Bad gaming performance under Win 7 (compared to Win XP)

[lead341]

Hi everybody,

for months I have been trying to solve one of the biggest mysteries in my computer histories: why is Windows 7 so much slower concerning games than Win XP?

1) I am running Win XP and Win 7 in the same computer, only installed on two different hard discs. So both recur to the same hardware (Geforce 285 GTX driver 260.99, E 8500 @ 3,8 GHZ, 4 GB Ram, Audigy 2 sound card etc.)

2) I have been trying World in Conflict, GTA IV, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Supreme Commander 2, Starcraft 2 etc.

3) All games run unter Windows XP about 30 to 40 % faster, also when using the DX9-Mode unter Win 7. Some examples:

- the World in Conflict benchmark gives me in WIn XP 59 fps average, in WIn 7 39 fps average - with the exact same settings. During the benchmark I especially note much larger framedrops etc.

- GTA IV: comparable scenes that have unter Win XP about 45 fps, under Win 7 27 fps

- Supreme Commander 2: large massing battles get unter Win 7 almost unplayable, under Win XP it still works fine


All this is puzzling me considerably. How can this be? Shouldn´t Win7 not have a better gaming performance? I have even read tests that showed that for example World in Conflict runs smoother and better with Win 7.

Using benchmark programs like furmark or the analytical benchmark Sisoft Sandra, it gets even more puzzling: here the results are equal to Win XP, and in some cases even better.

So: excellent desktop performance, equal to better benchmark performance compared to Win XP, but very bad gaming performance.

What could be the reason for that? I have been searching in the internet for hours, tried different things, yet to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Greetings lead

 

[Wishmaster]

Have you updated all drivers (64bit ones) for your system?
Not just graphics, but Audio, chipset etc.

Also, have you updated DirextX?
You do need to do this, even for the DX9 files.


Being 30-40% slower is a clear indication something is wrong.

 

[lead341]

Thank you for the quick reply. You wrote some interesting things:

- which is the most recent Directx-Version?
- I was not aware of the fact that there are distinct 64 bit-drivers. What might be the most recent chipset driver for the Asus P5Q?

It obviously must have to do something with Directx (DX9 as well as DX10).