New to the PC scene...XP or Vista?

if you want to play the stuff that's out at the end of the year (and only some of the stuff), you will need vista - several games are gonna be vista only, many of them really good and really worth buying - but probably not enough to warrant purchase of vista, because vista has (at the moment) numerous critical problems running various games, even worse than xp did with w95 and 98 games

if you wanna play modern and future games only, you may as well just go with vista - the creases will be ironed out sooner or later, and many of the older games are getting official or unofficial patches to add vista support

if you wanna catch up on the last 10 or 5 years of pc gaming, get xp - no questions asked... but you will need to get vista eventually, anyway - in half a year or a year or 18 months, just to play half the games hitting the pc shelves

Vista at the moment is probably the worst operating system ever made, maybe even worse than NT in it's early stages. Sluggish, performance hog, compatibility issues, games run 10-15% slower if they'll even run at all. Annoying security features that ask if you'd like to run any programs through the kernel even if they're a serious threat. Awesome security IMO.K_r_a_u_s_e_r

Some games still have problems with Vista and you can't fix all of them if you don't know much about PC's (for example DOS bs with STALKER). Also Vista requires more ram, don't get Vista if you don't have at least 2Gb ram.

There will be games that will only work on Vista/Dx10. 

Some games still have problems with Vista and you can't fix all of them if you don't know much about PC's (for example DOS bs with STALKER). Also Vista requires more ram, don't get Vista if you don't have at least 2Gb ram.

There will be games that will only work on Vista/Dx10.

RK-Mara

Vista works just fine with 1GB RAM. I tested it. It is the minimum recommended, but it still works just fine. And I tried F.E.A.R on it as well. I had no problems.  

I would stay with XP for now.. IMO  You can always upgrade later.. I heard its pain in the #$%$ to downgrade.  While theres no directX 10 games out yet, I dont see any reason of getting it now. Especialy with majority of the people complaining about its bugs.

[QUOTE="K_r_a_u_s_e_r"]Vista at the moment is probably the worst operating system ever made, maybe even worse than NT in it's early stages. Sluggish, performance hog, compatibility issues, games run 10-15% slower if they'll even run at all. Annoying security features that ask if you'd like to run any programs through the kernel even if they're a serious threat. Awesome security IMO.chandu83

A good rig can compensate the shortcomings in Vista, but it still does make many games run worse, which is naturally much more notable with weaker computers. Here's a review/guide by Mohamed_h specifically for 6600GT owners, he tested several games and many of them had problems that didn't occur in XP, but he does mention that those are most likely driver related. But whether it's the drivers or Vista itself, I think it's pretty clear that Vista owners can prepare for a performance dropdown at least for now(in games). As for performance otherwise, even he said that Vista seemed faster than XP in many ways, it just doesn't translate to games yet, if ever.

That's a nice review, well written and formatted.

A good rig can compensate the shortcomings in Vista, but it still does make many games run worse, which is naturally much more notable with weaker computers. Here's a review/guide by Mohamed_h specifically for 6600GT owners, he tested several games and many of them had problems that didn't occur in XP, but he does mention that those are most likely driver related. But whether it's the drivers or Vista itself, I think it's pretty clear that Vista owners can prepare for a performance dropdown at least for now(in games). As for performance otherwise, even he said that Vista seemed faster than XP in many ways, it just doesn't translate to games yet, if ever.

EntwineX

Thanks.

That's a good review, and his card scores better than mine because my speeds are 400/800 however, that is compensated by more piplenes etc.

Anyway, the problems could well be driver related. I should have tested more games for my review. However, I still think buying Windows XP now is a bad choice. These driver related issues will be resolved very soon once Nvidia will releases new drivers for its GPUs.

But you are right, there has been a performance drop in games right now, but I frimly believe that's only temporary :)

getting Vista......and the reason is? (except DX10 of course)

Buy XP now, one year later buy Vista again - Not so smart.

Wait for now, buy Vista once it's stable - Save money - Smart enough.  

It has been mentioned before, but i think its worth mentioning again, it all depends on the rig you're getting. To my knowledge you're primary objective will be to game, in which case i'm going to assume you will be a getting a pc with a decent configuration (2GB RAM and a moderately powerful CPU), along with a decent video card. In this case you should go for vista, as your machine will have enough resources to keep performance hits to a minimum.

Also, if you do want to take adavantage of future games, it will be cheaper and less of a problem to just upgrade a video card instead of a video card and an OS, for the cost of a few current performance glitches. I'm sure ATI and Nvidia will get the driver problems sorted out in the next few months.

I own a ATI X1950 XTX and the only performance related problems (or inconvienences) ive had are with old games, but they run at high frames rates anyway so a few drops are not really noticable. As for newer games CoH and Supreme Commander actually run the same on both XP and Vista, well for me anyway.

STALKER is supposed to have a few problems with Vista but i havnt tried it yet, so i cant comment.

Buy XP now, one year later buy Vista again - Not so smart.

Wait for now, buy Vista once it's stable - Save money - Smart enough.  

chandu83

not buying OS at all - smartest thing - so XP still stay the best right now

playing games without great computer isn't possible with Vista + half of games aren't playable with Vista - many program sites glad to announce that their program works with Vista - this thing shouldn't have happen at all, system hog is for sure - not all games that will be released this year will use DX10 - kinda pointless to buy Vista at least now - maybe in a half year will be good to buy

Well, I'm looking in to buying a PC sometime in the next few months, and ofcourse, it will be used for gaming. I'm very familiar with XP and our family just got a laptop with Vista so I should get used to that aswell. But, what is better for a gamer, or in this case, a gamer that is just starting out?SolidKeevo

If you are going to buy a new PC it makes no sense to buy one with XP. Xp will soon be old news unless you don't mind payng for Vista in the future.

Vista at the moment is probably the worst operating system ever made, maybe even worse than NT in it's early stages. Sluggish, performance hog, compatibility issues, games run 10-15% slower if they'll even run at all. Annoying security features that ask if you'd like to run any programs through the kernel even if they're a serious threat. Awesome security IMO.

I suggest Windows XP Pro, won't be touching Vista for about a year or so.

If you're getting a new PC, build it yourself - stay away from department store garbage.K_r_a_u_s_e_r

how? how is it the worst OS ever? its awesome, thats the problem with morons that go out and always have to have it now!!! Vista so far is at a rapid pace to be the best OS ever in sales, it sold 20 mill its first week... xp only did something like 10 mill its first week... also another OS is coming in 3 years for us gamers... Im getting vista for my dx10 graphics and the sweet features it has... also, its windows just like a football and basketball game. You really cant do much to improve it, but vista looks amazing being able to play movies as ur background,the sweet designs,more gamer interface so we can play with console gamers on windows live!

Dont spend money upgrading your current computer to Vista, XP is fine. But when you get a new PC, buy Vista, they are both the same worth in office use and homework and such. But the new DirectX 10 that many of the new games may require, is only available to Vista, so go for vista :D

if you're buying a new pc. just go for vista.

I would stay with XP for now.. IMO  You can always upgrade later.. I heard its pain in the #$%$ to downgrade.  While theres no directX 10 games out yet, I dont see any reason of getting it now. Especialy with majority of the people complaining about its bugs.

Jalannom

Yea you can upgrade later with a price. The only problems vista is havign is with nvidia drivers and they keep getting better and better. All my games perform well with Vista.