- WinSAT: Is Your Computer Ready for Gaming Under Vista?
- How to Check Your WinSAT Score
- The Perfect CPU
- How Much RAM?
- DirectX 10 Graphic Cards: What? When?
- Fast Hard Disk
- Gaming Performance and Compatibility Under Vista
- Compatibility Mode
- Example: Age of Empires III
- DirectX 10 Changes the Way We Look at Hardware
- Geometry Shader
- Unified Architecture
- Where Are the Other DirectX Features?
- Games Explorer
- Bottom Line
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Gaming Performance and Compatibility Under Vista
The final version of Vista performs better than beta 2, RC1, or even RC2, but the performance still cannot beat that of Windows XP. The following table shows the specs for our gaming system test machine.
|
Item |
Description |
|
Processor |
Pentium IV (D) with 3.6 GHz (dual-core) |
|
Memory |
2GB |
|
Graphics |
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT |
|
Sound |
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer |
|
Hard disk |
WD Raptor 74GB (10,000 RPM SATA) |
For this article I tested more than 50 games, including major titles from 2005 and 2006 such as World of WarCraft, Age of Empires III, F.E.A.R., Serious Sam 2, Splinter Cell, Battlefield, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Half-Life 2. Fortunately, 46 titles worked with no problems, while only 4 refused to cooperate with Windows Vista. Unfortunately, the performance was a bit of a disaster. In 26 titles, I noticed a drop of 10–35% in frames per second (FPS) performance, which might be due to the early stages of the NVIDIA graphic drivers (see Figure 3). Still, Microsoft told the gaming industry that Vista will run games 10–15% percent slower than Windows XP, which is due to some features (such as the Aero Glass theme) running permanently in the background. At this point, I’m unsure whether future drivers will compensate for the performance loss.
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Figure 3 Gamers will notice a performance drop when playing under Vista!