[solofx7]

I just have some questions and wanted to know if anyone could help.
First does anyone run Windows Vitsta in boot camp?
How are the video drivers?
How does it run with games?
I am a big gamer and run tons of Windows Games in boot camp in XP.
I wanted to know if it was worth the risk to upgrade to vista for the possible benefits of direct x 10 over direct x 9.
if so, what are the differences?
this is what i found on microsofts site, but it is so generic: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...s/directx.aspx
will i see enough of a difference on a 15 inch macbook pro to warrant the work that is going to go into the upgrade and the hassles of vista?

[Luca Rescigno]

I am just using a home-built PC, not a Mac, but I can answer your question. Long story short, don't bother. DX10 is only required for a very small number of games (most of which aren't good anyway). But for the many games where it's optional, using it will reduce your performance by a lot. I can barely run DX10 features on my Radeon HD3850, which is faster than whatever it is you have in your MacBook Pro. Going DX9 with high settings looks very nearly as good and performs a lot better, and going DX9 with medium-low settings should give you smooth performance in just about anything.

FYI, the only games I've played with DX10 as an option were BioShock and Company of Heroes. In both cases, DX10 hurt performance significantly while improving the visuals only slightly.

Vista isn't really helpful for gamers. If you're using Boot Camp for other stuff as well, then it might be worth the upgrade. But if it's just games, stick with XP.

[solofx7]

Originally Posted by Luca Rescigno 

I am just using a home-built PC, not a Mac, but I can answer your question. Long story short, don't bother. DX10 is only required for a very small number of games (most of which aren't good anyway). But for the many games where it's optional, using it will reduce your performance by a lot. I can barely run DX10 features on my Radeon HD3850, which is faster than whatever it is you have in your MacBook Pro. Going DX9 with high settings looks very nearly as good and performs a lot better, and going DX9 with medium-low settings should give you smooth performance in just about anything.

FYI, the only games I've played with DX10 as an option were BioShock and Company of Heroes. In both cases, DX10 hurt performance significantly while improving the visuals only slightly.

Vista isn't really helpful for gamers. If you're using Boot Camp for other stuff as well, then it might be worth the upgrade. But if it's just games, stick with XP.

thanks, you are definitely a "pro-poster" with such a fast response.
I have just been having such a tough time finding info on the difference.
Gaming is really all I use the PC side for because everything else i can do I do in OSX.
Do you know of anywhere the difference between the 2 is listed?
Your first hand experience is greatly appreciated.
the other thing that i was concerned about is that vista is a memory hog from what i hear, and that is a huge problem for me as resources being low are key for me.
I had trouble on vista trying to figure out how to turn start up apps of and stop vista from using resources.

[solofx7]

my boss found this list of games that support direct x 10, and honestly though i have a lot of these games, it may not be worth the upgrade...
another question, after the first service pack in vista, do you still take a performance hit over xp ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ctX_10_support

[Luca Rescigno]

As I said, I didn't notice a performance hit in my games, but I moved my PC from XP to Vista quite some time ago, before SP1.

If you have Vista, you're going to want at least 2 GB of RAM. But you should have that much anyway. It's cheap, and Leopard is just as much of a memory hog. Speaking from personal experience, 2 GB is necessary for either OS X or Vista. Less, and things will slow down sooner or later (sometimes later as memory is slowly used up by various processes).

It's not too hard to stop the annoying Vista stuff. The main difference is the user agent control, or UAC. A Google search for "UAC" will show you how to turn it off. UAC is that annoying message that asks "are you sure?" whenever you try to do anything. Beyond that, other apps that may run at startup can be disabled just like they are in XP. It's generally app-dependent, not OS-dependent. You can also enable or disable any graphical UI effects you want, but it's not even necessary if you have a reasonably fast computer. Games will automatically disable all the Vista Aero effects when you start them up anyway.

Like I said, though, if you're just using Boot Camp for games, there's no reason to upgrade. Gaming is probably the one area where Vista gives you the least improvement (if any) over XP. It costs money to buy the OS (money you could be using to buy more games!), it's a hassle to reinstall, and it provides little or no benefit. And remember, if you have a MacBook Pro, your video card is not going to be able to handle DirectX 10 graphics anyway. You can try turning DX10 on, but it'll only be a novelty since you'll end up turning it off again to get smooth performance.

[solofx7]

Originally Posted by Luca Rescigno 

As I said, I didn't notice a performance hit in my games, but I moved my PC from XP to Vista quite some time ago, before SP1.

If you have Vista, you're going to want at least 2 GB of RAM. But you should have that much anyway. It's cheap, and Leopard is just as much of a memory hog. Speaking from personal experience, 2 GB is necessary for either OS X or Vista. Less, and things will slow down sooner or later (sometimes later as memory is slowly used up by various processes).

It's not too hard to stop the annoying Vista stuff. The main difference is the user agent control, or UAC. A Google search for "UAC" will show you how to turn it off. UAC is that annoying message that asks "are you sure?" whenever you try to do anything. Beyond that, other apps that may run at startup can be disabled just like they are in XP. It's generally app-dependent, not OS-dependent. You can also enable or disable any graphical UI effects you want, but it's not even necessary if you have a reasonably fast computer. Games will automatically disable all the Vista Aero effects when you start them up anyway.

Like I said, though, if you're just using Boot Camp for games, there's no reason to upgrade. Gaming is probably the one area where Vista gives you the least improvement (if any) over XP. It costs money to buy the OS (money you could be using to buy more games!), it's a hassle to reinstall, and it provides little or no benefit. And remember, if you have a MacBook Pro, your video card is not going to be able to handle DirectX 10 graphics anyway. You can try turning DX10 on, but it'll only be a novelty since you'll end up turning it off again to get smooth performance.

thank you. your information is golden and helped make my decision.
you are truly a "pro"

[solofx7]

well, i have installed Windows 7 Beta.
I figured i would give it a shot for gaming.
so far so good.
no major hang ups.
i think that it is just a rebadged vista, that actually performs a bit better, but what do i know.
in any event, these are the games that i have installed, and no i have not tried them all.
COD4, COD5, Pirates, Gears of War, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, Syberia 1 and 2, and Team Fortress 2.

[solofx7]

all of the games are running fine now, no issues.