Switching to XP from Vista?

Dual boot?

Why do you want to run XP if you are already running Vista?

Dual boot?

Why do you want to run XP if you are already running Vista?

Fraustbite_0

Some games just don't run well on Vista, and some don't run at all. Also, the 64 bit version of Vista (like I have) has no 16-bit emulation at all, making most programs from Windows 3.0 - 98 unusable.

I'm planning on getting Fallout 3 and I meet the minimum memory requirements to run the game b/c I run Vista (2GB). Is there a way to switch to XP before playing the game so that I can dedicate more memory to Fallout and not Vista?edgewalker16

Switching to XP would be a mistake. DirectX 10 is only officially supported on Vista, so you are going backwards. I am assuming you don't have ancient hardware, so you would be much better adding extra memory (it's cheap!).

Note that a 32 bit O/S will only use around 3Gb RAM, so don't bother getting too much on Vista 32 bit. You will need Vista/XP 64 bit to get any benefit from 4Gb+ of RAM.

Of course that's assuming that the application you are running will actually use all of that extra available RAM, Fallout 3 might be coded to use no more than 2Gb no matter how much RAM is available (I don't know). People think that all applications use all available RAM, this is not so!

I think Vista 32 bit gaming with 2Gb is perfectly fine, it's all I have and I have zero issues with low memory. I can't remember how many slots I have, but if I had two spare I'd just add 2 x 512Mb to make 3Gb in total.

I will be sticking with a 32 bit O/S for some time to come, there are still too many issues with 64 bit Windows driver support and there is absolutley no way I would downgrade to XP and lose DirectX 10.

[QUOTE="edgewalker16"]I'm planning on getting Fallout 3 and I meet the minimum memory requirements to run the game b/c I run Vista (2GB). Is there a way to switch to XP before playing the game so that I can dedicate more memory to Fallout and not Vista?eddie_wood

Switching to XP would be a mistake. DirectX 10 is only officially supported on Vista, so you are going backwards. I am assuming you don't have ancient hardware, so you would be much better adding extra memory (it's cheap!).

Note that a 32 bit O/S will only use around 3Gb RAM, so don't bother getting too much on Vista 32 bit. You will need Vista/XP 64 bit to get any benefit from 4Gb+ of RAM.

Of course that's assuming that the application you are running will actually use all of that extra available RAM, Fallout 3 might be coded to use no more than 2Gb no matter how much RAM is available (I don't know). People think that all applications use all available RAM, this is not so!

I think Vista 32 bit gaming with 2Gb is perfectly fine, it's all I have and I have zero issues with low memory. I can't remember how many slots I have, but if I had two spare I'd just add 2 x 512Mb to make 3Gb in total.

I will be sticking with a 32 bit O/S for some time to come, there are still too many issues with 64 bit Windows driver support and there is absolutley no way I would downgrade to XP and lose DirectX 10.

Two points I really disagree with. I've noticed major stuttering issues on games like Far Cry 2 and Warhammer Online on Vista which I never experienced on XP. And DX10 has been pretty much next-to-useless so far, so there's no point in even having it.

Moved to PC Hardware.

I've noticed major stuttering issues on games like Far Cry 2 and Warhammer Online on Vista which I never experienced on XP. And DX10 has been pretty much next-to-useless so far, so there's no point in even having it.

GodLovesDead

I play War on my Vista machine, and I don't get any stuttering at all. Although I do semi-agree with your last point; there isn't a huge difference graphics-wise (most of the time anyway) from going to DX9 to DX10 that I've seen, aside from normally a handfull or so of obvious additional effects.

Two points I really disagree with. I've noticed major stuttering issues on games like Far Cry 2 and Warhammer Online on Vista which I never experienced on XP. And DX10 has been pretty much next-to-useless so far, so there's no point in even having it. GodLovesDead

If you are having stuttering problems with FC2 then there is something wrong with your config, it isn't Vista (I don't play Warhammer so can't comment on that).

As for DX10, I'm sure the same was said of DX7, 8 and 9. DX is constantly evolving, if some choose to stay on XP, good for them. However going back to XP under some notion of freeing up RAM would be a mistake. I have ZERO performance issues with Vista gaming that I can attribute to using Vista instead of XP.

The people who will have problems are those that put Vista on hardware that simply isn't up to the job, they should stay on XP, instead they upgrade to Vista and then complain about it!