007/01/31/windows-vista-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed/) separately and are demonstrable performance enhancers. Most importantly, benchmarks show beyond a shadow of a doubt that 1GB RAM is absolutely mandatory for responsiveness and 2GB is optimal. The difference between 512MB and 1GB was clearly visible while the gains from 1GB to 2GB was fractional. Tom's also has a very nice site redesign.
The basics: the vast majority of games will run fine. Their test system was an unoptimized but clean install with defaults intended to replicate normal conditions. Most glitches will be solved by clicking "Unblock this Program" in Windows Firewall (usually for patches and such) or going into the Games Explorer, right-clicking the shortcut and selecting "Run As Administrator." This is required for Punkbuster servers or the occasional patch. Occasional oddball popup warnings can be dismissed with an OK. Steam doesn't work well with the Games Explorer and this was recurring through the beta process as well.
For those who haven't heard, EAX and other fancy surround sound will not work under Vista due to the audio stack being rewritten. Creative and others have a workaround available for now. Graphics drivers, particularly OpenGL, isn't as mature as they could be, but are definitely usable. Give both issues a month or 3 to work themselves out.
For more by-the-numbers XP vs. Vista benchmarks, Tom's Hardware (http://www6.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/) runs enough numbers to let users know that performance doesn't beat XP and users with particular needs should be wary. SuperFetch (precaching applications in memory) and ReadyBoost (using USB thumb drives) are benchmarked (http://www6.tomshardware.com/2007/01/31/windows-vista-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed/) separately and are demonstrable performance enhancers. Most importantly, benchmarks show beyond a shadow of a doubt that 1GB RAM is absolutely mandatory for responsiveness and 2GB is optimal. The difference between 512MB and 1GB was clearly visible while the gains from 1GB to 2GB was fractional. Tom's also has a very nice site redesign.