So how's the game with Vista?

[MrWhereItsAt]

In part two of my efforts to choose a new laptop to replace my old-when-I-got-it HP laptop, I must make sure that the newbie can play cIV. Good graphics 'n' all is terrific for the FPS I will dabble in, but above all I nEEd to be able to civ it up.

Most new laptops now come with Vista pre-installed. Apart from the horrors of not being supplied with a reinstall disc that lets you disable all the excess programs clogging up the RAM as I have been hearing about, there is a horror worse still I must guard against. I must ensure that my laptop can play cIV without problems due to the OS.

Prompted by a currently unanswered thread on That Other Site Whose Name I Dare Not Speak, I must ask - how does cIV work with Vista (i.e. DOES cIV work with Vista?), or should I shell out for XP Pro as well to use until Vista has had the 1 GB bug and driver fix releases it sounds like it needs?

[mkorin]

I'd buy the XP Pro. Whether Civ works or not is almost incidental. You know Vista is cr** and will be for at least a year. Why give yourself the headache. BTW, I have read that many current games have problems with Vista. However, Civ was not specifically listed in the article I read.

Mike

[Cyrus The Mike]

I have a Vista and it works fine. good grafics, runs smooth.

[Dale]

I had a dual-core vista laptop (work) with vista on it. Civ ran like a charm. Vista + dual-core = great! XP + dual-core = dodgy.

Remember, XP is not written for dual-core so you may find Civ only runs on one processor. There's a fix from Microsoft for this, but it's not the best fix.

[Kuciwalker]

Civ runs beautifully. OTOH, my Vista desktop is far more powerful than my old laptop.

[Solver]

Originally posted by Dale
I had a dual-core vista laptop (work) with vista on it. Civ ran like a charm. Vista + dual-core = great! XP + dual-core = dodgy.

Remember, XP is not written for dual-core so you may find Civ only runs on one processor. There's a fix from Microsoft for this, but it's not the best fix.

What's the problem with XP on dual-core? XP or Vista, the OS can't change the code in a game running on it. Civ4 isn't programmed to use multiple cores, it's a single-threaded application. I don't see how you'd make any use of Vista's dual-core support with Civ4 - it will still only actively use one core. Granted, your performance still improves because your background processes can be using the second core, but that's also true on XP.

[Kuciwalker]

I'm pretty sure the NT kernel has always been able to handle SMP.

[Aro]

Originally posted by Cyrus The Mike
I have a Vista and it works fine. good grafics, runs smooth.

Same here.

[Dale]

Solver:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256

Also, Nolan has been experiencing some horrendous end-turn times since installing on an XP-dual core. There's a thread in the bugs forum on the "other forum" you should check out.

[Solver]

Saw it now. Hey, how do I find out if I'm affected by the problem? I have XP here and a dual-core CPU, but no performance complaints, Civ4 or otherwise... should I install the patch anyway?

[Dale]

Try the same thing as Nolan. If you get high end-turn times, then you probably have the issue.

Apparently Oblivion is horrendous (1/4 frame rate as opposed to non dual-core) on an XP dual-core without the patch (what I heard, don't truelly know though).

[dowski]

I don't have Vista, but my brother-in-law and I were playing an MP game last night and he said that Civ4 seems smoother since he upgraded his machine from XP to Vista.

dowski

[LDiCesare]

Running Civ 4 with Vista works fine for me.

[MrFun]

Re: So how's the game with Vista?

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt

Most new laptops now come with Vista pre-installed.

If you're that weary of Vista, buy a computer from a company where you can customize your computer, such as through Dell's website and then you can choose your Windows operating system.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Re: Re: So how's the game with Vista?

Originally posted by MrFun



If you're that weary of Vista, buy a computer from a company where you can customize your computer, such as through Dell's website and then you can choose your Windows operating system.

Mmm, nice idea, MrFun, but from what I can tell of the Swiss Dell site only Vista is offered. I can fortunately ring a number to get the English version, but there doesn't seem to be an option for XP, unlike the US and NZ sites. Language discrimination is what it is! If you live where they don't speak English so much then Dell thinks they can foist Vista on you! Well, maybe.

I can get XP separately for cheapish anyway, by the sound of it, so I guess this issue is one one of those where one has to test with a particular setup to see if Visita improves or worsens performance.

Still, this sounds like a step back from XP, doesn't it? I'm sure XP had problems soon after launch time as well, but were they as inconsistent as Vista's, where it seems to be uncertain even whether you will get a performance hike or hit?