Vista vs XP Pro

[dvo352]

Hi, I currently am running Vista home edition on my laptop and its been working fine. However, I know how everyone hates Vista because it hogs up resources. My question is should I downgrade to XP pro?

My specs are:
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: P8700 @ 2.53ghz
Nvidia GTX 260M
6 gigs of ram

Its an Asus g71/gx model laptop. I have no real complaints except that I rather use XP pro if its better. My friend has a copy and keeps telling me how much Vista sucks (like I don't know lol).

Anyway, the main games I play are Diablo 3 and Dota 2. I wanted to run Battlefield 3 but I'm afraid this laptop might just give up and die on me after running it lol.

 

[dodger46]

Not much wrong with Vista since SP2, I would never go back to XP, and you have plenty RAM, why give yourself the hassle of reverting to a dinosaur? DirectX10 runs on Vista but only in emulation on XP.. And if you want to improve your performance there is always the option to fit an SSD instead of your HDD, your machine will fly... though your gaming will be somewhat by the GPU performance..

 

[dvo352]

GPU honestly seems pretty good. I feel my processor sucks. But you could be right. Always thought it was the cpu but I'll definitely try to throw in a ssd drive.

 

[dodger46]

GPU honestly seems pretty good. I feel my processor sucks. But you could be right. Always thought it was the cpu but I'll definitely try to throw in a ssd drive.

Trick is to replace your HDD with an SSD and move your HDD to your optical drive bay, you can buy adapters on Ebay. Then you'll need an adapter lead to run your Optical drive as an external to load proggies... Keep the SSD for Windows and your favourite games, and follow this guide for setting up your SSD for max performance
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

 

[mathew7]

What I want to add is: if it's not broke, why fix it?
Vista vs. XP performance is not really noticeable. Visa's complaints were about startup activity, UI redesigns and seemingly unnecessary services on by default.
If you need a OS reinstall, then you should also consider Win7 over Vista, unless licensing issue stop it (i.e.: you need to buy the 7 license, whereas you could use and old XP license).
If you current Vista installation is problem-free (no malware and stuff), don't bother...the benefits are too small.

 

[thee_prisoner]

You don't really need a SSD. Yes, programs will load a little faster and load screens will be a bit quicker too. Vista is better then XP, Windows 7 is better then Vista. Since you already have Vista SP2, I'm guessing, there isn't a reason to go back to XP.

The only reason really to have XP at this point is for older games, for example a dual boot system.

The question of your CPU and GPU, they are pretty much average now but BF3 should be fine, just not at the highest settings.

Happy gaming, the Prisoner.

Edit: I looked at the specs for BF3, it doesn't look like it supports XP 32 or XP 64.

 

[JohnyMax]

XP are so outdated. I would stick with vista if I were you.

 

[da22]

VISTA has support for DX10 and so does you video card so stick with Vista.

SSD wont make your games that much quicker but it does breath new life into a tiring system. I wouldn't go back to HDD for boot drive.

Ignore your friend Vista sp2 is fine, if you wish to upgrade wait for the £25 Windows 8

 

[dvo352]

Thanks for the help guys. I was pretty close to doing it until I went to download drivers for my video card and saw how outdated they were. Thats when I came here. Pretty happy I asked before just jumping into it.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[BIL_ASC]

Go for Win 7.
Vista is too slow
XP can't play today's game..

 

[dvo352]

Best answer selected by dvo352.