My take on Vista versus WIndows 7 for OFF

[appraiserfl 0]

About a week ago I had asked for peoples opinion on how vista stacked up against windows 7 for gaming....gaming with OFF in particular. If memory serves me correct, I had only received one reply from another member that has run both operating systems with OFF and that member said that he picked up another 5-10fps. I am running vista ultimate 64, and I bought another hard drive to run Windows7 so I could have both OS in a duel boot setup.

 

I AM GLAD THAT I BOUGHT THE SECOND HARD DRIVE because I was originally considering just completely blowing off vista and using Windows7 exclusively on my primary hard drive. But I figured that If I was spending close to $300 for an os that I may as well spend another $70 and get an additinal thousand gig hard drive just in case Windows7 did not work out perfectly. I AM GLAD I CHOSE THIS ROUTE!

 

For the newer games like Crysis, Batman Arkum Asylum, Dirt2, etc. Windows 7 is the better choice as it is using both gpus of my 5970 for considerable fps gains over vista.

 

However, with my two flight sims of choice (OFF & IL2) I am getting stuttering gameplay with Windows7. For example, with vista and settings at 5,5,3,4,4,3 (shadows & rain off) at 4800x1200 resolution I get 30-35 fps at the airfield and 40-60fps in the air on a nice weather day. With OFF running at the same settings on Windows7 I am getting 35-40fps at the airfield and 40-80fps in the air, but the gameplay is jittery. I believe this jitteryness is caused by microstutter, because MSI afterburner shows both gpus of my 5970 to be working with windows7 and OFF/IL2, however, both GPUs are only working at 40-50%!

 

In contrast, when I play OFF on vista, MSI afterburner only shows one gpu as working and it is working at 90-99%. So it basically looks like Windows7 is allowing crossfire to work, but it is not taxing both GPUs to their full potential and I am getting what appears to be microstutter as a byproduct :( I could try my 5870 to see if the problem was indeed a duel gpu issue, but I am too lazy to take my system apart for that test, especially since the G940 does not work perfectly with Windows7.

THE G940 WITH VISTA VERSUS WINDOWS7

I believe this deserves its on section and possibly its own thread as I see complainers about the G940s performance and Force feedback effects. I have updated both Vista and Windows7 with the latest and greatest G940 drivers and it performs much, much, better with vista versus windows7. The force feedback effects are much weaker and less consistent with WIndows7. I get major problems with the G940 and OFF with Windows7 because the flight stick gets crazy sometimes and pins itself in sharp directions at random which throws me into stalls. Also, the throttle acts crazy with Windows 7, sometimes when I push to max throttle it cuts to 50% even though it should be max and the stick is located at the max position! I already had a few near fatal stalls during intense dogfights because I was supposed to be at max throttle, but it was only at 50%!

 

The difference with the G940s performance with IL2 is even more pronounced than OFF because IL2 has a much better FF implementation. With IL2 the center force feedback deadzone is considerably more pronounced and I now see what people are complaining about. The center deadzone in Vista is very tiny and precise, but it is like a gaping chasm with Windows7. Simply put, the G940 is unplayable for me with windows7 because it is Superb with Vista and I will not accept any less performance that what I know it is capable of.

 

Conclusion

Vista with its longer shelf life and service packs is more refined and playable for older games. With the latest and greatest games Windows 7 is the way to go, especially if you are running duel gpus. The G940 needs better drivers for Windows7, I will continue to search, maybe is missed a beta driver or somehting. As it is right now, I will be OFFing with Vista and gaming with Windows 7 for everything else.

[Von Paulus 8]

Thanks for sharing your testings.

[Parky 8]

The 5970 hasn't been around long enough to see any real driver refinements. Your problem has nothing to do with Windows 7 and everything to do with ATI's driver development and the way their drivers interact with that specific OS and certain games. Although I've never been a big fan of any kind of dual-gpu graphics solutions wether it be via crossfire, SLI, or two chips on the same PCB, I'm confident you'll see improved driver support and subsequent perfomance improvements in Win7 with OFF once ATI gets their collective thumb out of their ass.

 

Btw....I'm not sure what you mean by "Vista with it's longer shelf life and service packs". Longer as opposed to what exactly?? Windows Millenium?? As far as I'm concerned, with the release of Windows 7, Vista is dead in the water....as it pretty much has been since it's sadly misguided initial release. It's a bloated, overpriced, annoying and piss-poor attempt at a user-friendly, functional and streamlined operating system, period. It was a blatant money-grab, perpetrated against a poorly informed and unsuspecting consumer. Nothing more and nothing less. If I were to tell you how many times over the past year and a half I've removed Vista from people's laptops and replaced it with XPSP3, it would leave your head spinning.

 

Not to tell you something you already know, but your G940 issues can't be blamed on Windows 7 either. Logitech needs to move into the present and develop a decent driver for it....simple as that.

 

Look at it this way, as soon as the aforementioned driver development teams get off their duffs, you'll be able to fill up that primary drive with something far less expensive and far more useful than Vista. A bunch of pictures of Microsoft's accountants adding up profits from a failed attempt at an operating system come to mind....

 

 

Cheers,

 

Parky

[Morris 2]

appraiserfl,

 

thanx for the valuable info.

 

m

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

A number of stuttering issues in RoF have been tracked down to being caused by sound card drivers, particularly SB cards.

Try, deleting your sound card and drivers, then reinstalling the sound card and let windows 7 load it's own drivers...then try OFF.

 

Hope that helps.

[appraiserfl 0]

A number of stuttering issues in RoF have been tracked down to being caused by sound card drivers, particularly SB cards.

Try, deleting your sound card and drivers, then reinstalling the sound card and let windows 7 load it's own drivers...then try OFF.

 

Hope that helps.

 

I have an ht claro and the sound is fine in every other game. I wouldnt use a sb card if you payed me.

[appraiserfl 0]

The 5970 hasn't been around long enough to see any real driver refinements. Your problem has nothing to do with Windows 7 and everything to do with ATI's driver development and the way their drivers interact with that specific OS and certain games. Although I've never been a big fan of any kind of dual-gpu graphics solutions wether it be via crossfire, SLI, or two chips on the same PCB, I'm confident you'll see improved driver support and subsequent perfomance improvements in Win7 with OFF once ATI gets their collective thumb out of their ass.

 

Btw....I'm not sure what you mean by "Vista with it's longer shelf life and service packs". Longer as opposed to what exactly?? Windows Millenium?? As far as I'm concerned, with the release of Windows 7, Vista is dead in the water....as it pretty much has been since it's sadly misguided initial release. It's a bloated, overpriced, annoying and piss-poor attempt at a user-friendly, functional and streamlined operating system, period. It was a blatant money-grab, perpetrated against a poorly informed and unsuspecting consumer. Nothing more and nothing less. If I were to tell you how many times over the past year and a half I've removed Vista from people's laptops and replaced it with XPSP3, it would leave your head spinning.

 

Not to tell you something you already know, but your G940 issues can't be blamed on Windows 7 either. Logitech needs to move into the present and develop a decent driver for it....simple as that.

 

Look at it this way, as soon as the aforementioned driver development teams get off their duffs, you'll be able to fill up that primary drive with something far less expensive and far more useful than Vista. A bunch of pictures of Microsoft's accountants adding up profits from a failed attempt at an operating system come to mind....

 

 

Cheers,

 

Parky

 

Ok, slooooow down there, soooooooooooo down and relax. I am not telling people to run out and buy vista over windows 7 I am just reporting what I see. Obviously the drivers are what is causing the problems with the ati graphics and g940, that is what I mean by the longer shelf life of vista, because the developers have had more time to work with vista.

 

YES Vista is a POS, I did a fresh install of my vista 64 a month ago and updated it to service pack 2 and it already is corrupted and will not let me delete and move files without doing a ctl+alt+del and then making the program manager cancel the request. So don't even get me started there. Basically this thread is here to tell people that it might not be there new ati 5870 & 5890s or their new G940s that suck, it could be the weak ass driver support if their OS is Windows7.

[appraiserfl 0]

I just went thru all of this twice getting my drivers to work with my pos vista.... id rather hold off on being a test subject for a while

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1478657

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

The trouble with Vista (as I see it) is that not many people run a system merely to play OFF...It's all the other crap that goes with Vista that put me off from the word go.