32Bit XP or 32Bit Vista?

[nope7308]

My new MBP should be arriving next week (see sig) and I'm debating if I should install Windows via Bootcamp. The only reason for installing windows would be to play the occasional game (e.g. COD4).

I can get both a copy of XP and Vista Business from my school for free, but both versions are 32Bit (meaning my 4GB of RAM doesn't help much). As shallow as this sounds, I think I would prefer Vista solely because it looks better, but I haven't experienced how crappy it is first hand. Is there any reason why I should avoid Vista in lieu of XP? I guess we can use COD4 as an example to illustrate the pros/cons of each.

Now, that said, would there be any real downside to playing games such as COD4 under OSX? I would prefer not to install windows for games, but everyone seems to be saying otherwise. So, are there any 'Mac gamers' out there that can shed some light on this?

Thanks!

 

[SHADO]

Well, if your gonna b playing new games that use DX10, then I would choose Vista. If not, then XP is ur best bet.

 

[nope7308]

Well, if your gonna b playing new games that use DX10, then I would choose Vista. If not, then XP is ur best bet.

I have no idea what DX10 is...

Let me be a little more clear. I'm not what you would call a "gamer". I will probably install up to 5 games at most and play them infrequently. Right now, there are three games I have in mind:
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein (already own PC version)
- COD4: Modern Warfare
- COD5: World at War (when released).
[Any recommendations based on the above?]

Now, I'm considering installing windows because:
1) I don't want to buy the mac version of RTCW since I already own the PC one.
2) I can get either XP or Vista business for free.
3) COD5 is not going to be released for Mac (if it is, someone please correct me! I'm prepared to wait).

So, I guess my reasons for wanting to install windows would be (1) game compatibility/greater selection, and (2) it won't cost me anything. If COD5 was released for Mac and I only had to buy RTCW, I would probably stick with OSX and forget windows entirely...

That said, what are you opinions/recommendations?

 

[jbrenn]

4gb ram

i would go with xp. vista will take up more ram. That will make the available ram to the game even less. fyi windows vista sp1 will show all 4 gb ram but it will not use it all.

 

[SHADO]

I would actually go with Vista because COD5 (and I think COD4) use DX10 (Direct X 10, which Vista has-XP has DX9). I think you would get better performance using Vista, although like the previous post said you wouldn't be able to use the 4GB RAM. In order to use the 4GB RAM, you need to get Vista x64 or XP x64, which it sounds like you cannot get for free. I hope this helps.

 

[nope7308]

I would actually go with Vista because COD5 (and I think COD4) use DX10 (Direct X 10, which Vista has-XP has DX9). I think you would get better performance using Vista, although like the previous post said you wouldn't be able to use the 4GB RAM. In order to use the 4GB RAM, you need to get Vista x64 or XP x64, which it sounds like you cannot get for free. I hope this helps.

Thanks for the replies. I actually heard COD4 was DX9, but I'm not sure about COD5. Speaking of which, what is the probablity that COD5 will be released for mac? I take it that no one is recommending I stick with OSX?

So if neither XP or Vista can run with 4GB of RAM, does that mean games will run faster in OSX? For instance, would COD4 for Mac run faster because it can utilize the full 4GB (as opposed to XP/Vista 32bit)?

 

[motoxpress]

Most games will still run faster in XP unfortunately due to poor ports to the mac AND the poor nvidia drivers in OS X.

COD4 runs great for me in WinXP

-mx

 

[0098386]

I'd go for XP. I've had much better game performance on my iMac with 32bit XP over Vista. Plus you don't get incompatibilities with older games, which is good considering some old games are still awesome (and IMO better than most new games).

 

[nope7308]

Hmm, so it looks like I'll be installing XP Pro (SP3) once the new machine arrives. Is there anything specific/helpful that I should know? I'm thinking of doing a 20G partition since it will be running games only. Do you think that's enough?

Also, how are macs with torrents? My friend has a PB4 from 2004(ish) and he says it sucks for downloading. If I ran utorrent under the XP partition, would that speed up downloads?

Finally, should I decide a few weeks down the road that I really hate XP, can I just erase the entire windows partition without any harm to my OSX installation?

Thanks again!

 

[SHADO]

Hmm, so it looks like I'll be installing XP Pro (SP3) once the new machine arrives. Is there anything specific/helpful that I should know? I'm thinking of doing a 20G partition since it will be running games only. Do you think that's enough?

Also, how are macs with torrents? My friend has a PB4 from 2004(ish) and he says it sucks for downloading. If I ran utorrent under the XP partition, would that speed up downloads?

Finally, should I decide a few weeks down the road that I really hate XP, can I just erase the entire windows partition without any harm to my OSX installation?

Thanks again!

1. Depending on how many games you're going to install (and it sounds like not many), a 20GB partition sounds good, although COD4 takes up about 8GB of space lol, so you can't run too many of those type games lol.
2. I use Azureus, which is a great bittorent client (although utorrent is the same thing, just more lightweight)
3. Yes you can delete any partition and re-partition is again w/no harm done to the HD or OSX side

 

[Stridder44]

A good rule of thumb for right now:


If you're going 32-bit, stick with XP.

If you're going 64-bit, go with Vista.

Since you have a new MBP, I'd say go with Vista 64. Very fast and stable. Games/apps work flawlessly.

 

[nope7308]

A good rule of thumb for right now:


If you're going 32-bit, stick with XP.

If you're going 64-bit, go with Vista.

Since you have a new MBP, I'd say go with Vista 64. Very fast and stable. Games/apps work flawlessly.

Hmm, here is my dilemma. I can get a genuine copy of either XP or Vista for free, but only the 32bit versions. Is it advisable to 'borrow' Vista x64 from a torrent site? I would really prefer to stick with the 32bit version, but if Vista x64 offers a significant increase in performance, then I may change my mind...

 

[motoxpress]

A good rule of thumb for right now:


If you're going 32-bit, stick with XP.

If you're going 64-bit, go with Vista.

Since you have a new MBP, I'd say go with Vista 64. Very fast and stable. Games/apps work flawlessly.

But why even go 64bit if it's just for games? I don't see the point of taking the overhead hit of Vista at this point if you are doing this solely for games.

-mx

 

[nope7308]

But why even go 64bit if it's just for games? I don't see the point of taking the overhead hit of Vista at this point if you are doing this solely for games.

-mx

I thought Vista x64 would be faster because it can utilize the total amount of RAM (i.e. 4GB DDR3). I'm going on the presupposition that more RAM = better performance when it comes to graphically intensive games like COD4 (but then again, what do I know about games?).

Care to shed some light on this? Thanks!

 

[motoxpress]

I thought Vista x64 would be faster because it can utilize the total amount of RAM (i.e. 4GB DDR3). I'm going on the presupposition that more RAM = better performance when it comes to graphically intensive games like COD4 (but then again, what do I know about games?).

Care to shed some light on this? Thanks!

It's only true if the app can actually take advantage of the greater amount of ram. Very few apps in general can actually and there are even fewer games. In fact, there are few games that take advantage of more than one core/cpu. There may be games in production now that would take advantage of 64bit but, chances are they are pumping them so full of overhead that your MBP is not gonna cut it anyway. They would also assume uber GPUs and CPUs.

64bit really is about the tail wagging the dog in most cases. If you are doing highly memory and CPU intensive processing like 3D modeling/rendering or Photoshop then it does make a difference (not face melting diff though). Everything else is pretty much indifferent.

-mx

 

[nope7308]

It's only true if the app can actually take advantage of the greater amount of ram. Very few apps in general can actually and there are even fewer games. In fact, there are few games that take advantage of more than one core/cpu. There may be games in production now that would take advantage of 64bit but, chances are they are pumping them so full of overhead that your MBP is not gonna cut it anyway. They would also assume uber GPUs and CPUs.

64bit really is about the tail wagging the dog in most cases. If you are doing highly memory and CPU intensive processing like 3D modeling/rendering or Photoshop then it does make a difference (not face melting diff though). Everything else is pretty much indifferent.

-mx

You Sir, have been very helpful! Thanks for the input. Now I just have to bring myself to install XP Pro... it's going to hurt.