Should I upgrade to Windows 7?

belomeclone · 06-18-2010, 03:32 AM #1

I have the disc Microsoft sent me for my laptop, but I haven't installed it yet. I don't like Vista or 7, so I am using XP. But XP doesn't run Direct-X 11.

So, is it time to move on? Is Dolphin the killer app that will make me do it?

IcemanSR · 06-18-2010, 03:34 AM #2

there is no gain,what u should do is to put x64 system if ur laptop is capable.XP or Win7 does not matter.

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 06-18-2010, 03:36 AM by NaturalViolence.)

Depends. What are your specs? If you only have 2 or less GB of ram you should stick with xp.

Quote:there is no gain,what u should do is to put x64 system if ur laptop is capable.XP or Win7 does not matter.

Actually it does matter. Even when going to from 32 bit xp to 32 bit 7 their is a SMALL speedup because windows 7 handles certain things more efficiently. Plus witht the exception of using more memory it's a better operating system.

**Xtreme2damax** · 06-18-2010, 04:49 AM #4

Indeed, 7 is really worth the upgrade, performance is on par with XP if not better. That memory that is being used, is actually being used for something useful, memory is released when an application needs it anyway so that is a moot point.

I will not recommend and I stress the following, that I do not recommend using XP x64. Windows XP x64 isn't even a true x86-64 operating system, hell it isn't even XP, it's basically server 2003 with an XP GUI. There will be issues and incompatibilities that don't exist with Windows Vista/7 x64, you will find yourself editing msi installers to install certain games and applications that otherwise install fine on Vista/7 x64, there will be issues with drivers and stability issues. By upgrading to Windows 7 your PC will be more secure, Windows Vista/7 is built upon a more secure code base, even a famous hacker admits that Windows Vista/7 is more difficult to hack than Linux and Mac now. Also the desktop environment is more efficient and easier to work with, the Aero GUI is accelerated by the graphics card instead of the CPU, leaving more CPU for applications such as Dolphin to use. You'll be doing yourself a big favor by upgrading as long as your hardware is powerful enough, Windows 7 has even been proven to run quite well on older hardware.

It would be nice to know what the specifications of your PC is, so we can make suggestions based on your hardware or other limitations your system may have.

**Ocean** · 06-18-2010, 06:40 AM #5

NV is right, just Windows 7 by itself (regardless of 32 or 64 bit) is a speedup compared to XP. In purely synthetic benchmarks though, XP might beat Vista and Win7 in performance.

Generally if you have more than 2GB of ram and a decent cpu just install W7. I have nothing but good to say about it, would sometimes much rather use it than even ubuntu or other linux distros due to it's efficiency.

dudeami · 06-18-2010, 07:01 AM #6

http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/windows-xp-vs-vista-vs-7/

That should give you somewhat of how well windows 7 performs against vista and 7 (Though its mostly benchmarks and such :p). Just gotta weight the differenece.

Also one bad thing is its a pain to get certain drivers to install, cause it thinks its already got the best one ;P Besides that, no big problems here (I use win 7 btw).

IcemanSR · (This post was last modified: 06-18-2010, 07:23 AM by IcemanSR.)

when u sit down and install win 7 32 bit then come beck and tell how much NOT speedup u didn't get.
the ONLY difference in dolphin speedup u are ever going to see is to put x64 system Nothing ELSE matters at all.

**Xtreme2damax** · (This post was last modified: 06-18-2010, 07:55 AM by Xtreme2damax.)

Better Windows 7 x64 than XP/Vista x64, and x64 does has a noticeable increase in speed for most games. Here the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit is about 10 - 15 FPS for some games, his question is about installing a 64-bit operating system and using the 64-bit build of Dolphin for which Windows 7 x64 was recommended. My Windows 7 x64 install runs far better than any XP install I've ever had. Back when I switched to Vista I didn't like it, I tried to revert back to XP several times and ended up going with Vista, XP just felt dated, clunky, sluggish and there were certain perks/features of Vista that XP was missing. Since I permanently switched to Vista I've never looked back, then upgraded to an even more solid operating system, Windows 7 x64. I've been quite happy and don't miss the issues and difficulty I had with XP, no point of running an old OS unless I have legacy hardware and/or legacy software I need to use. For legacy software there is usually the option of dual booting with XP or installing VMware, Virtualbox, or XP mode.

obscured · 06-18-2010, 07:54 AM #9

(06-18-2010, 03:32 AM)belomeclone Wrote: I have the disc Microsoft sent me for my laptop, but I haven't installed it yet. I don't like Vista or 7, so I am using XP. But XP doesn't run Direct-X 11.

So, is it time to move on? Is Dolphin the killer app that will make me do it?

Pretty sure your gpu doesn't support Dx11 also but going to win 7 is bettter anyways.

belomeclone · 06-18-2010, 11:30 AM **#10**

Well, my gpu can handle direct-x 10.1... but nothing more. When did Direct-X 11 cards come out?

As for my system, my main bottleneck is my slow-ass Q6600. The good news is I can overclock it. The bad news is, I can not seem to get it to overclock. If I can raise this baby to 3.0ghz (and there's no reason why I shouldn't) I should be running Dolphin with the rest of you.