XP or Vista???

[davenicoll]

Hi Guys,

I have just discovered the joys of FSX  (I was a FS2004 stalwart) but have now converted and looks like full time.

Piece of advice please...

Before I start piling in the add-ons do you think it wise to also go to Vista... currently have an 8800GT running on XP pro.

Is taking advantage of DX10 worth it...will i kill my frame rates??...will they improve???

Any advice would be appreciated

[Steve M]

There has been a thread or two on this subject before. I Choose XP Pro. If you have it, I say keep it. Others will say Vista works fine for them, yet its known as a resource hog.  

[SubZer0]

XP for performance..

FSX doesn't make much use of DX10, it was built for DX9 and DX10 was only a little testing for it basically... 95% or more of addons are only compatible in DX9 and won't work in DX10, DX10 will also decrease your performance in some cases, and it won't add anything to the looks that DX9 can do with some good addons like REX. Vista will just kill your computer. period. stick with XP until Windows 7 comes out....

good luck and have fun with FSX

[Brett Hill 2]

I have managed to get a Free 30 day trial copy of windows 7 BETA on disk from a friend just to try it out on a dual boot of my PC and see what we are all waiting for. I ran a test on the amount of ram it uses as opposed to my base running system of vista. and it uses about a third more memory by using no addon programs and just running the normal startup program... now im not sure whether this is going to be a good example of whats to come considering it is clear that the media playing is inoperable (meaning it is not finished yet or still has a few bugs with it) and that may mean other parts arnt finished yet also. But if it is... it means it will be more heavy using windows explorer than any other running system. Before I uninstall this dual boot of windows 7 BETA and get rid of it... can anyone tell me if there is a way to test the dfferences of the processing power they both use ? and if or when I get the results over which is better I will let you guys know what they are.

[steve s]

You might try here...........http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/be_cpu.html

[carcher126]

[quote]Hi Guys,

I have just discovered the joys of FSX

[flaminghotsauce]

I just got finished testing XP on my Vista machine. Vista made me mad one day last week so I wiped it, installed XP and loaded up the sims. FS9 was a HUGE improvement, and FSX showed a moderate improvement. But both definitely ran faster, showed more FPS, and simply "felt" better flying.

Unfortunately, I had no sound drivers available that I could find, so I have restored Vista.  :P

[davenicoll]

Thanks guys...

your help and advice is appreciated...

Conclusion...Going to stick with XP...

Dave

[machineman9]

One thing to remember is that Vista caches much better. It uses your resources better than with XP.

So yeh, it uses more memory, but it makes better use of it. Things should load faster with it. I believe it has better core support for your processor too.


If you have a capable system I would go with Vista. Your 8800GT will be very good for running FSX, and should be fine in DX10 mode.

[NickN]

[quote]Hi Guys,

I have just discovered the joys of FSX

[davenicoll]

Thanks Nick....

Unfortunately (Toungue in cheek) its's your fault I discovered FSX as I followed your set up process ,didn't get smart as you put it and now have a very good sim...My wallet will suffer though..

And for someone of your knowledge to reccomend staying put I really appreciate it...

Thank you from the whole sim community for your contribution...

Dave

[Brett_Henderson]

Windows7 will still eat a gig of memory all by itself so when you finally do downgrade upgrade you will probably want to move to Windows7 x64 and put 4GB of memory in your system to compensate

Here's where I get confused..  64-bit processors have been the norm for YEARS now... and THE biggest advantage in switching from Windows98SE (or ME if you got caught in that loop) to XP, was that XP was a true 32-bit O/S. They didn't offer 16-bit versions of XP.. why on earth will there be a 32-bit version of Windows7 ?

To date, I've been telling new builders to go with Vista64, because future versions of DirectX won't be supported on XP.  But now it looks like Windows7 will be out, before there's a significant advance made in DirectX

SO.. if you're building a computer today, will the upgrade to Windows7 be as easy (and the same price) if done from XP, as it would be from Vista ?

[NickN]

Windows7 will still eat a gig of memory all by itself so when you finally do downgrade upgrade you will probably want to move to Windows7 x64 and put 4GB of memory in your system to compensate

Here's where I get confused..  64-bit processors have been the norm for YEARS now... and THE biggest advantage in switching from Windows98SE (or ME if you got caught in that loop) to XP, was that XP was a true 32-bit O/S. They didn't offer 16-bit versions of XP.. why on earth will there be a 32-bit version of Windows7 ?

To date, I've been telling new builders to go with Vista64, because future versions of DirectX won't be supported on XP.  But now it looks like Windows7 will be out, before there's a significant advance made in DirectX

SO.. if you're building a computer today, will the upgrade to Windows7 be as easy (and the same price) if done from XP, as it would be from Vista ?

more than one knows we should have been on x64 a long time ago with applications

http://www.futuregpu.org/2008/11/when-im-64.html

[Al_Fallujah]

Running Vista x64 w/ 4 gigs.  No issues. But I play other games too, not just Fly FSX.

[baxter342]

Stick with XP for now.
Everone i know with vista have had problems and the ones with xp have had very minor problems (fsx)that were solved easy.Most were the operator%$#%$#. I have had 0 to date. Very happy!!!
AMD All the way

baxter342