Windows 7 Beta Gaming Performance: XP vs Vista vs 7

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Since its release, Windows Vista has gotten a fair share of controversy and criticism. The move to a new driver model rendered many legacy hardware products, like printers and scanners, obsolete while the Vista-only DirectX 10 API has never quite lived up to lofty performance expectations. Microsoft has taken the brunt of this criticism and made a pledge to not make the same mistakes with the follow-up to Vista, Windows 7. They are attempting to take what worked with Vista and drop what didn’t, as they make overall system enhancements that range from performance to interface usability. Today we are going to take a closer look at the performance of Windows 7 to see if it compares to the venerable XP or more along the lines of Vista.

Windows 7 is still in the early beta stages, so we urge our readers to keep this in mind when looking at the numbers. Drivers are being updated pretty frequently, so there is a lot of room left for improvement between now and when Microsoft finally releases 7 down the road. For instance, during our week long testing period, we were notified via Windows Update of 2 separate ATI driver releases. Microsoft hasn’t officially announced when 7 will be released, but rumors range from Q4 2009 to early 2010. It appears that Microsoft is attempting to get 7 into the market as soon as possible, as they try to repair their reputation after the lukewarm reception of Windows Vista.

More...Windows 7 Beta Gaming Performance: XP vs Vista vs 7

Some of those results are somewhat surprising. Especially the Fallout 3 results. I find FO3 runs a lot smoother with higher details and a higher min FPS in W7 than Vista.

(W7 1920x1200 with HD addon texture pack, max settings 0XAA - no stutter, higher min FPS 35+)

(Vista 1680x1050 with HD addon texture pack, mostly maxed 0XAA-obvious stutter lower min FPS low-mid 20's)

Far Cry 2 runs better in W7 than Vista (when it's not crashing because of sound driver )

STALKER: Clear Sky runs better in W7 than Vista. (from what I've played so far anyway)

I'm still not sure how much of the performance gain can be attributed to W7 or the ATI beta driver though.

I did notice one major thing in the tests!They never used a high end graphic/video card? :)

On the high-end system they did. A 4870x2. It's not that long in the tooth yet