XP vs. Vista in Reviews

[Miles]

Not long ago I suggested to the our review team that we use Vista as the OS of choice in all our reviews. I have recently done a few reviews that I feel Vista was a primary limiting factor in the products' performance.

We at Bjorn3D would really like to hear from you in this regard! We cater to the computer enthusiast and some would say the hardcore gaming enthusiast. Would you guys prefer Vista SP1 or Windows XP SP3 as our operating system of choice in our reviews.

[ZhengHe]

Where it says "a mix of the two" would that mean testing hardware with by operating systems or varying up which one you choose with each specific piece of hardware?

[Miles]

Varying the OS dependant on the hardware tested .... actually we'd like to standardize on one if possible except in those cases where Vista is mandated. The real problem is not being able to run DX10 benches without Vista.

[Scott]

I am not sure we need to do both. I would move to Vista and use it for reviews. XP users should see better performance but nothing that is going to break the camels back. We have been notifed by Dell that XP is quickly coming to an end and we may not be able to get machine after June from them with it.

When Dell can't get you a machine any more then XP will start a faster fade since new hardware will be sold with it on it. This is of coarse my thoughts and not the thoughts of people that work on Bjorn3D.


Bjorn3D Support.

[Victor]

although, I do experience way more issue with Vista than XP, I think we should move to Vista just because MS is discontinuing XP. Regardless the flaws in Vista, it will be the OS in the near future (although, I believe many people actually will skip Vista and stay with XP until the Windows 7 if MS can keep its promise of delivering Windows 7 in 2009. But we all know that we can trust MS, right?:)).

there is some performance hit with Vista but that's what the enthusiasts need to live with it as well I believe. I do hope that future service pack can correct some of these issues. (I wonder how long would MS supports Vista if they promise to deliver "better" OS with Windows 7....).

[sushrukh]

Voted for the " A mix of the two would be nice " .I think most users are still using XP.So, they will want to see reviews in XP. ;)

[CrashMaster]

I would say test in Vista but do a few sanity checks where needed with XP (vid card reviews to see how the drivers are for example)

[Goliath182]

I would like to see Vista in tests because you will see the worst performance when using it. That way i can see the worst performance i should get out of my hardware.

[alfhenrik]

A mix of the two would be nice, if time permits of course, as this would show the performance difference between the two (as Vista is generally slower than XP) and as new hardware comes out see if the performance of Vista increases...if there isn't enough time for both then I, personally would like to see Vista (as that is what I am running)...

[Nocutius]

I use XP and don't plan to use Vista for a while, if ever.
That said, I vote for Vista.

I would like to see Vista in tests because you will see the worst performance when using it. That way i can see the worst performance i should get out of my hardware.

Agreed, just add a few fps, and you can estimate xp results by yourself.
Vista is simply more relevant.

[Kougar]

Hm, I don't see an option for Windows 7? :ahhhhh:

As much as Vista poses a problem for reviewing and gathering easily reproducible results, there is already hardware that exclusively supports Vista and all but requires testing under Vista.

For example, ATI's CrossfireX is only supported on Vista. There are no plans I know of for them to bring it to XP, and they may not due to the involved work of coding drivers for it to function with every game.

ASUS's Xonar is shaping up to be a heck of a sound card, but it is designed for Vista. Under Vista it is the only solution that bring full EAX 3-5.0 support back, even if it is run within software at least it is there. Testing such a card under XP makes only a little sense, since even Creative's buggy X-Fi cards offer XP only hardware offloading for EAX. Creative "may" be better for XP, but under Vista the ASUS Xonar is the only real card out there.

[alfhenrik]

For example, ATI's CrossfireX is only supported on Vista. There are no plans I know of for them to bring it to XP, and they may not due to the involved work of coding drivers for it to function with every game.


And DirectX10 is also officially Vista exclusive (even though there are 'unofficial' DirectX10 drivers for XP out there)