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{OF}Erad · 02-18-2007, 10:52 AM

Well, my MS Vista saga continues. I played with all the Beta, RC and RTM versions of Vista with few issues. I decided to buy a copy of Vista Home Premium and give it a full run on one of my OLD Test Rigs.

The Specs:
AMD A64 3500+
1GB RAM
250GB SATA 300 HD
DVDRW/CDRW
DVD
eVga nVidia 7600GS 256MB

Well, unlike the Beta, RC and RTM versions, I had problems with the video card running anything but the original Vista Drivers for the card, which were terrible. Lock ups, BSODs and constant crashes of games and apps. I tried all the Beta Drivers I could find, and no luck. There are posts all over the net talking about the same issue I was having, and even a Class Action Lawsuit about the state of the nVidia drivers. I have a 2nd 160GB SATA 300 hard drive in the system with XP SP2 on it, and the card ran very well in it. After a week of frustration, I went to the dark side, and bought an ATI x1650 PRO 512MB video card. I cleaned all the Vista nVidia drivers, and added the new ATI card. I loaded the latest ATI Beta drivers, and I am back running Vista without any issues. ATI did get their drivers right, but they still have a lot of work to enable all the features of the card, but I can wait for those, being that the system plays all my games and apps without any issues. I have always been partial to nVidia, and 3DFX before that. I have had a few laptops with ATI video on them, and they ran fine. The only thing I find strange, is that the ATI card was twice the price I paid for the nVidia card, and, depending on the app or game, the ATI is anywhere from 10 to 50% slower in XP than the nVidia card. In newer apps and games, they are very close, but in older apps, benchmarks and games, the ATI is noticeably slower. The nVidia was also faster in Vista, but crashed or locked up every 5 minutes or so. The ATI does make Quake 4 look nicer in XP and Vista, but otherwise, I didn't see any other differences in UT and other games.

So, in conclusion, if you plan to upgrade to Vista, steer clear of nVida video cards until they fix their drivers, or use an ATI video card.

02-18-2007, 10:52 AM	#1 (permalink)
{OF}Erad Fartstock Holdout Blabber Fingers Posts: 1,773 Shouts: 0 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado Age: 45 Thanks: 404 Thanked 148 Times in 99 Posts	I've gone to and LEFT the Dark Side.......... Well, my MS Vista saga continues. I played with all the Beta, RC and RTM versions of Vista with few issues. I decided to buy a copy of Vista Home Premium and give it a full run on one of my OLD Test Rigs. The Specs: AMD A64 3500+ 1GB RAM 250GB SATA 300 HD DVDRW/CDRW DVD eVga nVidia 7600GS 256MB Well, unlike the Beta, RC and RTM versions, I had problems with the video card running anything but the original Vista Drivers for the card, which were terrible. Lock ups, BSODs and constant crashes of games and apps. I tried all the Beta Drivers I could find, and no luck. There are posts all over the net talking about the same issue I was having, and even a Class Action Lawsuit about the state of the nVidia drivers. I have a 2nd 160GB SATA 300 hard drive in the system with XP SP2 on it, and the card ran very well in it. After a week of frustration, I went to the dark side, and bought an ATI x1650 PRO 512MB video card. I cleaned all the Vista nVidia drivers, and added the new ATI card. I loaded the latest ATI Beta drivers, and I am back running Vista without any issues. ATI did get their drivers right, but they still have a lot of work to enable all the features of the card, but I can wait for those, being that the system plays all my games and apps without any issues. I have always been partial to nVidia, and 3DFX before that. I have had a few laptops with ATI video on them, and they ran fine. The only thing I find strange, is that the ATI card was twice the price I paid for the nVidia card, and, depending on the app or game, the ATI is anywhere from 10 to 50% slower in XP than the nVidia card. In newer apps and games, they are very close, but in older apps, benchmarks and games, the ATI is noticeably slower. The nVidia was also faster in Vista, but crashed or locked up every 5 minutes or so. The ATI does make Quake 4 look nicer in XP and Vista, but otherwise, I didn't see any other differences in UT and other games. So, in conclusion, if you plan to upgrade to Vista, steer clear of nVida video cards until they fix their drivers, or use an ATI video card. __________________ {OF}Erad Last edited by {OF}Erad : 02-23-2007 at 04:24 PM.

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