Downgrade to XP, stick to Vista or upgrade to 7?

Hello!
I got a Studio 15 with slightly upped specs, and I got myself a copy of Windows XP Pro for 75$ (yet unopened). I was wondering if it was worth installing it, since I could use that 75$ elsewhere.

I mostly want to do this to be able to play older games (I can run L4D and Company of Heroes, nothing else) and to stop wasting speed for useless bloat.

1-Is it worth it?
2-Will everything work fine?

 

I'd stick with Vista personally. It was a little buggy to start with, but I had no problems with it since service pack 1.

 

Stick to Vista. I personally found all the negative hype around Vista to be somewhat exaggerated. They're even less true now after the SPs.

It would probably be recommended to buy an upgrade to Windows 7 since most people have had very good things to say about it.

 

If you are a gamer first, then XP is still the way to go. My gaming rig is an XP machine. I tried Vista and took it off. Forget the bogus benchmarks about how close Vista is to XP wrt gaming. It's BS.

If it were true i'd run Vista on said machine in a heartbeat. I find older games to perform worse on Vista than newer games. If you want to run a game in a DOS environment then you're better off with XP. You'll need to run DOSBOX in Vista. I found on average that most of my games ran better in XP, some were a stuttering/pausing mess in Vista and some refused to run at all, that's even after SP2. Again I like Vista but it sux go-nads if you are a true gamer, sorry to all the Vista apologists but XP is still the gaming OS.

Now with that said some encouraging news is coming out about W7 even though it's based on Vista. It gets as close if not surpasses XP, from early reports based on betas. I'd wait on W7 before deciding but $75 for XP Pro is a nice deal as the OS is still in demand.

Now am I a Vista hater, hell no just a realist. I have 5 computers:

4 Laptops that all run Vista, business and multimedia
1 Desktop aka Gaming Rig (XP Pro)

Vista, IMO is a now a solid all purpose OS after SP1 and more refined since SP2 and in some ways does things better than XP. But when I demand the highest FPS and want to squeeze the most out of my games, XP is still the way to go. Now with that said you can draw your own conclusion by trying out Vista on your games. I have and still find XP still to be the cats meow.

 

I would spend the $75 on a Windows 7 Upgrade. Why?
- More featured OS
- More stable OS
- As Rodknee stated, early W7 benchmarks show performance of gaming in W7 to be equal to or greater than that of XP

 

Wiondows 7 FTW! it's not even comparable to Vista! blows it out the Window in terms of performance and looks.

 

I was an XP supporter all the time. But I must admit, 7 is faster than XP as it utilizes the dual core / 64 bit processers I have much more efficiently than XP, but is not as bloated as Vista is. The best of both worlds really

 

I'll wait and see how much Windows 7 is and I'll put XP on sale at 130$ (we never know!). With Dell, I should be able to get a cheap upgrade, since I got my laptop in April-May.

(but I'll stick to Jaunty!)

 

DO NOT DON'T DOWNGRADE TO XP!!!! This is a bad choice.
Stick with Vista or upgrade to 7.
If you're willing to pay, of course, Windows 7 FTW!

Windows 7 have a better system, better benchmark and "automatic download and install drivers of your computer while installing Windows 7" if you're connect to internet and lower resources usage compared to Vista.

XP has the lowest resources usage and the benchmark is better than Vista. However, it sucks due to numerous reasons. LOL.

Vista. LOL. As usual. Resources hog compared to 7. Lower benchmark compared to 7 and XP.

Conclusion, 7>Vista>XP

 

what's up with LOL? This is not a chat room.


7 or XP. never Vista! Vista shouldn't even be comparable! you want newer technology + support + speed. Windows 7.


U want old technology that still works like a charm with limited support but fast performace. XP

Vista is a big mistake. period

 

So says the guy who spells "the", hte.

At this point in Vista's life cycle I wouldn't call it a mistake because lot's of issues have been addressed and fixed. OTOH I wouldn't use Vista as a gaming OS for the reasons I noted previously.

 

Stick to Vista till October 22,09 then switch to Win 7.

 

I have to agree - DarkSilver's #1 reason for not using XP (in at least one other thread I've seen as well) seems to be "LOL". Can't say it's a very reasoned arguement, although at least there are a couple of other statements in the post in this thread.

As a fan of older games (2000 - 2004 era, mostly), I'm in a similar position as Rodknee - they all run at least as well on XP as on Vista, and a couple run drastically better on XP (either having occasional noticeably low FPS drops in Vista, or having problems running consistently at all). With newer games that were tested on Vista while being developed, the difference doesn't tend to be all that large (either way - they want good XP performance for the majority of the market, too), but some older games that were designed with Windows 98 or Windows 2000 in mind suffer under Vista, to varying degrees.

Then again, if you have Vista and can save the $75, trying your games on Vista first would seem to be a sensible idea. If they all work well (give it a month or two to make sure no problems show up later on), then there's no point in spending the money on XP and you might as well sell the license before using it. But if some games that you care about do have compatibility/performance issues, then you've found XP for a good price and I wouldn't waste time trying to fix Vista issues that likely arent' fixable.

In terms of games performance, Win7 shouldn't be much different than Vista. It might be slightly more efficient, but I doubt it will help with older games. The main benefit for it would be in the other various improvements that have been made between it and Vista. If you're curious, I'm pretty sure the Release Candidate is still available to download.

 

Wait for 7. Although XP might still be faster in some cases, 7 will be smoother desktop experience.

If you have a fast hard drive, Vista is tolerable. 7 is more efficient than Vista in I/O with better multitasking responsiveness. I have used XP, Vista, and 7. 7 will be better than XP for most people. Save your money.

And if you are a real gamer, desktop is the preferred platform. Notebooks are for emergencies only!

 

LOL is a good thing. LOL.
I don't like XP because it don't have SUPERFETCH and a lot of security problems recently.

 

Forget about Vista and XP, go with Windows 7. I used to be convinced that XP was the best OS for gaming but just thought I would give Windows 7 RC 7100 a quick try and now I will never use XP again.

Gaming on Windows 7 is either a lot better or just as good as it was on XP and so far never worse.

I play really older games in a Virtual OS and even found that works better now as well.

I never thought I would see the day that an OS would out do XP but the day has now come.

 

Either stay with Vista, or better, upgrade to 7. If Vista isn't causing your system to run slow, then you can stick with it. But Windows 7 will make your system even better.

XP is getting old, don't go XP.

 

Wrong.

...

 

stop spreading your false knowledge while you switch your os's all the time. one day "vista is great", next day "vista is crap". very annoying.

 

I would say you're persistent.
However, I think it is real. I do hear before he said Vista is great if not mistaken.
Because his title is the ULTIMATE TWEAKER which always tweak around Vista and make his Vista more powerful(better than XP).

7>Vista>XP I guess this is the correct theory.
However, I can't sure would it be totally practical.

 

I say you're the one that's wrong, because I know my system and the way my games run better than you do. Besides reading all your post you come across as a holier than thou, Microsoft PR/fanboy.

I say your full of it, plain and simple.

 

Oh, not again???? Another Vista vs XP vs Win 7 thread?????
OP, please search the gazillion threads posted already about the same topic.

 

Vista doesnt really differ that much from 7.. Certainly not in gaming performance.. XP might be some FPS better than both vista and 7, but god damn minor, if you have a good pc that is.

 

Stay with Vista, wait for Windows 7, or better yet, just get the Windows 7 RC and use that till release. I am currently running some older games on Vista and they run great especially after SP2. Most of the troubles I have had are related to the copy protection. Ubersoldier's StarForce was uncooperative. I couldn't run it in Windows 7 as it bugs out in a 64bit environment, fixed it with a StarForce update to run in Vista, same as I did with IL2 1946 and Silent Hunter III. Undying and Alice worked great, so does Operation Flashpoint, Alien vs Predator 1 and 2 and Homeworld. Those are the ones I have tried so far. If it's old, run it in XP compatibility mode and run as admin. Usually works for me. Only thing I use XP for is work, and they are just waiting for Windows 7 to change.