I'm a MSDN subscribed member and downloaded the "official" SP1 for Vista x64.
 
The Good
1.  Install took about 20 minutes and no issues reported.
 
The Bad
1.  No performance improvements at all (fraps reports same in all games, Crysis, GTR2, rFactor, COD4, etc.)
2.  More DX9 games are crashing with BSOD or "Stopped Responding" (never got BSOD prior to SP1)
3.  Security is still "in your face" so keep the UAC disabled
 
The Neutral
1.  DX10 games perform the same (FSX, Crysis)
 
Overall experience with the official SP1 is WORSE NOT better on my Vista x64 system (quad core Intel 9650 4GB RAM and nVidia 8800GTX).
 
Based on the threads in this forum (11231) vs. WinXP (386855) it looks like most folks are doing the smart thing and not upgrading to Vista.  If you WinXP folks were waiting for SP1 to "fix" Vista, well it doesn't, has only made DX9 games worse on Vista.
 
For gaming, I'll stick with WinXP and the soon to be released SP3 (which I'm hesitant to install based on Microsoft's miserable record with Vista SP1).
 
For those that want to continue with Vista SP1, it will become available to the masses in March via Windows Update -- but you have been warned.
 

Have you tried re-installing vid card drivers?
 
The only real speed improvements reported with sp1 were in the file copying/transfer dept, IIRC.  
 
Hope you find a fix. That's a bummer.
 
I know you are disapointed but XP had six years to amass that user base/thread count - and threads usually come up from *cough* problems. Hardly much of a measure of anything.
 
Having said that I will hold off awhile before getting SP 1. Thanks for the input.

I upgraded to Vista because of SP1, I've seen a massive performance increase from the RTM release of Vista. A service pack does not perform magic, of course you won't see a huge difference in games that's upto Nvidia & ATI.

I think the real issue for me is that DX9 games are now crashing that didn't prior to Vista SP1.
 
I had most of the nVidia KB hot fixes installed so I didn't expect to see much of an performance improvement, still about 10-20% slower overall than WinXP.  
 
Files copies, only with USB devices was this a problem under Vista -- standard disk I/O was fine.

Ok, seems that just about all my DX9 titles are crashing with memory dumps now -- only variable is the installation of SP1.  Prime95, MemTest 86, 3DMark06, SiSoftware Sandra burn in tests were all good so I've "cleared" this as being a hardware issue.
 
Going to wipe Vista x64 SP1 and go back to WinXP.  This isn't the first time Microsoft have released an SP that made matters worse, not better.  From what I understand from "the inside" there was some "debate" between releasing now or in June.  Think they should have waited as this release will only hurt Vista sales even more, not help.
 
I think Vista has to be the worst OS Microsoft have ever released.  DX10 games do at least seem to continue to work.
 
Anyway, SP1 will be made available to the public in March via Windows Update site.  
 
Maybe I'll revisit Vista when they release SP2, but my hope is that Microsoft stop attempting the backwards compatibility game and just write a new OS from ground up without any form of backwards compatibility.  Most people I know that have Vista have either removed it or have a dual boot to WinXP.  Since so many do dual boot, then it's pretty clear that compatibility was NOT achieved in Vista so why even bother adding the layers and layers and layers of code to "try" (and fail in most cases) and retain compatibility.
 

For the heck of it why don't you uninstall SP1 just to confirm that's the problem.

Done, uninstalled back to pre SP1.  DX9 games are working now - I should be more specific "working as well as they were before SP1" -- still get "Stopped responding" but usually only when exiting the DX9 game -- which is far better than BSOD and memory dumps that I got in SP1.
 
For those wanting to uninstall official SP1: Control Panel | Programs and Features | Tasks - select "Installed Updates"  -- now locate KB936330 and select Uninstall.
 
That has confirmed it for me -- being back at square one with Vista x64 is not exactly where I wanted to be so it's going to get wiped in favor of WinXP.
 
I do recall a lot of folks saying they're gonna wait for SP1 for Vista before upgrading -- all I can say is good luck and don't wipe out your WinXP partition.

Is anyone else reporting this problem yet?  
 
I guess we will see for sure after the main release. But so far this is the first I have heard about it.

Yeah folks, please do chime in with your Official SP1 experiences.  Surprised someone at Tom's hasn't done a review on SP1 yet?

Look at this fool, complaining, crying and whining.  If you dont like vista, why dont you buy a Mac, Linux, Unix and use them.  OR better yet, write your own Operating System that will work with any software ever written for any platform, it will put you to bed, print your own money, cook for you, clean for you, give you sex, etc.
 
Hey, do you think Microsoft is God?  Vista is made for the next generation software and hardware.  Microsoft does not guarantee compatibility with old software and hardware.  Why are you complaining SP1 is messing up ur DX9 games in Vista?  Does microsoft guarantee SP1 will improve your DX9 titles running in Vista? NO. Did the game publisher guarantee your game will work in Vista? NO  Did you make a big deal out of nothing? YES
 
If you want everything to be running smoothly, set up dual OS on your computer.  Play DX9 games in XP, and DX10 in Vista.  Problem solved.  

"Wiser_Than_U" -- oh brother!!  I'm sure many have their "ignore" buttons enabled with any of your responses.  Foolish, yes that describes your response very accurately.
 

i just had sp 1 install for me today. i had already benchmarked my machine pretty thoroughly and now my scores seem locked. when i run an over clock. i get next to zero improvement running 3 gtx's. tring to see if i can fix matters but even with a 3.66 overclock my 3dmark was within 50 points of stock 3ghz score. prior to sp1 i would be scoring in the 18k range at 3dmark default only to be getting the high end of 12k regardless of cpu clock now post sp1. anyone else having trouble like this?

Sad I was really hoping this would make vista better too bad, I guess Im sticking with xp and ubuntu.

I haven't had those problems with DX9 games.  Programs ran slower for a lil while, but that was expected since it was mentioned in the release notes that the Prefetch would be cleared since they've slightly changed the way it works to improve speed.  Now all my programs are starting up a lil faster.  Then again, my computer is a good computer so that nonsense about 10-20% slower doesn't even apply.  
 
If your computer is that much slower that you can't endure the wait then you probably need to upgrade...  
If the 10-20% means that a program that took 5 seconds to start is now taking 6... then your probably being too picky...

 
Give it a little time. The real story will come when millions are trying it. Till then just wait.

Can you say OOPS!  Makes ya wonder how Microsoft could get it so so wrong after 6+ years of resources and many millions of dollars tossed at it.
 
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/20 [...] ugh-for-s/
 
http://www.news.com/Microsoft-pull [...] 31299.html
 
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNe [...] &siteid=17
 
Vista is going to be a pile of dog pooh even at SP99.  At this point, I think it has definitely exceed WinME as being the worst OS to date.
 
Interesting, looks like current Vista SP1 Project Manager has been "rotated".
 
Reboot cycle anyone?  Forced to reformat -- lovely!  Great job Microsoft.

so i have had a day to play with the sp1. i am still yet to find any fixes for my horrible graphix performance though on a postive note i have noticed the fixs have solved some minor web related issues and program load times. as a gamer those are nice extra's and all but i want my gpu performance/scaling back. i am very close to uninstalling sp1.

If you search enough, you'll find many people still complaining about Windows XP as well.  How many complained that SP 2 "broke" their Windows?  How many people put off installing SP 2 because they thought it was more buggy than the original?
 
It's the same old story... over and over again.  Many people do have problems, but then again many people don't.  The problem is, you almost never hear from someone that isn't having problems....