Hey, check this article out: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6164940/index.html

It looks like at least some of the Nvidia driver issues with Vista have been resolved. Some of the performance on Vista is even better than XP, if even by just a few FPS.

Glad to see it is being worked on already. Still probably going to wait till SP1 or whatever they choose to call it comes out.

I agree with that. Looks like Vista will turn out well. A lot of people have reported it being very stable. 2GBs seems to be an optimum requirement.

ive had vista for like..since the rtm download came out

still running strong after 30 days!

They need to add Vista 64 to the mix. I've just installed the official 100.54 for vista 64 and haven't tested it. The leaked 100.54 drivers were not what I would call stable in all games with the 8800. In some games I had no issues other frequently crashed.

In 3dmax 64 the driver issues make the program more or less unusable. So I would say they have lots of work to do still.

I would also like to see these result confirmed elsewhere as Gamespot has been known skew result from companies they receive money or perks from.

i upgraded my laptop today. so far it's just as stable as XP. i'm running on 2GB of RAM, so i don't know how it does w/ 1GB or 512MB.

Strange... the disparity in benchmarks between GameSpot and THG is rather large.

It seems pretty clear to me that the issues of poor performance is tied to the games and drivers; not necessarily Vista itself. Completely understandable.

1gb looks to be the sweet spot.
Next gen OS optimal memory : 1GB

I'd say thats pretty good for a next gen OS. Most prebuilt comps are shipping with 1GB memory requirement for vista premium and above which makes sence. Obviously 512MB wont cut it anymore( not like it should anyway ).

Well this is a breath of fresh air. I hope it really does run better or on par for vista because despite what THG benches say. Just today I was bashing Vista for having bad gaming performance but I would like to be wrong. Maybe now all I'll be able to bash vista with is high prices . Oh yeah and those other issues.

Right now I have a love-hate relationship with vista. On one hand, new OS, new look and new tech. On the other hand $200 (?) isn't exactly burning a hole in my pocket and I heard of a lot of problems so far. I think I'll just play it safe with Tool and grab it when it hits SP1

THG was using an ATI X1900XT, I believe. ATI might not have their Vista drivers optimized yet, while Nvidia needs to get their drivers in order, as benchmarks are already being done on a DX10 part.

I plan on a dual boot, because the OEM Windows Media Edition 2005 has an upgrade coupon for Vista Home Premium. The new PC's arriving in bits and pieces from Newegg over the next few days. I don't think I'll see any real benefit until I can replace the 7600GS with an 8600GS in a few months.

As far as benchmarks go, I think they'll vary wildly until DX10 games arrive, or current titles are patched for Vista.

If anything, I'd say that worrying about DX10 has NV behind ATI in Vista support.

FS has a couple articles comparing XP to Vista performance on ATI Cat 7.1 and also Aeroglass performance hit. ATI seems like they are doing just fine with their current cards in Vista, we shall see how well their DX10 cards do.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] alyst_7.1/

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] rformance/

NV on the other hand... http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37314

Wasn't the main issue with THG's benchmarks that it was RTM drivers still? Both Nvidia and AMD/ATI have been able to fine tune their software since that time. Maybe they have significantly by this point.

isn't gamespot owned by microsoft?

nevermind, it's cnet.

I noticed they also used ATI's beta drivers. the official drivers were released the same day as the review (Catalyst 7.1), and seem to be a VAST improvement over the beta. I loaded up FEAR and PREY (OpenGL)with no issues at all, didnt check the FPS though but I am sure it was a VAST improvement.

SOme games though have gone from frame rates of over 100 to unplayable when attacking i.e. command and conquer generals age of empires 2 (on an 8800GTS)