Vista SP1 Gaming Performance

"Devoldo" <ki11t0liv3@gmail.com> wrote in message news:%23nzL3uUiIHA.5968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> Just wondering if anyone has had any issues and/or problems since SP1 was
> released today.
>
> I know it may be too early to tell what with the manufacturers rushing to
> create drivers that will actually take advantage of the over 550 hotfixes
> incorperated into SP1, but so far for me at least I have seen at least a 20%
> increase in overall gaming performance and system response. One main thing
> I've seen that has not improved is any source games. It seems the source
> engine is either not a fan of vista, or the 8800 series cards. But as for
> games such as World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament III, all seem to have
> an increase in FPS and load times.
>
> If anyone has a positive or negative comments for SP1, please let me know;
> very curious to see what Microsoft has accomplished/screwed up.

Installed it on my notebook and my sound card driver crashed, a lot. So I had to do some creative tweaking, but other than that I notice no difference between Pre-SP1 and SP1. Microsoft even said, all SP1 is, is a collection of updates that are already out with some minor tweaks.

I can't tell the difference.

"Devoldo" <ki11t0liv3@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23nzL3uUiIHA.5968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> Just wondering if anyone has had any issues and/or problems since SP1 was
> released today.

I've had a problem over the last week with my Nvidia drivers but I've
updated them - so far, so good.

I've noticed a general improvement in Vista's speed and responsiveness and
particularly file copying, but unfortunately in the 3 weeks since I've had
SP1 installed, I've not actually played any games that tax my system (thus
where I would notice a performance improvement).

However, I wasn't led to believe there would be much in SP1 that would
specifically affect gaming. On the other hand, every improvement is
obviously welcome.

> However, I wasn't led to believe there would be much in SP1 that would

> specifically affect gaming. On the other hand, every improvement is
> obviously welcome.

Almost all game performance issues for Windows Vista are the result of (a)
drivers or (b) the games themselves not being tested sufficently with
Windows Vista. Video drivers have improved a lot in the past 6-months or so,
and game publishers are engaging more on making sure their games run well on
Windows Vista.

The key changes in SP1 for gamers would be:

- An update to the DirectX runtime to support the new Direct3D 10.1
extensions for Direct3D 10.1 class hardware. Existing Direct3D 10 vidoe
cards and games are unaffected.

- Support for new content desscriptor for the ESRB rating system in Windows
Parental Controls / Family Safety settings. This means some newer games that
use these descriptors would show as 'unrated' on Windows Vista RTM, but will
be correctly rated on SP1.

- Support for the Korean GRB rating system added in Windows Parental
Controls / Family Safety settings. Newer games that have Korean GRB ratings
should show this in their game's metadata on SP1.

- SP1 includes some key hotfixes that impact games:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/940105
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936710/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945149/en-us

(note a full list of KBs that are included in SP1 can be found at:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window....mspx?mfr=true)

--
-Chuck Walbourn
SDE, XNA Developer Connection

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warrenties, and confers no rights.

Ok, I figured out the problem!!!!

It was the X-FI drivers (004) when I disabled the device it worked
fine, so I did a fresh install (I had to) and installed the latest (006)
and everything was fine...


Hope this helps...cheers


--
fearz

Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit
AMD Athlon 6000+ X2 64bit
Gigabyte M59-SLI-S5
nVIDIA XFX 8800 Ultra Extreme Edition
Creative X-fi Elite Pro
4x 1GB DDR2 Kingston 800 MHZ
1x WD 500 GB SATA2
1x Toshiba 150 GB SATA2
1x Seagate 150 GB SATA2
HEC Zephyr 650W PSU