XP or Vista on Boot Camp for gaming purposes?

[emediately]

Hi, I'm new to the Mac.. However, I LOVE it so far

I'm planning to install either Windows XP, or Vista/Win7 on my iMac via BootCamp..

The purpose is to play games that are compatible with Windows but not the Mac OS X..

I have Win7 on Parallels & its tight, but obviously it won't work since it's an emulator so I'll do it via BootCamp.

However I want the OS on BootCamp that will take the LEAST memory and resources, so my games will run smoother.

Which should I install? Vista/Win7, or XP? I'm guessing XP.. But not sure..

The games which I plan to play is GTA IV, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, etc.. (and don't worry my iMac specs are good, so they'll work)

 

[adder7712]

Windows XP can run all the games you mentioned and is supported until 2014!

But if you want DirectX 10 go for Vista or 7.

 

[Huntn]

Via bootcamp, I went for Vista specifically because I wanted DX10, however, most of the games I play are on low to medium graphic settings and I'm not convinced my visual experience is any better than if I had stuck with XP.

 

[tykerdog]

I've tried both Vista X64 and XP 32bit and so far I like XP. It's a lighter OS so it takes up less resources and hard drive space. Playing Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age nicely. I found my MBpro felt a bit hotter with Vista but that could just be my imagination. Although my MBpro runs vista better then any other CPU I've had it on I still find it a clumsy OS and directx 10 hasn't proven to be any worth as far as I can tell. Tried the win7 RC and it right now seems not to be worth shelling out the money for. Lipstick on a pig? Eventually games might not run on XP but for now it seems like a good fit. Nvidia drivers won't update properly though so I've been stuck with the Snow Leopard ones.

 

[nick1516]

Get windows 7, that's what I'm using and it works great.

 

[Huntn]

If I was to purchase a WinOS for gaming today it would be 7 based on putting 4GB RAM into your computer and ideally a 256VRAM video card although my experience is that 128VRAM will suffice for most games.

 

[tykerdog]

ok so after posting I thought may be I was just afraid of Vista so I threw it in Bootcamp updated etc. and fired up Arkham Asylum. I thought my macbook pro was going to melt. It wasn't just the gpu but according the Speedfan the cores were running over 83c as well. Both of them...Did a test on a fairly equal Asus and while the gpu ran hot at least the cores stayed down around 60c. And I did the testing only on the menu page that's what scared me about the temps on my mbp. Can anyone here speak to Windows 7? I'd love to sell my Asus as it's only for games and messing with Linux but I don't want to melt my mbp for a game...I might roll back xp and do the same test tonight.