PC Games on Vista?

[GamingDaemon]

I just installed Vista (RTM) on my PC, a fresh install, not an upgrade.

Then I installed a couple of games, Oblivion and Company of Heroes.

Ooops! Oblivion flickered like crazy, and only worked when i chose the Window option over the Fullscreen mode.

Company of Heroes turned the screen blank forcing me to reboot. I could never get this to work.

I just finished do a fresh install of Windows XP on the same PC.

I have an nVidia 7900 GT/GTO w/ 256MB of memory, a 4700+ dual-core AMD 64 proc, 2GB of memory, 2 fast SATA II hard drives and an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium mobo.

I downloaded the latest nVidia beta driver for Vista.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[gorcorps]

Using a just released OS

 

[GamingDaemon]

So in other words, wait a couple of months.

Do I need to upgrade to a 8800 card?

 

[sswingle]

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon
I downloaded the latest nVidia beta driver for Vista

Wait for some final drivers.

 

[gorcorps]

So in other words, wait a couple of months.

Do I need to upgrade to a 8800 card?

no, just wait

 

[TheRyuu]

It's the drivers. Wait for them to mature and then it should supposedly "play better".
You'll have to take Microsoft's/ATI's/Nvidia's/DX10 peoples' word though.
They said it would run better :|

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon
I downloaded the latest nVidia beta driver for Vista.

I boldly underlined your problem .

 

[Jaxidian]

From what I've read, I thought Vista was supposed to be ~ 10-15% slower when gaming. Has that changed? That was the latest as of a month or two ago.

 

[blurredvision]

I'd say wait also. Too early to tell how things will turn out. Eventually, though, you'll only be able to play games on Vista, and then you'll have nothing to compare. You then have to assume it runs faster .

 

[flyboy84]

It was the same going from 98 to XP

 

[tuteja1986]

Well i have been using vista for almost 8months now ;( ... i have found that nvidia driver sucks...

http://au.gamespot.com/features/6154735/index.html?q=vista game computability test was done a X1900XTX... they started the testing on a 7900GTX but "We started testing with the GeForce 7900 GTX but quickly switched over to the Radeon X1900 XT after all the crashing games revealed that Nvidia's Vista drivers weren't quite mature enough for live testing."

Anyways I have played Oblivion on Vista and it works fine for me anyways.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon

Do I need to upgrade to a 8800 card?

nvidia doesnt even have vista drivers for the 8800's out yet

 

[QueBert]

Vista was in beta for a LONG TIME, the game support is horrendous! I mean MS is really going to try to push this as a "gamers os" as of right now it falls hard in game support. I wouldn't bitch at all if this was a new NT or 2000, which wern't meant to game at all.

Yeah game support will get better down the road, but the initial release is a pile of steaming sh!t, very unimpressive how little it's come as to what games will run since I tested the first public beta. I don't expect much from Microsoft, so really this is par for the course.

 

[alm4rr]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
From what I've read, I thought Vista was supposed to be ~ 10-15% slower when gaming. Has that changed? That was the latest as of a month or two ago.

 

[AnMig]

Originally posted by: flyboy84
It was the same going from 98 to XP

I think I am going to be one of those guys who kept Windows 98 until XP actually was stable and mature enough to run games. Only this time I will keep using XP until the benefit of shifiting to VISTA becomes obvious.

I doubt if XP will dissappear as fast as WIN 98 did, since XP is really a stable OS (no repeated blue screens)

For a gamer even ordinary user there really no reason to shift to VISTA at this time.

 

[Markbnj]

Bah, please don't post the same topic in multiple forums (although this is arguably a better place for it). This same thread was started over in operating systems.

Anyway, won't duplicate my whole reply from there: bottom line is BF2 is unplayable due to flickering and and artifacts. Call of Duty 2 runs fine. I have a few others I am going to test tonight.

 

[n7]

AFAIK, ATi has a bit of an advantage in the drivers department right now.

I'm sure nV will fix some of the issues eventually though

Either way, i wouldn't suggest Vista as a primary gaming platform to anyone right now.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Bah, please don't post the same topic in multiple forums (although this is arguably a better place for it). This same thread was started over in operating systems.

Anyway, won't duplicate my whole reply from there: bottom line is BF2 is unplayable due to flickering and and artifacts. Call of Duty 2 runs fine. I have a few others I am going to test tonight.

Sorry about the dual post. I didn't know which was the better forum. I could argue it for both of them.

Anyway, i will add some comments here that I added there:

I installed the Vista RTM on my wife's machine, she has a 7600 GT, and the games worked flawlessly. They actually looked better in Vista than they did in XP. So I think games will play better in Vista even if thwey are DirectX9 games.

As for Vista and gaming, I work with Microsoft a lot in the Business world as a custom business software developer. I have seen a number of initiatives come and go. I have seen what they can do when they decide to invest in a technology and put their weight behind it. I have never seen them put so much weight and capital bhehind re-capturing and re-invigorating the PC Gaming scene. I could not disagree more with the poster that said we will still be playing games on XP. They have established a list of requirements, for example, that game publishers must abide by to gain the "Games for Windows" label. With that label, they get to put their games in the "Games for Windows" kiosks which Microsoft has bought in every major gaming store in the country. They are serious about this. Then, there is XNA and DX10, both making developing games even easier. Makes me consider becoming a game developer isntead

Seriously, they are really committed to making PC Games win over console games. That's what I'm hearing from the inside. And as an avid PC Gamer, that's great news.

I also received some money that, according to the state, they owed me from my taxes a few years ago (thanks for taking care of this so quickly :disgust: ), and it just so happens to equal the price of a geForce 8800 GTX. Hmmmmmm...

My proper, wise side of my brain says wait, wait, wait for ATI to come out with a card so you benefit from competition. My eager, impatient side of my brain says, buy it now, buy it now! Can anyone please offer any convincing arguments one way or the other before I go completely schizo? TIA

 

[Markbnj]

I agree. I'm sure these are all temporary pre-release driver problems. I'm interested in your experience, because I also have a 7600GT and neither BF2 nor CoD2 run correctly. BF2 doesn't work at all. CoD2 runs in DX7 compatibility mode (yuck). What driver are you using?

 

[Wellcky]

Use Vista in 6 months and Upgrade to 8800 next year when 9900 shows up and the price is down to $150

I've used the RC2 Nvidia drivers and Oblivion seem to work fine for me in full screen mode.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
I agree. I'm sure these are all temporary pre-release driver problems. I'm interested in your experience, because I also have a 7600GT and neither BF2 nor CoD2 run correctly. BF2 doesn't work at all. CoD2 runs in DX7 compatibility mode (yuck). What driver are you using?

I am using the default driver that Vista RTM provided on my wife's machine. I tried nVidia's driver on mine box with the 7900 and no luck . Now i did find this driver, but only after i took Vista off my machine: latest nVidia driver

That driver is later than the one on nVidia's site. Give it a shot and let me know if it works any better.

 

[ROTC1983]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon

Do I need to upgrade to a 8800 card?

nvidia doesnt even have vista drivers for the 8800's out yet

Yeah, I noticed and was pretty pissed when I found out. I had to reinstall XP Pro

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon

Originally posted by: Markbnj
I agree. I'm sure these are all temporary pre-release driver problems. I'm interested in your experience, because I also have a 7600GT and neither BF2 nor CoD2 run correctly. BF2 doesn't work at all. CoD2 runs in DX7 compatibility mode (yuck). What driver are you using?

I am using the default driver that Vista RTM provided on my wife's machine. I tried nVidia's driver on mine box with the 7900 and no luck . Now i did find this driver, but only after i took Vista off my machine: latest nVidia driver

That driver is later than the one on nVidia's site. Give it a shot and let me know if it works any better.

careful with drivers since nvidia changed drivers between beta versions

the RTM should probably have the right drivers built in. i tried RC2 and it had nforce5 drivers in the OS

otherwise there are so many changes you are going to have some problems. i've been using every OS since WIndows 95 and there have always been problems with some games when a new OS comes out

 

[Markbnj]

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon

Originally posted by: Markbnj
I agree. I'm sure these are all temporary pre-release driver problems. I'm interested in your experience, because I also have a 7600GT and neither BF2 nor CoD2 run correctly. BF2 doesn't work at all. CoD2 runs in DX7 compatibility mode (yuck). What driver are you using?

I am using the default driver that Vista RTM provided on my wife's machine. I tried nVidia's driver on mine box with the 7900 and no luck . Now i did find this driver, but only after i took Vista off my machine: latest nVidia driver

That driver is later than the one on nVidia's site. Give it a shot and let me know if it works any better.

Thanks for that tip. I'll give those a try tonight.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
I'd say wait also. Too early to tell how things will turn out. Eventually, though, you'll only be able to play games on Vista, and then you'll have nothing to compare. You then have to assume it runs faster .

Well since most of us will have 64-bit processors and the 64-bit version it probably will.
(Not exponentially, but still faster.)

But I think I may have to keep an old system around just to play most of my games. Can only hope they support XP Pro until I finally grow old and get tired of gaming.