Windows 7 is the cure to all issues

[marcodarco 10]

Hello everyone, after battling with Vista for so long, dealing with the sluggish user experience that it gives people, I upgraded to the RC of Windows 7.

I have to say, ever since I have done that I have locked FPS at 30 while maxing most settings. I do not have a monster system, it is a year and a bit now but doing well. The game seems fluid and stable with the 1.03 patch and I am very postive about the whole experience. I think Microsoft finally hit the nail on the head here.

I would really suggest for anyone ummin and arrring whether to finally dispose of their Windows XP system, this is the time.

The increase in stability and performance is so great for someone who has a mid range pc that I have to boast about it.

here are my specs.

Alienware Area 51

Nforce 790i Ultra Sli Bios version 6.0

Intel Quad Q9450 2.66GHZ (no overclock)

4GB OCZ 1033mhz Ram

Windows 7 RC 7100 Build

EVGA 8800 GT 512MB driver version 190.08 windows 7 beta

[whopper_with_cheese 0]

maybe, i found earlier versions of win7 to be slick but as the builds gradually got bigger and bigger - it's not quite as fast.

xp32 outclasses win7 build 7600 by a mile in arma2, on my machine with high/vhigh settings, low PP and 2x AA.

maybe if we install a lean version of win7 7600, it might be better..i just installed the whole thing.

[Alex72 1]

Win7 rules! :)

I noticed too. Went from XP to Win7 and it was like day and night. Compare this:

Win XP Pro SP3 32Bit: AA=OFF, PP=OFF, 1300VD

Win7RC 32Bit: AA=HIGH, PP=HIGH, 2500VD and still MORE fps than above! Figure that one out. :)

Never going anywhere from Win7. Feels like MS finally made something decent. All shine is on (Aero) and it takes 100MB more than XP classical theme! (for me at least. 380ish XP, and 480-500ish Win7). So nothing to debate for me. This is much better. Then i run a USB 4GB as readyboost wich seems to help, and i have the ARMA2.EXE set to disable Aero and all "lull lull" on start so i free all juice for it. I got kind of crappy system and yet when i fly in Win7 with the settings i wrote it never load-lags me now, and the performance is outstanding. It still baffles me how smooth it is. Awesome.

No i dont work for MS lol. Like everyone else im always sceptical about new windows versions. Vista was total utter shit (to me at least). Win7 it feels they finally managed to make a modern, nice working, flashy looking OS.

EDIT: Here on my PC Win7 outclasses XP by 10,000 miles. Maybe some havent learnt how to use Win7 yet with games?

Alex

Edited August 9, 2009 by Alex72

[memphisbelle 99]

Win7 is indeed the better Solution than any other OS. It´s stabil it´s fast and it makes just fun. I´ve running it as well and reserved my 50€ copy when it´ll get released at 22nd of October.

Any other comment about Win7 sucks is simply Bullshit commented by people without any knowledge.

[whopper_with_cheese 0]

fair enough, its just nice that xp works out of the box, not having to disable things to get same performance

which win7 build are u using ?

[Guest]

Win7 rules! :)

I noticed too. Went from XP to Win7 and it was like day and night. Compare this:

Win XP Pro SP3 32Bit: AA=OFF, PP=OFF, 1300VD

Win7RC 32Bit: AA=HIGH, PP=HIGH, 2500VD and still MORE fps than above! Figure that one out. :)

Never going anywhere from Win7. Feels like MS finally made something decent. All shine is on (Aero) and it takes 100MB more than XP classical theme! (for me at least. 380ish XP, and 480-500ish Win7). So nothing to debate for me. This is much better. Then i run a USB 4GB as readyboost wich seems to help, and i have the ARMA2.EXE set to disable Aero and all "lull lull" on start so i free all juice for it. I got kind of crappy system and yet when i fly in Win7 with the settings i wrote it never load-lags me now, and the performance is outstanding. It still baffles me how smooth it is. Awesome.

No i dont work for MS lol. Like everyone else im always sceptical about new windows versions. Vista was total utter shit (to me at least). Win7 it feels they finally managed to make a modern, nice working, flashy looking OS.

EDIT: Here on my PC Win7 outclasses XP by 10,000 miles. Maybe some havent learnt how to use Win7 yet with games?

Alex

I have this theory, that anyone who sais windows 7 is faster than xp in arma 2 is wrong, at this moment in time.

I completely wiped my wntire 500GB hardrive. Like, completely. I then partitioned it into 2 halves, installing windows 7 64bit on one, and xp 32bit on the other. Then, i updated both systems as required, and installed nothing other than arma 2. Take note i also fully defragged both partitions after installing the systems.

Using arma 2 benchmark, i would say i have a 50% performance increase on xp, with the exact same settings. Thats a very large difference. In xp i always hit my 75fps limit, in windows 7 i never breached 40.

My theory is that people are playing on their old windows xp system which they have had for years. It has loads of files on it, is very cluttered, and very fragmented. They then install windows 7 on a dual boot, and are amazed how fast everything is all of a sudden. So they are seeing fake results, because if they did a fresh install of xp, it would be faster than a fresh install of windows 7.

It's only a theory, and as such its just my opinion and might not be true at all. Think about it though :)

Regards,

Rich.

[Tankbuster 1733]

*subscribes to Rich's theory

[Alex72 1]

But mine wasnt old. It was fresh XP install for ARMA2. Then i wiped again and installed Win7. So no - that theory dont apply to me. I didnt learn computers yesterday so i wouldnt compare a year old system to a fresh wipe.

Totally understand what you mean though.

To me it works way better, and i can as you see apply high AA and PP with longer VD. Was not possible before without a lot of stutter. I also use readyboost as i said and when moving fast over chernarus it doesnt load-lag me as much as without readyboost. That is an advantage over XP. ...Again - on my PC and with my hardware. And im not going back.

Alex

[marcodarco 10]

I see your point and yes I do agree. When I would completely wipe a hard drive then wip Xp onto it was lightning fast. The trouble is Xp dosent know how to organise itself properly thus meaning the user has to reinstall the operating system to regain stability.

This is a major flaw in the system, for gaming it is great. I think once Windows 7 releases without any limitations and the hardware manufacturers update their drivers to best support their products we will be enjoying games ''the way their meant to be played''

[Bulldogs 10]

I had win 7 build 7100 and it out performed xp and way out performed vista, I now have win 7 build 7600 which runs about 5-10 frames below 7100 (slightly lower than xp, still higher than vista)

That said, under build 7600 I find anything over 18 fps very payable, whereas under xp 25 fps was barely playable

[memphisbelle 99]

fair enough, its just nice that xp works out of the box, not having to disable things to get same performance

which win7 build are u using ?

Just the RC 7100 and nothings else, it´s my only installed OS

[shataan 1]

I will be upgrading to Win 7 in October. 64 bit, and utilizes all my ram. Can`t wait.

[Path-x 10]

I must agree with OP. I also noted a difference.

[bascule42 10]

Same here. A massive difference. Not just with ArmA2 either, marked improvement with GTA IV, and we all know what a system hungry little whore of a game that is.

Back to Arma2, I now have a smooth steady framerate, which I could just get out of it with medium to low settings, (and I went through a lot of settings configs to get that). With Win 7 RC 7100, Im getting good performance, playable performance, with max resolution (1440x900), and 2000m view distance. This I could only dream of with xp, (sp3).

Its a good point made about systems being cluttered up, but, I did a fresh install of xp about a week before installing ArmA 2, (a reguar thing as its easier than "tidying up" my hard drive), so its not really applicable for me.

For me Windows 7 is the definitive dogs dangly bits!

[mrcash2009 0]

I think this should be ... "Vista out of all isn't so great on performance" rather than 7 is better than all.

I have XP here never wiped since 2007 all my apps on it and GTAIV/ARMA2 run loverly on it compared to my dual booted Vista install.

Most people who report better performance and things thay can set in Arma2 in Win7 im being able to do in XP.

But ... anyway .. looks like win7 will be the one to get and kill Vista for damn sure. I got vista built with my machine back in 2007 and I think out of the entire time i've used it about 2 months in total spread over that time and do all still in XP.

Also are people installing the game to the system drive with the O/S and the swap file, or are they installing to a seprate hard disk away from O/S / Swapfile? Because that's what I do with all games.

Im wondering how well 7 will do once people have been using used for a few months with all their apps and having the game installed in the same place ... so I agree here that a wiped fresh install of 7 and a single game = not a true test of the O/S.

And in most cases people cant afford the hassle of going to those lengths for a game either, the thread suggests exactly this win7 is the cure to all issues

(as log as its a fresh install with nothing else on it).

Edited August 9, 2009 by mrcash2009

[tobmic 10]

I cant install Windows 7 because after second boot after i installed i get a BSOD and telling me that my ati card is making problems ....

[Tankbuster 1733]

under build 7600 I find anything over 18 fps very payable, whereas under xp 25 fps was barely playable

Hmm. Why?

[Grizzle 0]

I too found that my XP32 performance was better than Win7 64. I also happen to have a multi-boot system with one XP install dedicated to gaming - meaning I don't install any superfluous crap on that machine so it's very clean and all my games run great on it.

[PogMoThoin 10]

Cpu wise games will run better on 7 but graphically they won't, the drivers aren't optimised yet. I tested this myself with my 4870 a fresh install of 7, Crysis gave 10fps more in Vista than 7 with the same driver.

Arma2 is pretty cpu bound and will run better on 7 or this reason. It eats the shít outa my 4 cores (uses all 4) and having a hefty gpu makes little difference, its a bitch to run.

Its probably worth upgrading to 7 if this game and console ports like GTA4 are the only games You play. Me, I'm waiting a while as I play loads of gpu intensive games.

Edited August 9, 2009 by PogMoThoin

[randir14 10]

I will be upgrading to Win 7 in October. 64 bit, and utilizes all my ram. Can`t wait.

ArmA 2 doesn't use more than 2 gigs of ram no matter how much you have.

[NexusPhase 10]

I think Post #7 is spot on...... I am using Vista 64 and have great Preformance (45-60FPS in MP) I have a great rig but I have noticed people with similar rigs complaining about there FPS.. I don't have a cluttered/fragmented HD, I have it set to defrag every week. I don't put a lot of crap on my PC... I think it boils down to keeping a CLEAN OS... My .02

[bravo 6 0]

This is my old system:

P4@3.0Ghz, 2Gb ddr400, ATI X1950pro 512mb

I played ArmA2 version 1.03 with WinXP Pro 32bit and with Win7 Ultimate x86.

To be honest i feel i have better performance while using WinXP then with Win7. Maybe its a matter of GPU drivers optimization because i had to install different ones.

The truth is that i have a bit more fluid game when using WinXP.

[Shadow NX 1]

I made myself a dual boot and installed ArmA2 on both boots to measure differences.

Didnt try A2 again on 7 since a few weeks but as the 1.3 patch ran rather bad on my XP install i was thinking i give 7 another try.

Intresting fact is that the problem i often have under XP like wildly flickering polygon spikes ( seem related to a overflowing GPU Ram ) or invisible soldiers dont seem to happen under 7.

Game still runs sluggish and textures load slow ( only in urban areas, in villages and woodland it works very nice usually ) but i dont get the errors i mentioned above.

Wonder how that works, both installs are on 1.3, use latest ATI 9.7 drivers.

[ICE-Raver 10]

I agree.

Dual booted last night and ran Arma mark tests on both systems.

Results on page 54:omg::http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=73610&page=54

Edit just broke 7000+ on back to back tests. All Nvidia Control settings ON, High Quality and Application controlled. Forced off V sync and set max pre rendered frames to 8.

Results on same page 54.

Edited August 10, 2009 by ICE-Raver

[Yoma 0]

These tests could vastly differ between different hardware i think.

Maybe people with dual core systems won't see that much difference, where people with quad (or more) core systems notice a bigger difference.

It could and probably will boil down to driver support, potential better multicore support (Win7 surely is better geared towards multicore usage as that's the new thing in cpu progress...)

Also SSD setups might benefit from win7. I'll be testing it myself soon.

However i did notice a big performance gain when installing an X25-M ssd and dropping winxp and arma2 on it. Can't say anything yet about win7 but allround (on non gaming things) the net is full of great comments and not full of "iffy" comments like in the (early) Vista days.

People that post results should also post vga driver version/brand, memory installed, cpu installed, chipset used, type of disks used, x86 or x64 Win7 version, Win7 build number. With that info people can "guess" what it can do for them a lot better.