Windows XP, Vista or 7?

[Larkspeed]

Performance hits in what sense? I've had several PCs that I've migrated from XP to 7 and I've never noticed any particular difference. If you were running 512MB then possibly, although with SP3 XP actually runs pretty slowly on 512MB - I've got several machines at work that I've had to upgrade to 768MB / 1GB since installing XP SP3...

If you benchmark a game in XP and then install 7 or vista and then benchmark that same game then you will see a performance drop.

This has been the same ever since vista came out

And if you were around computers at that time then you would certainly remember the threads popping up everywhere about the loss of performance.

It may not be as prevalent now but it is still there and any performance loss no matter how small is never a good thing.

[Funkstar]

I still don't understand why anyone would choose to install a ten year old (10 years on the 25th of this month to be exact) Operating system when it is no longer actively supported, may not take full advantage of modern hardware and will not get any more significant updates. Driver support going forward is going to be pretty limited too.

[scaryjim]

And if you were around computers at that time then you would certainly remember the threads popping up everywhere about the loss of performance.

Vista, yes. Vista prior to SP1 was a sick dog that needed putting out of its misery. I even wrote several blog posts on trying to live with Vista (and failing). Windows 7 is somewhat different. I haven't seen any *noticable* difference in gameplay for any of the games I play regularly.

Note, I'm not saying there's no *measurable* difference. There may well be. But that doesn't matter if the difference is small enough that you won't notice it. And the vastly superior support that Windows 7 will provide in the long term has to outweigh any perceived performance dip. Plus there is no proper Windows XP 64-bit, so once we start needing 4GB of RAM XP will be useless to you (and yes, I have already seen workloads that genuinely make use of more than 4GB of RAM - fairly specific ones, but real world ones nonetheless).

[Larkspeed]

Vista, yes. Vista prior to SP1 was a sick dog that needed putting out of its misery. I even wrote several blog posts on trying to live with Vista (and failing). Windows 7 is somewhat different. I haven't seen any *noticable* difference in gameplay for any of the games I play regularly.

Note, I'm not saying there's no *measurable* difference. There may well be. But that doesn't matter if the difference is small enough that you won't notice it. And the vastly superior support that Windows 7 will provide in the long term has to outweigh any perceived performance dip. Plus there is no proper Windows XP 64-bit, so once we start needing 4GB of RAM XP will be useless to you (and yes, I have already seen workloads that genuinely make use of more than 4GB of RAM - fairly specific ones, but real world ones nonetheless).

Hence why I said that even though I prefer it XP is not feasible so out of the choices it would have to be 7

[Strings]

Windows 7. Really don't know why people persist with other older OSs when there are much better features on newer ones to suit today's tech.

[DrATty]

I'm still a big fan of XP. I use it on my gaming PC. I tried Vista for a while but found it awful and I was reluctant to try Windows 7. Eventually, I bought 3 copies when they were just £45 each and I was soon converted. Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. It runs well on my netbook as well as my powerful desktop. I have yet to have a problem with compatibility though your mileage may vary.
I'd recommend Windows 7. The points above concerning the lack of support are very important, but I just find it nippy, easy to use and stable, essential for any operating system.

[Rwanman]

Yip,
Vista was a bitch of an OS , Win7 is way to go, IMO

[DarrellW94]

Microsoft kinda gained a bad name after Vista, but 7 really is a step up from XP. Really easy to use, looks great, and performs really well! Although benchmarks may say that XP runs games quicker, it will only be a slight difference, but if you disable Aero then there shouldn't be any issues. Some games (for instance, Just Cause 2) will only run on Vista or 7, so it is almost becoming a necessity. Correct me on that if I'm wrong please though!

[Zybros]

Windows 7 Home premium or pro is the best option unless you can afford windows 7 ultimate, but forget xp or vista cos one is way to insecure and the other well you know... it's vista

[The Gunslinger]

I must admit to having a preference to WinXP - maybe its a familiarity thing, but i find Win7 constantly meddles and interferes.

An OS afterall should be an interface between the hardware and user, Windows is rapidly becoming what i could best describe as the biggest piece of software i can think of !!

That said, WinXP has it limitations unfortunately, not least of which the limitations of true HD material in it, because they can't control the users options as well as newer OS's - so they make sure stuff wont work in it, as well as some other limitations like RAM etc !


I would go for the Win7 64 bit pro or ultimate if you can, because you then have full feature support as well as XP mode should you need, the other variations are feature stripped copies to make them cheaper