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.

POLL: What do you think? 

Comments on PC gamers shun Vista, sticking with XP

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  • 46 Posted by theprodean on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    It requires about 1.3gb of ram to run the 64-bit, vs XP which is around .40gb ram to run. Just a bad OS for gaming, graphics aren't everything when your 4gb of ram is instead 2.7gb.

  • 47 Posted by theammonal on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:02PM EDT Report Abuse

    Honestly, I can't afford to upgrade to Vista. I have several people that are having major issues with Vista still. Personally, I bought an imac form a second hand store and brought out some old mac games. I am perfectly happy with xp and I will get vista as soon as microsoft gets off their (behind) and fixes it. It seems to me de ja vu with the xbox 360. I found a lot of videos on youtube where people have called xbox live support and they were LIED to. XP is perfectly fine and I have no reason to upgrade at this time. Nor can I afford the needed parts alone for Vista. It may sound easy to some of you, but there are those of us who rely on second-hand items like my laptop that runs xp.

  • 48 Posted by gregor_eisenhorn2003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    In the end I think it is fine if somep eople like or love vista I was on their side of the argument when XP first came out and I did the upgrade from 95. Once Vista is the only Operating system for more games I likely will upgrade. For now I just decided to keep with XP becasue i can play most of my games not nessicarily the newest all of them top of the line ones on it. Only game I cannot play yet on Vistaeven in compadiblity mode is Never winter nights. So before I get called dumb granted geeks and nerds like me are used to that I think we should clarify what the main issue is. it isint that vista is in and of itself a poor system it is that it is deigned poorly and was ill conceived as a "MAC" Killer which was not a wise thing. Also they need to get rid of the old code. When I still see Win32 folders I know there is an issue. Now some of you are right services can be turned off whcih will boost your preformance and if your not too too nutty on graphics you can tunr a games detaisl down a notch.

  • 49 Posted by hutch9970@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    I consider myself a "gamer" and I love vista and dx10 wound'nt go back to xp with a gun pointed to my head.

  • 50 Posted by kymsg125 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    When my new laptop came w/ Vista I was regretting it at first. The constant confirmations are a pain but could prevent inadvertent mistakes, and I almost hit the ceiling when my computer started talking to me! I hadn't paid much attention to what Vista had to offer - the reviews were so dismal that to buy it merely as an upgrade wasn't going to happen. After setting things to suit my own tastes I've come to realize there are some things I really like about it, even though as an old college prof said, Windows products are often full of sloppy code.

  • 51 Posted by flatiron69200 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:00PM EDT Report Abuse

    As a long time user of windows (Since 3.2) And a gamer I can honestly say I will NEVER "upgrade" to Vista. XP has been out for years and still is buggy and Microsoft can't seem to write compatable code for their own product. After my Experience with SP3 I am currently switching to Linux(Ubuntu 8.04) And Windows will soon be history. I will never by ANY MICROSTUPID crackaddicted monkey programmed crap again.

  • 52 Posted by dynachrome on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    I had a problem with Vista even before it was released. There were very few new features that I wanted and a big one that I didn't wnat: Digital Rights Management. Add to that the price increase over the cost of XP and I had to decide to sit Vista out even though I am a gamer with several self-built gamer rigs for both me and my kids. I will be purchasing a MAC for my daugther as she goes off to college and will be switching to Linux OS in the future for myself. I am swearing of PC games for now. I guess I am just unhappy with the Windows cost versus features ratio with Vista. I feel price-gouged.

  • 53 Posted by phakur on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    Let me say this. I upgraded my machine a year ago to the "fastest" CPU on the market. Added 4 GB RAM. Overclock about 20%. I installed Vista 32 BIT and have had no issues at all with the new games. Yeah, put in something that was written 5 years ago, you'll probably have a problem. Just recently, on the advise of another user, I reformated and installed Vista 64 Bit. Now--even more speed and access to the full 4 GB of RAM. Everything--REPEAT everything is working fine. I liked XP and I sure do like Vista. Games run just fine, even with the 64 Bit version. I would not hesitate to recommend Vista 64 BIT to anyone who has the machine to run it, especially gamers.

  • 54 Posted by johnmilbank on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    The best that can be achieved is 1 bug for every 1,000 lines of code. Vista is bigger than XP so it has more bugs! Gamers need a special extra small OS for speed. I look upon Vista as a failure same as Windows ME. Windows 7 is a rewrite of Vista. Smaller, faster and better. Hence many people are sticking with XP until Windows 7 comes out

  • 55 Posted by lenoirsax on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    I agree that Vista has gone through some growing pains and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but neither am I 100% happy with XP, Linux, or OS X. Every operating system has its own little quirks or hurdles for the everyday user and Vista had plenty of them out the door. A user shouldn't have to tweak an operating system to make it workable, but that's exactly what I had to do by disabling UAC. Once it was tweaked it wasn't that bad after all. I have a lower end Turion64 x2 machine with integrated/shared memory graphics and 1.5GB or RAM and have no real issues with speed or performance - and it only takes about 2 1/2 minutes to boot up and get to the point of being able to actually use the machine. Of course the integrated video card prevents me from running high-end games but I use my laptop for audio production and recording on site and wanted something stable that could handle the rigors of mobile recording. Even this lower end machine has handled it very well without a hitch. I had one bug in the video driver which caused a problem with my recording software, but a patch fixed that. When I do game I play mid-range to older games and haven't had a single problem running them. Less than XP, in fact. I would like to try the 64-bit version because running Ubuntu 64-bit has been great. I only wish I could triple boot Vista, OS X(still waiting for an AMD patch to do this), and Ubuntu or Suse. One of the biggest complaints I've heard about Vista involved the crappy pre-bundled software and anti-virus utilities that seem to slow the machine to a crawl, especially during the boot process. I used a clean install disk for Vista (home premium) and didn't have these issues. So, if you're buying a new machine with Vita make sure it isn't a Compaq with 500 trial versions of software pre-loaded and three different anti-virus products running at the same time.

  • 56 Posted by gzpetes on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:15PM EDT Report Abuse

    Disable the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) on Vista and life will be a bowl of cherries again. http://www.realtime-vista.com/administration/2007/04/disabling_data_execution_preve.htm

  • 57 Posted by chris_2pe2000us on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    Just buy a freakin' PS3 or an XBOX360. That will solve the problem. The graphics on these third gen consoles are better than PC versions anyways. These days, console games are nearing games that are mainly for the PC anyway. Just plug in a keyboard and a mouse to it and you're good to go.

  • 58 Posted by richardjking2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    I've had two adult friends (one a systems level programmer) who had installed Vista (or gotten it with a new computer) who subsequently downgraded to XP. Mouse compatibility issues, performance issues, driver installation issues, you name it. As a replacement to XP, it wasn't ready for prime time when released. I'm guessing another 6 months or a year will see resolution of the rest of the issues (some of which I'm sure are not MS related, but vendor related). As always, the market must catch up.

  • 59 Posted by richardjking2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    'The best that can be achieved is 1 bug for every 1,000 lines of code.' I routinely beat this statistic with careful and thorough unit testing (6 bugs/100,000 in the last year). That stat is based on 'typical', not necessary.

  • 60 Posted by j.montgomery1981 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    i was looking at laptops at the HP site, and only the most expensive model had an windows xp--it was professional, but still, it seems like that was on purpose.

  • 62 Posted by pcreamer2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    Vista is just fine.... Those who wont go vista...need to think. In my own case I have 5 pc's ...2 specifically to play games that I know will never run on Vista or Vista 64. ANd I never buy a computer with GamING as a goal. Because eventually whatever pc will be able to do said game.

  • 63 Posted by alexatherby on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    It's impossible for me to "grow a pair" and I like to think I have an adequate supply of brain cells even if I'm not a gaming tech whiz with a lot of money to put out for a killer gaming rig. The fact remains that I like to play games too and without a bunch of headaches so I'm staying with XP on my older and paid for PC for as long as I can. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that I'll be able to run Starcraft 2 when it comes out.

  • 64 Posted by demonicarmiesofsatan on Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am so tired of Microsoft Shills visiting forums to try to promote the heck out of Vista Crapware. Everyone knows Vista suffers from copying problems & DRM/TCP issues that cannot be resolved because they were built into the OS! In addition, there is annoying PA & WGA issues that you encounter if you change too much hardware, why, you idiot you! You thief you! Thank you MS for making such crappy stuff & BLAMING the users for it!

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