Dumb question re my new computer

[Crimguy]

I just upgraded my old computer from an Athlon 3200/400 and XP Home to a C2D 2.4-2.6Ghz (depending on my mood) and Vista.

Will I have any performance gains with my new computer? I haven't reinstalled WitP yet.

<EDIT - I don't know why I posted in the AE section. If a mod could move it to the main WitP section it'd be appreciated. Sorry bout that!>

[okami]

ORIGINAL: Crimguy

I just upgraded my old computer from an Athlon 3200/400 and XP Home to a C2D 2.4-2.6Ghz (depending on my mood) and Vista.

Will I have any performance gains with my new computer? I haven't reinstalled WitP yet.

<EDIT - I don't know why I posted in the AE section. If a mod could move it to the main WitP section it'd be appreciated. Sorry bout that!>

As Vista eats 1 Ghz you will see less of a performance gain than if you had reinstalled XP.

[Fishbed]

As Vista eats 1 Ghz you will see less of a performance gain than if you had reinstalled XP.

I suppose it's somekind of a joke, right?

[DuckofTindalos]

Nope, that's the cold, honest truth.

[Fishbed]

Vista has disturbing counter-performances when it comes to CPU usage, but so far nothing that prevents me from enjoying Silent Hunter 3, Lock-On, 1946, Far Cry, Dangerous Waters, America's Army or Call of Duty 4 - that said I hardly see it to be an issue when playing WitP [:D] [;)]
Everything's fine as long as you get rid of the parasite functions (especially that perf-sucking aerostuff) and your hardware has what it takes (well using XP with less than 2 GB Ram is like using XP with less than 256 MB, nothing new there).
I am much more harsh about the memory usage though - which is more definitely close to failure, especially with the way it deals with web browsers [:o]

[DuckofTindalos]

D'OH! I read "1 Gb" instead of "1 GHz"![:D] and that's what I was responding to...[:D]

I refer you to my sig quote...[:D]

[Javakamp]

For what it's worth, I have been playing WITP on my duel core&nbsp;laptop with 2gb RAM running Vista. It is much faster running WITP than my 4 year old desktop.

[Saso]

I am much more harsh about the memory usage though - which is more definitely close to failure, especially with the way it deals with web browsers

With Mozilla I have less problem than IE 7.

For what it's worth, I have been playing WITP on my duel core&nbsp;laptop with 2gb RAM running Vista. It is much faster running WITP than my 4 year old desktop.

Of course, the problem is that if you put Vista and XP on the same pc&nbsp; (identical hardware), XP is more faster.
The future: Windows se7en [8|]

[Gem35]

ORIGINAL: Crimguy

I just upgraded my old computer from an Athlon 3200/400 and XP Home to a C2D 2.4-2.6Ghz (depending on my mood) and Vista.

Will I have any performance gains with my new computer? I haven't reinstalled WitP yet.

<EDIT - I don't know why I posted in the AE section. If a mod could move it to the main WitP section it'd be appreciated. Sorry bout that!>

You will see a very nice performance gain because of your hardware changes, software is a different story.
Vista actually is a step back in performance gaming-wise if using the same hardware and changing from XP.

But because of the upgrades, you will still be ahead of your old PC, performance-wise.
So, in summary, you are going from a destroyer with an aggresive skipper to a battleship with a very average,cautious skipper.[;)]

[Saso]

So, in summary, you are going from a destroyer with an aggresive skipper to a battleship with a very average,cautious skipper.

Nice&nbsp; metaphor [:D]

[pompack]

ORIGINAL: Javakamp

For what it's worth, I have been playing WITP on my duel core laptop with 2gb RAM running Vista. It is much faster running WITP than my 4 year old desktop.

"Dual Core" is the key for Vista performance. The secondary core happily hums along at about 45% load at idle with all apps off; the primary core will be under 10%. Without a dual core processor Vista will run MUCH slower than XP for things like WitP

[Fishbed]

With Mozilla I have less problem than IE 7.

Hell I'm using Firefox already, what do you think? [:D] [;)]
But before the late updates, my FF could eat up to 250Mb of memory, which is quite a lot for a browser [X(] There were serious memory leaks back then... It's a little better now btw.

[Crimguy]

Ok - I'm aware that Vista is a step backwards in many regards (it was a forced upgrade as XP's authentication is tied to the CPU/mobo with an OEM copy).&nbsp; For those who haven't tried Vista, it's like XP, only after you've had it for 2 years, installing and uninstalling applications.&nbsp; Kinda mushy.

Which is why I'm curious about my new system.&nbsp; First, if WItP doesn't take advantage of a dual core processor, the chip will only be slightly faster than my XP3200.&nbsp; Theoretically at least.&nbsp; Then you have the Vista situation, and it's muddy.&nbsp; Especially when your graphics card means squat in a 2D game.

[Fishbed]

Hum Crimguy... Im running WitP under Vista, and I have no problem whatsoever... Although WitP is a great piece of software, it's not a combat simulation, there's no 3D, I don't see how you may experience problems switching from XP to Vista. And from what I know, CPU cadency is not a issue here (I mean what the hell, we have dual core 3 Ghz, used to play WitP on my 1Ghz...) - if you want to really improve your gaming performance, it's all about RAM. AE will be all about adding new code, art and options, there's nothing in there that your CPU shouldn't be able to handle...!

[Saso]

Hell I'm using Firefox already, what do you think?

I remember this article&nbsp;[:D]

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Fishbed

As Vista eats 1 Ghz you will see less of a performance gain than if you had reinstalled XP.

I suppose it's somekind of a joke, right?

Nope, there is no way I'd put Vista on any machine I planned on doing...well anything....with, but especially not on a gaming rig. Vista is quite possibly the worst OS I've had the displeasure of working with in the past 20 years.

Just my honest opinion on the subject. And you will find that opinions on Vista vary greatly, but having to fix machines at work that has it installed...I just dread having to work on them.

Some people actually like Vista, I'm obviously not one of them. [:D]

[Crimguy]

I have very mixed feelings about Vista.&nbsp; The networking stack was fine in XP - it was a copy of the BSD stack many suspect.&nbsp; So they didn't need to rewrite it.

The security measures are an improvement overall, but where OS X and linux require one authentication to do things at the admin level (with a password), Vista requires you to authenticate twice, both times without entering a password.&nbsp; I think I'm in superuser mode but can't be sure.&nbsp; So I find it cumbersome.

Many will not agree, but I find it VERY stable.

I also find it slow as molassas compared to XP

I do find performance suffers in 3D games, but since I never had XP on this machine, it's hard to say for sure.&nbsp; Others have confirmed my suspicion via benchmarks.

I prefer OS X for 90% of what I do.&nbsp; I still prefer the windows taskbar over the dock on OS X.&nbsp; It's more functional IMHO.

I think it Vista has received unnecessarily harsh criticism in the media, but I think much of it is overblown.

They should only have one version of Vista, and it should be $199, and $99 for an upgrade.

Back on topic, I'm going to reinstall WitP tonight and tell you my impressions vs. my old Athlon rig.

[Zakhal]

Next windows is coming 2009 so Vista might be short lived.

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: Fishbed

Hum Crimguy... Im running WitP under Vista, and I have no problem whatsoever... Although WitP is a great piece of software, it's not a combat simulation, there's no 3D, I don't see how you may experience problems switching from XP to Vista. And from what I know, CPU cadency is not a issue here (I mean what the hell, we have dual core 3 Ghz, used to play WitP on my 1Ghz...) - if you want to really improve your gaming performance, it's all about RAM. AE will be all about adding new code, art and options, there's nothing in there that your CPU shouldn't be able to handle...!

On a practical note, Mr. Fish is right on point. I've been doing AE development tasks and running AE test scenarios on an old desktop, using XP, running at 1.3 Ghz, with 1 Gb memory. My coffee/beer consumption while turns are running seems to be about the same. Memory appears to be the only real improvement path. I doubt that Vista will be a culprit.

[Gem35]

You cannot compare an older athlon XP cpu to the newer Intel C2D chips. The bus speed difference alone is staggering.
Factor in the memory you will be using is DDR2 which is quite faster than DDR RAM.(alot cheaper too)
You will see for yourself when you fire up that new PC.