Server 2008 as Workstation vs XP 64

[Stiganator]

Anyone running 2008 as a workstation to comment on it compared to XP 64?

I'm curious if autodesk products such as autocad, 3dsmax, maya will work on 2008.
Hopefully, they got those kinks worked out with vista.

 

[Lord Banshee]

I too am looking into this as an option for my next system (2-4 months), i hope to see someone has tested this on a work or home machine.

 

[BD2003]

I've yet to find a convincing reason to use server 2008 as a workstation. Supposedly its faster than vista, but any compatibility problems youd have with one you'll most likely have with the other.

 

[Continuity28]

I am using the 240 day trial.

I ran a few benchmarks, played a few games, and Server 2008 performs better than XP x64 (and of course Vista SP1 x64) for me.

I don't use the types of programs you discussed, so I'm not sure how well they would do.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

I having been waiting for this to appear in either DreamSpark or MSDNAA. It's been pretty quiet so far. However, it took two months after Vista was released to the public (not business) for it to appear on MSDNAA. If it appears on MSDNAA, I should be able to get at least Standard and Enterprise and maybe Web multiplied that with 32-bit & 64-bit ;-).

 

[Modelworks]

They will all install on server 2008.
There are still issues with Vista.
They just released the 2009 version of Max and Maya and there are still a few problems with Vista.
Also some of the 3rd party plugins are not working with vista.

Stick with XP x64 for now if you need a no problem environment.

 

[rudder]

I have been playing with Server 2008. Since most of the vista drivers work with 2008 and has been easier to get fully functional versus Xp64. But I did start having some issues with photoshop.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: rudder
I have been playing with Server 2008. Since most of the vista drivers work with 2008 and has been easier to get fully functional versus Xp64. But I did start having some issues with photoshop.

I think that is one of the biggest problems with vista right now.
The graphics support.
Whether its a problem with vista, nvidia or ATI , I don't know, probably a little of each.

 

[BD2003]

Whats wrong with vista's gfx support? Drivers have been solid for at least a year.

 

[mooseracing]

There's a few people on 2cpu running it with the common mods to make it a workstation (just like 2003) and they love it. When I get a chance I am going to get a version off MSDN and run it.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: BD2003
Whats wrong with vista's gfx support? Drivers have been solid for at least a year.

Its not really a problem directly with Vista, but more a problem between the applications and drivers.
Most of the problems are because of Aero.
Some though persist even with Aero off.

Most workstation applications use 3d running in windows on the desktop.
The applications work but you often see parts of a scene that doesn't update or menus that vanish.
DX9 support seems to be getting a lot better, OpenGL is still a bit slow.

There are also some memory allocation issues with vista.
I have had a couple instances where the application says its out of memory, but there is still plenty of memory free.

One other thing is how vista will close an application if it thinks that the application has stopped responding.
3DSMax worked fine until I ran it with Vray, then vista kept wanting to close it because it thought the application had hung, when in fact it was just taking a very long time to finish a calculation.
There is a workaround for that , but its something that hopefully will not require a workaround in the future.


So not saying its something MS could fix.
Its just going to take time for the problems to be worked out.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: BD2003
Whats wrong with vista's gfx support? Drivers have been solid for at least a year.

Its not really a problem directly with Vista, but more a problem between the applications and drivers.
Most of the problems are because of Aero.
Some though persist even with Aero off.

Most workstation applications use 3d running in windows on the desktop.
The applications work but you often see parts of a scene that doesn't update or menus that vanish.
DX9 support seems to be getting a lot better, OpenGL is still a bit slow.

There are also some memory allocation issues with vista.
I have had a couple instances where the application says its out of memory, but there is still plenty of memory free.

One other thing is how vista will close an application if it thinks that the application has stopped responding.
3DSMax worked fine until I ran it with Vray, then vista kept wanting to close it because it thought the application had hung, when in fact it was just taking a very long time to finish a calculation.
There is a workaround for that , but its something that hopefully will not require a workaround in the future.


So not saying its something MS could fix.
Its just going to take time for the problems to be worked out.

I honestly have had zero problems with aero, stability wise or visually, or with memory allocation. Maybe this stuff crops when really pushing a PC as a 3d workstation, but from a consumer standpoint, the gfx is all the way there.

But if a program is locking up in a certain way that it appears to be hanging, thats just poor coding on the part of the 3rd party. Theres a zillion apps I use that can lock a CPU at 100% and still manage to work just fine without vista thinking it's hanging. I'm sure something that major of a bug will be patched by the 3rd party.

 

[BD2003]

But back on topic, I'm taking this whole "Server 2008 is faster than Vista" thing with a HUGE grain of salt. Until someone actually benchmarks one against the other using identical settings/services, I'm still far more inclined to believe this has far more to do with configuration than with some sort of intrinsic quality of 2008. I mean, server 2008 doesnt even have audio on by default. It shouldnt surprise anyone that when you strip the desktop experience of OS down to it's bare minimum that its going to run a bit faster.

It's not absolutely out of the question that server 08 could be faster, but I'd be convinced if there was someone who could actually give a valid reason rather than the speculation I see everywhere.

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Whether its a problem with vista, nvidia or ATI , I don't know, probably a little of each.

Yes. It also has to do with legacy GDI+ apps, which is basically 99% of all Windows apps, being run in Vista/Server 2008's DirectX-based GUI environment. The more complex the GDI+ GUI, the worse it performs in Vista. Not only performance is worse (screen redraws, scrolling, etc), there are also a few bugs with GDI+ apps when multitasking under Aero. I'm not sure if performance improves when Aero is turned off and the Classic GUI is used--worth a try?

These people who say Vista works "ok" must have a really selective view of Vista, or they just don't do any serious work with it. Vista has a ton of things left to fix. Not all of this is Microsoft's fault, apps have to be optimized for Vista for things to improve. Vista drivers need to continue to be improved too.