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XP, VISTA 32bit or VISTA 64bit - Please help me decide

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Known issues:

* This driver does not support the following:
o Decoding of Dolby® Digital and DTS? signals
o DVD-Audio
o DirectSound®-based EAX games
o 6.1 speaker mode
* Applications from the original Sound Blaster X-Fi CD will not work with this download

Jeez, you have a $200ish awesome sound card, and Vista gimps it completely (of course it doesn't help that Creative hasn't fixed it from their end).

FWIW, I don't see *any* reason not to dual-boot, if you're a gamer. You'll get better performance, waaay better audio quality, and you can always return to Vista when it matures some more.
 
I"m using the 169.04 drivers in Vista as well. Still need to install CoH, but I'll let you know how it goes. Not expecting it to crash.
 
Well, still doing testing on COH, no crashing yet but now Crysis does not even start.

Something about CrysisEngine 2 has stopped working...

By the way, what do I need to do to dual boot ? What is required ? I think I may to eventually go to XP 🙁
 
Do you have a spare HDD? I recommend the technique of unplugging your existing OS drive, installing clean onto a different drive, then reconnecting and using the Bios to select which drive to boot off of. Gives you the bonus of always having a workable Windows install, and if something bad happens to one OS or the other, you can use the spare to work with.
 
Originally posted by: Arkaign
Do you have a spare HDD? I recommend the technique of unplugging your existing OS drive, installing clean onto a different drive, then reconnecting and using the Bios to select which drive to boot off of. Gives you the bonus of always having a workable Windows install, and if something bad happens to one OS or the other, you can use the spare to work with.
Click to expand...

Yep, thats the best way to do it. Glad I did because after installing the 169.04 drivers in XP I can't even boot in to XP now. I kept getting BSOD, and can't get in. Vista is installed on a seperate drive, and boots up fine, no crashing, but Crysis isn't exactly tolerable at an avg of 18FPS, in some area's I am averaging 15fps.
 
I use vista 32bit and its solid. I ordered the 64bit cd for shipping from ms and installed it. The 64 ran smoothly basically, but I keep coming across programs issues that are not 64bit ready. This made me go back to the 32bit.

For example...

1. 64bit would not install the adobe flash player.

2. 64bit gave me "green" screens durning live tv and recording tv, with my media center on the 64bit and my hauppauge hvr 1600 tuner card. Looking into this, hauppauge says and I quote "the 64bit vista with 4megs of mem (or more) has an issue with "green blank screens" during live tv and recording. Their fix... remove some of your memory. :roll:

3. Roboform, an auto login filler/form filler does not like the 64bit vista.

4. 64bit vista comes with a 32bit IE and a 64bit IE. I suppose using the 32bit would solve my roboform and flash player problems (oh, did I mention java problems too???), but I say whats the use of going 64bit just to have to fall back using the 32bit IE. Lame-o if you ask me.

5. My media center pc went totally into sleep mode with the 32bit vista (no fans running), and would wake up to do recordings, then shut back down. The 64bit would never go back into sleep mode after a recording. It stayed on. Setting were the same in both the 32 and 64.

6. The above issues using the 64bit. I'd go 32bit vista for now.
 
Do you have a spare HDD?
Click to expand...
No, I don't have a spare HDD, but I'm gonna see if I buy one maybe this weekend... If I see any other issues...

BTW, although Crysis is not even starting after all those hotfixes/updates... (running from 64bit folder it displays error message "Cryengine2 Stopped working")... After uninstalling and re-installing it... I decided to try running Crysis from 32BIT folder... and voila... It works 🙂 Dunno but it works... I actually thought that it may increase FPS but it was the same as before... AVG of 24 FPS running on HIGH (I used GPU benchmark that is supplied from Crysis). Although 24FPS is low... it was very playable...

After installing to 169.04 I have not noticed any issues other than that I can't start Crysis from 64bit folder... But I have to continue checking...


 
I am running the 169.04 as well no trouble starting from the 64bit folder. I get 20FPS average in DX10 mode, and 25FPS average in DX9 mode with all high settings. I installed Company of Heroes as well, no issues with it, and with equal settings I actually get equal performance to XP at 1920x1080. Bioshock on the other hand won't run at all. As soon as it gets to the screen where you load a saved game, or if you try and start a new game, it crashes and says it had to restart the nvidia drivers.
 
Stevty,

I noticed that you are running at 1920x1080 is that your max resolution for your monitor ? My FPS that I have given of 24FPS (AVG) are running at 1920x1200. I have not tried to use lower resolution... but maybe I should to see if I get better FPS... But like I said, 24FPS is very playable but of course I need to continue to test...
 
Yeah, 1920x1080 is my max resolution. It's a 42" LCD. Yeah, 25FPS is fairly playable, even with 2x8800GTX in SLI with a E6600@3.4ghz my roomate only gets 36FPS at high settings and 1920x1080.
 
Stevty,

You are getting 25FPS running 2 8800 GTX in SLI ? What setting does your friend have that he gets 35FPS ?


In any case... I'm still having trouble with COH. It still crashes 🙁 I tried uninstalling/installing various video drivers with no luck... I give up... I'm going to try to live with out it... argh !!!

Although I got another BSOD when playing AOE III, I'm still able to play AOE III. When I got blue screen it did say that I had a problem with my video driver... But since I've only got twice... I can live with it...

I think I'll hold off dual booting for now...

 
I just have a single 8800GTX, it's my roomate that has the SLI. Not sure what to say about CoH. I get the errror saying a I have problem with my video drivers when Bioshock crashes. I just don't think Nvidia has the drivers ironed out yet. Haven't had any trouble the drivers in XP yet, but my roomates computer started locking up in both XP and Vista. It would lock up immediatly up until he uninstalled both his Nvidia driver.
 
Originally posted by: stevty2889
I just have a single 8800GTX, it's my roomate that has the SLI. Not sure what to say about CoH. I get the errror saying a I have problem with my video drivers when Bioshock crashes. I just don't think Nvidia has the drivers ironed out yet. Haven't had any trouble the drivers in XP yet, but my roomates computer started locking up in both XP and Vista. It would lock up immediatly up until he uninstalled both his Nvidia driver.
Click to expand...

I never had any real problems with Bioshock and Vista x64(only had one crash throughout entire game),played it from start to end(boring game IMHO) the only problem I had was a couple of times sound would cut out in dialogue/cut seen mode,disabling EAX helped.

Also remember Bioshock is a "Game for Windows" which mean it should work fine with both Vista x68 and x64.
Btw at the time I was using the beta Nvidia drivers that had improvements for Bioshock,can't remember which version.


As to lockups I have also seen overclocked cards cause that problem.
 
Originally posted by: Mem
Originally posted by: stevty2889
I just have a single 8800GTX, it's my roomate that has the SLI. Not sure what to say about CoH. I get the errror saying a I have problem with my video drivers when Bioshock crashes. I just don't think Nvidia has the drivers ironed out yet. Haven't had any trouble the drivers in XP yet, but my roomates computer started locking up in both XP and Vista. It would lock up immediatly up until he uninstalled both his Nvidia driver.
Click to expand...

I never had any real problems with Bioshock and Vista x64(only had one crash throughout entire game),played it from start to end(boring game IMHO) the only problem I had was a couple of times sound would cut out in dialogue/cut seen mode,disabling EAX helped.

Also remember Bioshock is a "Game for Windows" which mean it should work fine with both Vista x68 and x64.
Btw at the time I was using the beta Nvidia drivers that had improvements for Bioshock,can't remember which version.


As to lockups I have also seen overclocked cards cause that problem.
Click to expand...

It actually ran in Vista before, it stopped working with the latest drivers. I went back to the previous drivers, because Vista and XP both started crashing with the new beta drivers. The new beta drivers were for the Crysis single player demo. It seems like Nvidia is really starting to get sloppy, releasing new beta drivers when every new major game/demo is coming out. Seems like they fix one thing and break something else.

My video card isn't overclocked. I haven't bothered starting bioshock back up, I only was trying to benchmark it in both Vista and XP, since performance in Vista actually was matching XP with the new beta drivers in other games. It was great till I couldn't boot in to either OS. My roomate experienced the same problem as well, he ended up having to re-install vista to get it working right again, and his XP is still screwed up. 169.04 is the driver version that seems to be wrecking havoc.
 
Yesterday I checked EA forums and noticed other ppl also having trouble running from 64bit folder... It appears that the DEMO version was the culprit. Looks like they downloaded Crysis demo from a different site and it worked for them... don't remember what site... I haven't tried to re-download the demo from a different site... I'll just wait for the game to come out.

In regards to COH, about 2 months ago I had PC with VISTA 32bit and I also had problems with COH... although they way it is crashing is different... I think it's the same... a video driver problem.

And as with AOE III, I really only had 2 BSOD and it is a video driver problem... Maybe because this a "game for windows", I have not had that many problems...








 
My video card isn't overclocked. I haven't bothered starting bioshock back up, I only was trying to benchmark it in both Vista and XP, since performance in Vista actually was matching XP with the new beta drivers in other games. It was great till I couldn't boot in to either OS. My roomate experienced the same problem as well, he ended up having to re-install vista to get it working right again, and his XP is still screwed up. 169.04 is the driver version that seems to be wrecking havoc.
Click to expand...

I forgot to say I have seen this happen even on factory overclocked video cards,reducing the factory overclock by 10mhz can improve stability/lockups in some games.
 
I forgot to say I have seen this happen even on factory overclocked video cards,reducing the factory overclock by 10mhz can improve stability/lockups in some games.
Click to expand...


Mem,

I've had some improvements... Just wanted to mention some of my issues to see if you or someone else has any suggestions...

1. Crysis not running from 64BIT folder.
This has been resolved but it was some trial and error on my part... and it had to do with antivirus, video card & PC overclocking.

-Antivirus
I had installed AVG. Running Crysis under 64BIT folder... I got black screen. When I ctrl-alt-delete, game would crash. I quit AVG and reinstalled. This made no difference. Uninstalled AVG and re-installed game. This made some difference. Although I got black screen, game no longer crashed when I ctrl-alt-delete.

-Video Card.
Unistalled video card and also deleted C:/NVIDIA folder. Installed video driver in safe mode with networking. Not sure if NVIDIA uninstalls previous beta versions properly.

At this point. I was still getting black screen when starting game.

-PC Overclocked.
Set PC back to stock speed of 3GHz and voila now I'm able to run under 64BIT folder. Decided to try to overclock PC to 3.66GHz and it also worked.


Although game is now running with PC overclocked... it was definitetly the reason why game was not able to start.

Since I invested in CPU cooler.... I rather not have my PC at stock speed... but seems related. Also, I installed CC-Cleaner and deleted files .... this also includes from registry.

Other issues:-
COH is still crashing but not as often as before.
When starting Crysis, 60% it says, insert CD in drive and retry. Although I have game in dvd drive... it doesn't appear to read it properly.... I have to eject/open tray and close it. After this this... it reads the game... I have 2 dvd drives and I never get this message with other games... so it seems to be Crysis specific.

In general, my PC stability seems to have improved but still there are minor issues.



 
Originally posted by: spike99
I forgot to say I have seen this happen even on factory overclocked video cards,reducing the factory overclock by 10mhz can improve stability/lockups in some games.
Click to expand...


Mem,

I've had some improvements... Just wanted to mention some of my issues to see if you or someone else has any suggestions...

1. Crysis not running from 64BIT folder.
This has been resolved but it was some trial and error on my part... and it had to do with antivirus, video card & PC overclocking.

-Antivirus
I had installed AVG. Running Crysis under 64BIT folder... I got black screen. When I ctrl-alt-delete, game would crash. I quit AVG and reinstalled. This made no difference. Uninstalled AVG and re-installed game. This made some difference. Although I got black screen, game no longer crashed when I ctrl-alt-delete.

-Video Card.
Unistalled video card and also deleted C:/NVIDIA folder. Installed video driver in safe mode with networking. Not sure if NVIDIA uninstalls previous beta versions properly.

At this point. I was still getting black screen when starting game.

-PC Overclocked.
Set PC back to stock speed of 3GHz and voila now I'm able to run under 64BIT folder. Decided to try to overclock PC to 3.66GHz and it also worked.


Although game is now running with PC overclocked... it was definitetly the reason why game was not able to start.

Since I invested in CPU cooler.... I rather not have my PC at stock speed... but seems related. Also, I installed CC-Cleaner and deleted files .... this also includes from registry.

Other issues:-
COH is still crashing but not as often as before.
When starting Crysis, 60% it says, insert CD in drive and retry. Although I have game in dvd drive... it doesn't appear to read it properly.... I have to eject/open tray and close it. After this this... it reads the game... I have 2 dvd drives and I never get this message with other games... so it seems to be Crysis specific.

In general, my PC stability seems to have improved but still there are minor issues.
Click to expand...

Tried underclocking video card by 10mhz and not CPU?...Also did you install the new latest X-FI drivers?

I would download RegCleaner 4.3 too link, make sure its run as admin from properties of exe.(or it won't run)
In RegCleaner go to Tools at top then Registry Cleanup and select OLE Cleaner,once that has done go to Orphan file reference finder (which is just below OLE Cleaner) this will take awhile(over hour in my case) and you will be amazed at what it finds,it backups anyway when you delete stuff,I use it a lot in Vista x64,good for finding stuff CCleaner can't clean.
 
Tried underclocking video card by 10mhz and not CPU?...Also did you install the new latest X-FI drivers?
Click to expand...

I have not tried underclocking video card by 10mhz... Don't know how to do this... what software should I be using ?

Latest X-FI drivers is from 11/5 as shown below
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series Vista Driver 2.15.0004 (51.93 MB) 5 Nov 07

I know i downloaded X-Fi drivers a couple of weeks ago... so I must have the latest... but I'll recheck when I get home.

[/quote]I would download RegCleaner 4.3 too link, make sure its run as admin from properties of exe.(or it won't run)
In RegCleaner go to Tools at top then Registry Cleanup and select OLE Cleaner,once that has done go to Orphan file reference finder (which is just below OLE Cleaner) this will take awhile(over hour in my case) and you will be amazed at what it finds,it backups anyway when you delete stuff,I use it a lot in Vista x64,good for finding stuff CCleaner can't clean. [/quote]

I'll try RegCleaner 4.3 this weekend.
 
I use Gainward ExpertTool 5.6 for underclocking/overclocking link ,you can use latest ntune too.

I think you have latest X-FI drivers.

Sidenote: I just installed both Deus Ex games(just finished Invisible War),replaying them in Vista x64 with no issues so 2 more games I can add to my runs fine list 🙂.
 
Sidenote: I just installed both Deus Ex games(just finished Invisible War),replaying them in Vista x64 with no issues so 2 more games I can add to my runs fine list .
Click to expand...

Mem,

Last week end I got fed up and I formated my PC to see if this made any difference with PC crashing/freezing.

I only installed required software... I did not install Creative driver/software... Playing COH, it crashed...

One difference that I am noticing... once in a while when PC crashes/freezes a Problem Reporting window opens (I had not noticed this before) and displays some nvidia driver problem and also compability issues with COH & AOE III.

I have since downloaded latest driver/software for Creative... but last night I modified game icon properties for COH & AOE III and set compability to XP/SP 2 and run as admin. Yesterday I played 2 COH games (~30mins each) and there were no crashes... Obviously i need to do more testing before I can say I'm okay. With my previous issues... after making some changes... I thought I was fine only to play some more games and have it crash again....

Just wondering if you ever make these changes type of changes to play any of your games.. ?
 
Just wondering if you ever make these changes type of changes to play any of your games.. ?
Click to expand...

Depends on the game , SWG I had to run as admin and XP compatibility mode so I could play online(recommended settings at their site),UFO-Afterlight I had to do same thing so it would play,but in general not most games.
 
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