PC gamers shun Vista, sticking with XP
Sat May 10, 2008 12:46PM EDT
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One of Windows Vista's biggest selling points was that it was the only way you could get DirectX 10, the software component that would be required to play the very latest video games in their full glory. Sure, you could still play games in DirectX 9, but the differences with DirectX 10, Microsoft promised, would be striking. (Check out this video showing the same scene under both systems and you'll see what Microsoft was talking about. You can find loads of similar comparisons online.)
Games like Crysis benefit clearly from the DX 10 upgrade, but that benefit hasn't been enough to push gamers into upgrading to Vista. Historically, those are the very first computer users, living on the bleeding edge, to upgrade to new hardware and operating systems. The statistics from Valve, whose Steam system lets gamers download titles from the web and which collects system information in return, shows that Vista still has less than a 15 percent market share among these users (17.5 percent if you include 64-bit Vista).
That's roughly in line with the total consumer market (14.57%), but it's a real surprise considering the advantages Vista's DirectX 10 offers gamers. There's no way to run DirectX 10 on XP, so the only way to get the very best PC gaming experience is to run Vista. They should theoretically be lining up to buy Vista in droves.
As well, if any computers are powerful enough to run Vista, it's gamers' rigs. Stocked with the latest CPUs, tons of RAM, and the latest video cards, few gamers would encounter the upgrade headaches that have frustrated the rest of the market due to not having the power to handle it.
Of course, that hasn't happened. The figures imply that gamers may simply feel the advantages of a modest graphics upgrade just don't outweigh the other headaches of Vista.
Will gamers eventually come to love Vista? Maybe it will take a truly killer game to finally get folks to upgrade. Of course, everyone thought that Crysis was going to be that title, so we'll have to wait and see.
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2 Posted by orandinki on Sat May 10, 2008 2:34PM EDT Report Abuse
I'm a gamer and I have Vista only because when I ordered my new laptop (I designed it specifically for gaming), I failed to specify that I wanted XP not Vista, so they sent it with Vista preloaded. I HATE IT! At first there were some serious compatibility issues with the game itself, and my computer was fighting with Sony's game servers. Then there were the Direct X headaches, the patches, the random bugs due to Vista incompatibility. Well, it's been about 7 months and most of the bugs and issues have been worked out but I still hate Vista and will never recommend it to any gamer. Ever. It's a worthless operating system and would recommend everyone stick to XP as long as you can. Not only that, you have to verify 6 times that yes, I clicked that button because I WANTED TO. For everything you do! Two thumbs down. The minute amount of advanced graphics isn't worth the headache, so this article is right on the money. Microsoft should read it!
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3 Posted by paulecornett on Sat May 10, 2008 5:26PM EDT Report Abuse
Everyone... grow a pair! Anyone who has a braincell knows how to get vista working just fine. I turned off UAC which nuked about 75% of the incompatibles for me. Drivers were a big issue at first. But now, I have almost no issues. The only thing I really hate... 4GB is necessary just to have good system... dont even think of running vista less than 2GB. Vista turned out to be MORE compatible than XP for me. I have nearly 500GB of games and all of them work without issue. There was a couple i could not run... but about a dozen that i could that did not work in XP. I have a e6600 overclocked to 3.2GHz and 4GB with 8800GTS 320MB card... I can run Bioshock at 1680x1050 with everything turned on. Smooth as silk. This is the same game everyone was bellyaching that they could not run it at max settings. Just take your time... disable UAC. and have a good day.
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4 Posted by paul_soares on Sat May 10, 2008 6:47PM EDT Report Abuse
Any decent gaming rig can run games on Vista just fine. All you really need is (at minimum) a dual core CPU, 2GB of RAM, and recent video card. This stuff is cheap now: 2GB of RAM is about $29 and a 9600GT can be found for $130. But with Vista you'll want 4GB of RAM so don't skimp.
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5 Posted by alexgannis on Sat May 10, 2008 8:11PM EDT Report Abuse
This guy christopher null has a thing with microsoft trying to get people to hate window vista if you notice he useing a mac computer need I say more.
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1 Posted by tim_laplaca on Sat May 10, 2008 1:34PM EDT Report Abuse
"The figures imply that gamers may simply feel the advantages of a modest graphics upgrade just don't outweigh the other headaches of Vista" - that's exactly why I haven't gone to Vista, and I'm a big gamer.