View Full Version : How are the Vista drivers these days?
damicatz
07-21-07, 12:27 AM
Just got a new 8600GT and I'm trying to decide if I should install Windows XP or Windows Vista.
I don't really care at this time about DirectX 10, all the games I play are DirectX 9.
Has the performance in Vista caught up to XP yet? And are the bugs resolved (such as digital vibrance?)
Thanks
For most applications the framerate is pretty close.
Vista is neat to play around with but if you need your pc stay with XP until the at least the first SP comes out. Like you mentioned, all your games are DX9 so why do you need to go Vista now? Unless you just want to. As far as games there most seem to be running close to the speeds of XP now and I have not noticed any problems other than those inherent in the games themselves.
maxpaynez
07-21-07, 02:45 AM
Vista is neat to play around with but if you need your pc stay with XP until the at least the first SP comes out. Like you mentioned, all your games are DX9 so why do you need to go Vista now? Unless you just want to. As far as games there most seem to be running close to the speeds of XP now and I have not noticed any problems other than those inherent in the games themselves.
I agree - Vista is fun to play with, but in no shape or form is it 24/7 ready. For that we are hoping for SP1. For now it's a tech demo, nothing more.
I will continue to dual boot until next year at the least but I must say Vista drivers have gotten a whole lot better with the last few releases, especially with SLI.
[EOCF] Tim
07-21-07, 08:02 AM
I agree - Vista is fun to play with, but in no shape or form is it 24/7 ready. For that we are hoping for SP1. For now it's a tech demo, nothing more.
I've been using Vista for two months now every day, and I do not agree with that, performance is very good. And games run great as well. Yes it will be better with SP1, but performance is already up there, and that's quite amazing for a new OS. :)
Demon_82
07-21-07, 10:59 AM
Except for SLI, wich I don't currently have, Vista has been for me the last 6 months the most stable Microsoft OS I've used ever. And it's performance is actually nearly the same than in XP. It may depend on your hardware/drivers combination, but mine runs flawlesly, with my lesser number of BSODs mever..
I have SLI, but I do use Vista daily and for the most part with the 158.45 drivers I've had excellent performance in apps and games, with few to no errors. My big one was the nvlddmkm not responding display driver problem, but so far this driver has been free of errors for me.
Short answer tho, YMMV :)
Slammin
07-21-07, 09:07 PM
I agree - Vista is fun to play with, but in no shape or form is it 24/7 ready. For that we are hoping for SP1. For now it's a tech demo, nothing more.
Tech demo?
Why would you consider a fully operational OS like Vista a tech demo? You just watch screen savers, or dreamscape all day on your computer?
Why play with Vista? Why not use it just as you would any other OS, unless all you do with OS's is demo them.
Really, statements like these kinda irk me in that someone reading them might stop here, and not read any more on the subject.
Just another bash against Vista IMHO since the OP never even asked "how was Vista these days" and probably already has a clear idea of what he wants to run.
I run Vista64 exclusively now, but one thing I do know is that, to run Vista, you do need to have hardware capable of soaking up some of the overhead this new OS introduces. Keep in mind that some of this overhead is progress and advancement, though you can find plenty of argurments regarding that as well.
But, bottom line, I have absolutely no driver issues with Vista64 right now with my hardware other than the beta drivers I'm currently testing (work great too) that are unsigned and require me to use F8 to boot up. Not a big deal for me.
Right now I have three issues: Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro is not supported, works for simple audio but no apps, ASIO 24-bit, etc.; no Purevideo with my 8800GTX; my old ComPro VR tuner isn't supported.
Peter
I switched to Vista Ultimate last week after dual booting since Beta 2 and I can honestly say I'm very happy with it. Of course getting my copy for $40 helped a whole lot with that... otherwise I might not have bothered until DX10 was more prevalent.
nekrosoft13
07-22-07, 05:14 AM
not a single issue right now (at least for me)
WeReWoLf
07-22-07, 05:16 AM
I've been running Vista only since January, and the only 2 problems i had then are still existing... Scarface has fubar textures and Dark Messiah keeps crashing
The only problem that I had was with FEAR's performance, which is fixed now after disabling all HID devices under device manager.
Oh i am waiting on a brand new Evga 8800GTX, just bought Vista and so far i am wery happy with that, when my wife found out that i had got Vista she almost kill me(Paid to much).:(
But 8800GTX, here i come. I have been a loyal Ati user since the R8500 and my son just got his 8800GTS and so far wery happy. (nana2)
[EOCF] Tim
07-22-07, 08:21 AM
General usage ('the feel'), on my rig, 3800+ @ 2.6Ghz, and 4Gb of Ram, Aero runs just as fast as XP, disable Aero, and it's faster then XP.
Vista bashing is lame, Vista is a fine OS, and runs fast as well. Yes you do need faster hardware then for XP, but for 99% on here, that is no problem at all. :)
maddbomber83
07-22-07, 12:08 PM
I like vista, only problem has been with creative and them charging $10 for the audigy 2 program that enables the audio work around (the normal drivers are free, and xfi drivers are free).
Great OS IMO.
Let me add to conversation, how is vista 64 compared to 32?
maxpaynez
07-22-07, 02:42 PM
I benched Vista 64 to Vista 32 awhile back. In games the performance was identical. XP was still faster.
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/8797/resultswa5.jpg
stefan9
07-22-07, 03:09 PM
I like Vista. Since the last 3 driver releases there's been no reason for me to go back to XP. The only game which I play which doesn't have the same performance that I had under xp is nwn 2 all my other games perform the same or at a level that I don't notice any performance hit.
nekrosoft13
07-22-07, 03:50 PM
I like Vista. Since the last 3 driver releases there's been no reason for me to go back to XP. The only game which I play which doesn't have the same performance that I had under xp is nwn 2 all my other games perform the same or at a level that I don't notice any performance hit.
for me NWN2 works faster when i disable in-game AA, and force AA in control panel.
I have it set to 8x CSAA
delas52
07-22-07, 05:40 PM
Drivers are better, I say go for it. Since I have gotten vista64 I haven't looked back (maybe like once actually).
henrybravo
07-22-07, 06:39 PM
Vista's great. Whoever said it is a tech demo is just spreading FUD. Since the Windows 95 days I've been an early adopter of Windows OS's. In terms of early issues, this OS is no different than any of the previous versions. Some issues at first, but then the kinks are worked out. 6 months in, there is still some work left to be done in Vista but things are looking pretty good overall.
HB
maxpaynez
07-22-07, 07:04 PM
Vista's great. Whoever said it is a tech demo is just spreading FUD. Since the Windows 95 days I've been an early adopter of Windows OS's. In terms of early issues, this OS is no different than any of the previous versions. Some issues at first, but then the kinks are worked out. 6 months in, there is still some work left to be done in Vista but things are looking pretty good overall.
HB
I'm the one that said it was a tech demo, and apparently the only one with numbers to back that up? (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=1320203&postcount=18). It's still slower than XP.
It's still a tech demo to me. Some problems still include but are not limited to:
Nvidia has to fix driver issues where 1280x1024 isn't available in some games - (attack over the pacific, NHL 2007, etc) which tried to claim was a game problem, but I can go back to early vista drivers and it's fine - then they said it was a problem with NEC LCDs which, again worked fine with earlier sets...in any case my last response received was that they realize it's still a problem and they are making it a high priority issue...sure, I'll believe that when I see it.
Getting Hamachi to work in Vista 64 is a joy. Re-ordering network controllers, disable driver signing. Even then some days are hit or miss for LAN gaming, ie r6 vegas.
Gigabit ethernet cards that only works at 100 MBps even though it shows 1GB. Asus P5B-Deluxe, Gigbyte DS3, Gigabyte DS3R...none of the drivers actually work at 1GBps. Joke. I have no problem with true 1GBps throughput within my network using XP.
Printer and Scanner support - NULL AND VOID... Buy a new one?? wtf! Thanks M$!
For people with only 2GB of memory you might wanna read this, yes there is a fix for it that you can apply on a per application basis - yuck. Seems that Vista doesn't know where to stop and will crash once it draws on over 2GB of ram. This is the reason alot of games like Stalker were CTD. (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3044)
Just stick with XP for now. In fact 'Games for Windows' like Shadowrun and Halo 2 which are supposed to be Vista only - both run in XP better than Vista anyways!! LOL. :D
Till we see some of these problems get resolved and the OS is 24/7 ready, it's a tech demo. Nice to play with, but it's great to actually have things work properly like they do in XP.
FUD? In the words of Bill Engvall ..."here's your sign..."
Nvidia's Vista drivers are ok, if they would improve performance and give back 1280x1024 in those certain games I'd a bit happier. Until all of these issues get resolved I'll continue to dual boot and use XP when I need to things done and dont feel like beta testing.
delas52
07-22-07, 10:50 PM
I'm the one that said it was a tech demo, and apparently the only one with numbers to back that up? (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=1320203&postcount=18). It's still slower than XP.
It's still a tech demo to me. Some problems still include but are not limited to:
Nvidia has to fix driver issues where 1280x1024 isn't available in some games - (attack over the pacific, NHL 2007, etc) which tried to claim was a game problem, but I can go back to early vista drivers and it's fine - then they said it was a problem with NEC LCDs which, again worked fine with earlier sets...in any case my last response received was that they realize it's still a problem and they are making it a high priority issue...sure, I'll believe that when I see it.
Getting Hamachi to work in Vista 64 is a joy. Re-ordering network controllers, disable driver signing. Even then some days are hit or miss for LAN gaming, ie r6 vegas.
Gigabit ethernet cards that only works at 100 MBps even though it shows 1GB. Asus P5B-Deluxe, Gigbyte DS3, Gigabyte DS3R...none of the drivers actually work at 1GBps. Joke. I have no problem with true 1GBps throughput within my network using XP.
Printer and Scanner support - NULL AND VOID... Buy a new one?? wtf! Thanks M$!
For people with only 2GB of memory you might wanna read this, yes there is a fix for it that you can apply on a per application basis - yuck. Seems that Vista doesn't know where to stop and will crash once it draws on over 2GB of ram. This is the reason alot of games like Stalker were CTD. (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3044)
Just stick with XP for now. In fact 'Games for Windows' like Shadowrun and Halo 2 which are supposed to be Vista only - both run in XP better than Vista anyways!! LOL. :D
Till we see some of these problems get resolved and the OS is 24/7 ready, it's a tech demo. Nice to play with, but it's great to actually have things work properly like they do in XP.
FUD? In the words of Bill Engvall ..."here's your sign..."
Nvidia's Vista drivers are ok, if they would improve performance and give back 1280x1024 in those certain games I'd a bit happier. Until all of these issues get resolved I'll continue to dual boot and use XP when I need to things done and dont feel like beta testing.
Pretty much everything you said is third party driver and compatibility problems (which I have had none of), but anyways none of that is MS or Vista's fault. Truth is I had a much easier time setting up and getting all my drivers installed for vista than xp.
So, from my personal experience, vista has been great.
maxpaynez
07-22-07, 11:16 PM
Pretty much everything you said is third party driver and compatibility problems (which I have had none of), but anyways none of that is MS or Vista's fault. Truth is I had a much easier time setting up and getting all my drivers installed for vista than xp.
So, from my personal experience, vista has been great.
It doesn't really matter what causes the problems... Vista or 3rd party. The bottom line is there is alot of stuff that doesn't work in Vista that works fine in XP. Despite who's to blame, if it's broke in Vista, it's broke because its Vista.
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