Windows 7 or Windows Vista?

[imasav]

Hey, just a quick question for any of the techys on this site. I've been using Vista and recently discovered that it apparently eats away at your RAM or something like that, and could make playing WoW MUCH worse in comparison to Vista. Can anyone vouch for this? I'm thinking of paying $119 for the W7 Upgrade, but I'm not sure if I should. My FPS is very low, and upgrading is my last resort before buying new parts and making a new computer for ~$500. So, ideas? Suggestions? All help is appreciated. Thanks!

[am88]

Been playing WoW and MS Flight Sim (another RAM & resource hog) on a 1.33 Dual Core HP box with Vista and maxed out RAM (upper end brand/model of that) for quite a while.

No issues with frame rate on either.

Any frame rate or latency errors experienced have been something other players around me also experience and typically happen in a highly populated area (like the SW Auction house).

Difficult to comment on what addresses your challenges without sitting down infront of your box and poking it with a stick.

[nin88]

Well if I wer u I'd Just reformat ur pc(after u save/back up ur files) and befor reformating dl a hackd copy of windows 7 and I can email u a cd key rip that makes it legit...windows 7 is the best thing since win 98
but my pc is a beast so I couldn't tell u what's ur problem but I can say 1 thing and thts get windows 7 lol

[chaos5061]

There are many things beside windows vista that could be a problem. Like if you have a slow processor out dated video cards or not enough memory are many contributing factors to the problem. Now that said I used to run windows vista and I would still be running it if my video cards hadn't gone out. Have a laptop with windows 7 on it and liked it so much that even though vista turned out not to be my problem with my desktop that I had them wipe my hard drive and install windows 7 as a fresh install on it. Now here is the specs for playing world of warcraft after cataclysm came out:

Minimum System Requirements

Windows® System XP/XP64/Vista/Vista64/7** OS (with the latest Service Packs or updates):

- Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+
- 1 GB or more of RAM
- NVIDIA® GeForce® FX or ATI Radeon™ 9500 video card or better
- 25.0 GB available HD space
- 4X DVD-ROM drive (Downloadable Installer also available)
- Broadband Internet connection
- Keyboard/mouse


Mac® OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.4, or newer:

- Intel processor
- 2 GB RAM or higher
- 25.0 GB available HD space
- 4X DVD-ROM Drive
- Broadband Internet connection

*Note: Due to potential programming changes, the Minimum System Requirements for this game may change over time.


Recommended Specifications

Windows® System Vista64/Windows 7 OS:

- Dual-core processor, such as the Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2
- 2 GB RAM
- 256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600 or ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 or better
- Multi-button mouse with scroll-wheel


Mac® OS X 10.6.4 or newer:

- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor - NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 or better
- 4 GB system RAM
- Multi-button mouse with scroll wheel


For a complete list of supported 3D cards, please visit http://us.blizzard.com/support/artic...supportedvideo

[dudedafool]

Also, in case anyone here is wondering if their comp can run a certain game I recommend this website.
It scans your computer specs and shows what you may need to improve. It's great to use to see if you can/can't run a certain game your interested. And if your comp fails it tells you what you need to improve spec wise.

Also, if you haven't already, imasav, download gamebooster up until last month I used a very, very, VERY poor computer and that helped me a bit with running games.

Here is the site to check games on your comp:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

Note: For some reason it doesn't seem to work on Chrome (Which is upsetting) so just load up Firefox or I.E.

[ctkdjane1]

Now my system is still Windows XP I have 2 gig ram and my video card is OLD but I can still run WoW, and yes it works but barely. Now I am upgrading to a new card but just depends on when it comes, I brought it towards the beginning of the month. Anyways my wife now has Vista, it works pretty good on her machine, but her grahpics is a intergrated one and I am not sure if I can upgrade it with her machine being a compacted one. She also has 2 gig ram but I can upgrade it too 4 gig once I figure out how to add them without taking the whole thing apart.

The point is I can still run two instances of WoW even though I shouldn't be able to cause my specs are not what they should be to even run it. As for slowing you machine like others of mention could also be other programs running or a virus even.

[dulak]

I'm running Vista and have a 50 dollar vid card and I can quad box WoW. When not in a cap city I get at least 45 fps on all boxes. Go into Org or SW and it drops to 20 on all. I tried to do the same thing when I had 7 on here and it was horrid. 7 required the PC to take entirely too much system resources to duplicate what I can do with Vista.

[imasav]

I'm running Vista and have a 50 dollar vid card and I can quad box WoW. When not in a cap city I get at least 45 fps on all boxes. Go into Org or SW and it drops to 20 on all. I tried to do the same thing when I had 7 on here and it was horrid. 7 required the PC to take entirely too much system resources to duplicate what I can do with Vista.

See, I have the crappy standard video card that came with the laptop, and sadly enough, it being a laptop, I can't change/replace it. Which is why I'm curious as to what I can do to make my FPS at LEAST 50 in most questing zones. I already have Gamebooster, which helps a tad at times, but it's not cutting it. I don't know if I should just replace some parts in my old as hell desktop with a 10 year old motherboard, save up and build a new computer entirely, or upgrade to W7 on my lappy and call it a day.

[dulak]

Well, I'd advise wiping the laptop clean, installing XP and WoW along with all of the updated drivers. Then, load up WoW and make sure to turn almost everything graphic wise to bare minimum that you can stand. Other than that, rebuild your desktop. 500 bucks spent on newegg would do quite well infact. You've already got a case and I'm assuming you've got keyboard/mouse/monitor so you won't have to buy them. Drop me a pm on here and give me a general idea as to what you're looking for and I'll assemble a possible guide line pending on what you're wanting to put into the machine. And make sure you lemme know what size your tower is as that will help determine the mobo.

[Kamchak]

One of the mods here (not going to mention name.. he can do it if he likes) went to newegg.com and entered in basically everything I would need to make my own system, including the case, and the end price was around $600.00. So, I took this list of information to Alienware and made a similar system compared to what this mod listed for me and looked at the pricetag. It took me and my wife quite a while to stop laughing after we saw the 6k pricetag on the same system setup at Alienware.
From what I researched after this list was given to me is most old cases are not ideal for building a system from scratch based on the powersupply and fan configurations.

[nin88]

Lol alianware is OP'd
I built my own pc -power supply since i had a spare and cost me 1100$ for a i7 950 6g ram 1gb vid card and a sweet mobo...with everything u could build the same for 1200$ or cheaper in the US

Inbox me ur spending cap if u want and I'll piece a pc together for u using a company near u and most will build it for u for free if u buy all the parts from em...ie tiger direct(although I hate em)

[Kamchak]

Well, perhaps the rest of the $4,400.00 to Alienware is to pay for the light they give you on the tower, in your choice of 3 colors. Cause when Im gaming, nothing matters more to me than what my tower looks like. oooooohhhhh..... aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!! lol

[dudedafool]

Well, perhaps the rest of the $4,400.00 to Alienware is to pay for the light they give you on the tower, in your choice of 3 colors. Cause when Im gaming, nothing matters more to me than what my tower looks like. oooooohhhhh..... aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!! lol

I thought the extra 4 grand or so was for the super awesome way the CD drives open up. I could open and close it all day, who needs actual video games.

Plus, I would never buy an Alienware for the simple fact that I don't see them supplying Nvidia cards. I hate ATI with a passion.

[chaos5061]

I thought the extra 4 grand or so was for the super awesome way the CD drives open up. I could open and close it all day, who needs actual video games.

Plus, I would never buy an Alienware for the simple fact that I don't see them supplying Nvidia cards. I hate ATI with a passion.

I still have my old Alienware computer. And they used to sell them with Nvidia cards before they got bought out by Dell. And there used to be more choices to select also before Dell. My Alienware is setting on top of a bookcase in my room waiting for me to go get fixed. Power Supply went out I think. Just going to have it wiped the Windows XP put back on it. It's going to be my old gaming computer. Most of the old games I have don't work to good with either vista when I had it a couple now work on windows 7 but not all of them Like the Dungeon Siege series.

[imasav]

Lol alianware is OP'd
I built my own pc -power supply since i had a spare and cost me 1100$ for a i7 950 6g ram 1gb vid card and a sweet mobo...with everything u could build the same for 1200$ or cheaper in the US

Inbox me ur spending cap if u want and I'll piece a pc together for u using a company near u and most will build it for u for free if u buy all the parts from em...ie tiger direct(although I hate em)

Well, me being only 15 and making around ~$250 a month as a part-time waiter, I'd say my spending cap is around $500-600 for a new tower or replacing parts on my desktop. I've got all the peripherals already (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.) and recently purchased a $50 SATA harddrive which I've yet to install. I can't figure out how to do it tbh, lmao.

Edit: @ the guy who said to wipe it and reinstall XP, I don't think I even have the XP drivers disc.