Windows 7 and gaming

[RPGmasterBoo]

Since we have a real elite bunch of gamers here that play just about everything I was wondering whether I should switch to Win 7 on my next reinstall.

 

I have XP on which, as everyone knows, just about everything works well.

 

What's Win7 like with older game compatibility, crashing and other issues?

 

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, 2 Gig RAM with an ATI Radeon HD 3800 series card so I'm not getting anything from the Dx10/11/whatever graphical improvements that run under W7.

 

Is it worth it?

Edited April 23, 2011 by RPGmasterBoo

[Gorth]

So far I've had more problems with multi core and x64 than Windows 7. Tombraider (the original) and Carmageddon were a bit iffy to get to run and X-Com 3: Armageddon needed dos box to run properly, but otherwise I think I've had just about every game in my collection installed and run.

[RPGmasterBoo]

I uninstalled XP x64 after two days because half of my programs refused to work on it.

Edited April 23, 2011 by RPGmasterBoo

[trulez]

Few older games have given some head ache, but most of them have a solution if you just Google for it.

 

Diablo 1 was the worst IIRC, you had to end the Explorer process manually before it worked properly.

 

It's really hard to pinpoint if some the problems are due to Win7 or newer hardware.

[LadyCrimson]

I've had no issues so far with 2006 and up games on Win7-64 (Titan Quest, Kotor2, etc), but I also haven't tried to install dozens of games or anything. Most very old ones don't work at all (without dos box I guess) for me on Win7, and I didn't expect them to. I install all games in a separate Games directory instead of the Programs & Programsx86 folders and make sure to install and run As Administrator.

 

To be honest, if you have a large collection of very old games that you like to play frequently, I'd stick with XP on that system. Then when you're ready to build/buy a shiny new PC, just put Win7 on that one and keep the XP system as well.

[kalimeeri]

Changing from XP to Win7 just for the sake of changing isn't worth it, IMO. I am running Win7 and XP on two very hardware-comparable machines (almost identical), and with regard to performance the Win7 machine seems to lag slightly behind XP. I was also unable to run several games (Assassin's Creed and DA:O in particular) without constant crashing on the Win7 machine when I applied the very same (minor) overclock settings as I use successfully on the XP machine--although they did run fine at stock settings--and at this point I am not really sure why. I'm thinking it was DX11 related (hardware acceleration?), since otherwise the OS and other programs are rock-solid stable. Anyway, basically, so far I'm unimpressed with Win7 gaming performance... am keeping that second machine just for the sake of DX11 games (when they come out), as opposed to the strong urge to wipe it and start over with XP.

 

Note that I am running 32-bit versions of both. From all reports, XP-64 was a dog; however, my daughter is using Win7-64 on her primary gaming rig, and I haven't heard any complaining. That probably means she's been able to overcome any obstacles with older games (and with her hardware, she doesn't have any need to overclock).

[WDeranged]

I've been using Windows 7 for about six months and I've had very few problems, even after moving to x64 it's been pretty smooth sailing, given RPGmasterBoo's specs I'd probably stick with XP, even with 6GB of RAM I've noticed W7 using most of it at times, right now I'm on 4GB and windows reports zero free RAM.

 

I haven't had any trouble running a few older games but as LadyCrimson said, if you run lots of old software you should stick with XP.

[Guest Slinky]

I've had Win 7 x64 for a year and a half now and I haven't had any trouble with games. Arx Fatalis kept crashing without compatibility mode, that's it. Every game I have from Fallout to Crysis works nicely.

 

Just remember to not install games to C:\Program Files and to install them as admin, so you won't get any stupid problems caused by windows not giving them enough rights.

[LadyCrimson]

even with 6GB of RAM I've noticed W7 using most of it at times, right now I'm on 4GB and windows reports zero free RAM.

You must have a lot of background processes running all the time. I have 6GB ram and with a video editor, graphic editor (lots of stuff open in it), 9 browser windows, music player all running right now it's only at 1.5gb of ram being used. If I open & run FNV on top of all that, it goes up to about 2.5-3GB.

 

Edit:

so you won't get any stupid problems caused by windows not giving them enough rights.

lol, yeah, that's why I do that too.

Edited April 23, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[Wombat]

even with 6GB of RAM I've noticed W7 using most of it at times, right now I'm on 4GB and windows reports zero free RAM.

You must have a lot of background processes running all the time. I have 6GB ram and with a video editor, graphic editor (lots of stuff open in it), 9 browser windows, music player all running right now it's only at 1.5gb of ram being used. If I open & run FNV on top of all that, it goes up to about 2.5-3GB.

The topic seems to be bit derailing considering the OP is asking about old games but, yea, same story here. Running FONV, my system doesn't seem to be sweating a bit, using only 20% of 8GB ram.

[WDeranged]

even with 6GB of RAM I've noticed W7 using most of it at times, right now I'm on 4GB and windows reports zero free RAM.

You must have a lot of background processes running all the time. I have 6GB ram and with a video editor, graphic editor (lots of stuff open in it), 9 browser windows, music player all running right now it's only at 1.5gb of ram being used. If I open & run FNV on top of all that, it goes up to about 2.5-3GB.

 

Very few, if I check now, Windows reports 243MB free but with 2.5GB of cached data, essentially that's still 3GB of free RAM with a few browser windows, uTorrent, VLC and MSN messenger loaded.

 

The advertised upside is that Windows is pre-loading your regularly used data, the impressive thing is that it actually seems to work.

[LadyCrimson]

Oh, that. Yeah, Superfetch/RAM caching. I don't think of that as being used since it's available/freed as soon as something you run needs it. Although if you open so much stuff that the "free" runs down to 0, you can get hesitation/jerkiness when rapidly opening yet more things, as the cache is freed etc.

 

If you're working on something that needs all the RAM in rapid succession & you don't like the jerky slow-downs (or your system can't handle them), there's ways to clear the ram cache if you want, but generally no reason to.

Edited April 23, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[Zoraptor]

Since we have a real elite bunch of gamers here that play just about everything I was wondering whether I should switch to Win 7 on my next reinstall.

 

I have XP on which, as everyone knows, just about everything works well.

 

What's Win7 like with older game compatibility, crashing and other issues?

There are minor issues with UAC. It doesn't like where some games put their saves and throws prompts like confetti if you try and make alterations in Program Files manually (mods etc) though that can largely be avoided by not installing stuff like that to the PF folder. But otherwise I have had no real problems so far, not a single crash I can recall after the first week of use and only a single piece of software I had has been insolubly incompatible.

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, 2 Gig RAM with an ATI Radeon HD 3800 series card so I'm not getting anything from the Dx10/11/whatever graphical improvements that run under W7.

 

Is it worth it?

While I'd rate Win7 better than XP so far on those specs there's no compelling reason not to stick with XP if you're happy with it, unless you can get Win7 for free/ already have access to it and want to try something new, or if you're planning on buying some extra RAM and switching to 64 bit.

[Lorfean]

I've had Win 7 x64 for a year and a half now and I haven't had any trouble with games. Arx Fatalis kept crashing without compatibility mode, that's it. Every game I have from Fallout to Crysis works nicely.

 

Just remember to not install games to C:\Program Files and to install them as admin, so you won't get any stupid problems caused by windows not giving them enough rights.

This.

 

And I haven't had any serious problems with GOG.com's version of Arx Fatalis, either. Though I guess it needs to be said that I've been playing most classic games in their GOG.com incarnations... And I've had no problems with Another World, Beneath A Steel Sky, Alone in the Dark, etc.

[Jaesun]

I also have been using Win 7 for a year (?). DOSBox, Exult, Pentagram, as well as VMWare Player (I have a Win 98 VM for the old Magic The Gathering <3) work just fine on Win 7 (as well as every game on STEAM and GOG so far). And the new fan made wrappers (for Fallout/Fallout 2) as well as some of the new custom DirectX.dll's for Deus Ex and System Shock 2 have worked fabulous. I finally played Unreal for the fist time in my life, in Win 7 (with that new DirectX.dll). What a fun game.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Well thanks for the advice guys. Considering how RAM hungry you say W7 is I think I'll stick to XP on this machine.

 

But its good that everything works on Win7 after the Vista horror stories.

[TheHarlequin]

While I'd rate Win7 better than XP so far on those specs there's no compelling reason not to stick with XP if you're happy with it, unless you can get Win7 for free/ already have access to it and want to try something new, or if you're planning on buying some extra RAM and switching to 64 bit.

 

I'd say the fact they are killing support for it in 2 yrs soon is a pretty 'compelling' reason. Once win 8 comes out next year is will be the red headed kid in the room and will treat it as such. Why put it off until you are forced? Win 7 works great and much better then xp.

[Slowtrain]

While I'd rate Win7 better than XP so far on those specs there's no compelling reason not to stick with XP if you're happy with it, unless you can get Win7 for free/ already have access to it and want to try something new, or if you're planning on buying some extra RAM and switching to 64 bit.

 

Why put it off until you are forced?

 

 

The only MS operating systems I've used since DOS 6.2 have been Win 98se and XP pro. Saved myself a lot of money and aggravation not upgrading every time MS craps out a new OS.

[TheHarlequin]

While I'd rate Win7 better than XP so far on those specs there's no compelling reason not to stick with XP if you're happy with it, unless you can get Win7 for free/ already have access to it and want to try something new, or if you're planning on buying some extra RAM and switching to 64 bit.

 

Why put it off until you are forced?

 

 

The only MS operating systems I've used since DOS 6.2 have been Win 98se and XP pro. Saved myself a lot of money and aggravation not upgrading every time MS craps out a new OS.

 

ummm Win 7 is a leap ahead of XP.. not like I said go to vista..

[Pidesco]

With the rig he has, there's no point in going with Windows 7 yet. Win 7 is a good OS, but it isn't an amazing, essential leap from XP. Only move to it if you think you can get good mileage out of the x64 architecture.

[Humodour]

Since we have a real elite bunch of gamers here that play just about everything I was wondering whether I should switch to Win 7 on my next reinstall.

 

I have XP on which, as everyone knows, just about everything works well.

 

What's Win7 like with older game compatibility, crashing and other issues?

 

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, 2 Gig RAM with an ATI Radeon HD 3800 series card so I'm not getting anything from the Dx10/11/whatever graphical improvements that run under W7.

 

Is it worth it?

 

****.

[Orogun01]

If you have Vista, you should definitively switch. I am being spoiled by some of the features in Win 7, multitasking in RT has never been easier.

[Blodhemn]

Save yourself the trouble and keep XP forever. Win 7 adds a few nice features but overall I get more pissed at the permissions issue and also run into problems of not being able to delete folders because they're in use by windows explorer itself, and then randomly on some days the OS fails to load at all and have to run startup repair. It's better than Vista but XP is so much more user friendly and stable.

[Guest Slinky]

Save yourself the trouble and keep XP forever. Win 7 adds a few nice features but overall I get more pissed at the permissions issue and also run into problems of not being able to delete folders because they're in use by windows explorer itself, and then randomly on some days the OS fails to load at all and have to run startup repair. It's better than Vista but XP is so much more user friendly and stable.

Heh, those permissions really pissed me of when I went from XP to 7, but I got used to them really quickly, like in two days. And while XP was really stable for me. win 7 has been rock solid, not a single crash in year and a half, nor any problems like you have.

[Zoraptor]

What I really dislike about UAC is that it seems to be arbitrarily linked to a bunch of other, sensible, security options so turning it off turns the other stuff off as well.

 

UAC is sensible for general users but I'm not a general user and am hardly likely to delete kernel32.dll (well, maybe I can with a 64 bit OS but I ain't going to try) in an overenthusiastic bout of housekeeping.

 

I'd say the fact they are killing support for it in 2 yrs soon is a pretty 'compelling' reason. Once win 8 comes out next year is will be the red headed kid in the room and will treat it as such. Why put it off until you are forced? Win 7 works great and much better then xp.

And in two years time Boo's computer will be 7 years old and, by your own statement, there will be a shiny new OS out.

 

My computer was very similar to Boo's, slightly better processor, rather better graphics card and the only reasons I upgraded was going from 2 -> 4 GB RAM and that I could get Win7 Ultimate for less than a Big Mac. Buying a new licence for a five year old computer is not a good investment except under specific circumstances such as 64bit migration or to get away from something that is giving you grief (like a genuine POS like ME).

Edited April 27, 2011 by Zoraptor