Quote:
Originally Posted by UltimateBMW
Well, it depends on how long you can hold out. And also how big of a gamer you are. Microsoft will stop it's support for XP by the end of this year. When I say stop, I mean completely stop. They basically are going to force poeple to upgrade to vista. But I imagine most games that come out in the next year or two will be XP complient still, since the game producers won't want that to be any kind of limiting factor for selling their game to poeple. I also believe that Windows 7 should be out around 2009. So if you can live with xp, or whatever your current O/S is, until 2009 without any MS support or updates I would say hold off. But this is a general reply.
Getting a bit more detailed, most games will be using DX10 in the upcoming years, and as time goes on obviously it will only become worse (or better depending on your point of view). But alot of games may still be DX9 compliant which means you would still be able to run them, they just won't look as pretty. I currently am using Vista 64bit, which brings me to the topic of actually using it, its usability, and any bugs. So far I've only seen a few compatibility issues with Vista 64 bit. I enjoy the change in interface and graphics and the extra system ram that I can run on it. (8gb max in 64bit vs. 4 gb max in 32 bit)
If you like to play older games, you can forget it in a 64bit system. Classic versions of games won't work at all on a 64bit machine, whether it is XP or Vista. In the end there would only be 2 reasons for you to upgrade, get a new cooler interface or to go from a 32bit to a 64bit OS. There is also a 64bit XP version, but like I said MS isn't going to support XP for much longer. How good of a deal can your friend get you? If its incredible, you might as well take him up on it to carry you over to Windows 7, but i'll let you know now that Vista is ALOT heavier on your system resources. Your 8800GTS card won't have much trouble running it, and if you have 4gb of ram you'll be fine. But alot of average computers sold at Best Buy and Fry's may have some trouble.
My reply kind of jumps around on topic because im trying to close up my computer and go home as I write it. Its 4:55pm here.
Shoot me a PM if you want of what your looking to run on the computer in the new or distant future. I'll talk to you more about it.
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Thanks for the advice. I do have a computer that should be able to run Vista - AMD 64 X2 6000+ (3.0GHz), 4 GB RAM, etc, etc.
My ex-developer, who now works for Microsoft, can get me Vista for $30.00. I ran the Microsoft Vista advisor on my desktop, and the only thing it didn't like was the video card. Guess that was because I'm using the XP driver ?? There is a Vista driver for it.
Also, is there any guarantee that Windows 7 will be better than Vista ??