Vista vs XP, sim performance.

[heliguy87]

I have read alot of things concerning G3.5 performance on windows Vista, apparently it doesn't play well with the new user management features built in. I have tried every "tweak" I have found to improve performance with G3.5.

I have a new(past 6 month laptop), with windows vista, dual core amd cpu, 2 gigs of ram onboard video etc etc. I do not expect to play it with all highest settings but I do expect the sim to be smooth on medium/low settings.

Even with settings turned down quite a bit I still experience lag when flying back into crowded parts of the field.

Anyone else have any experiences with windows Vista and the sims? how do they perform? I am seriously debating putting XP back onto this computer, thinking I will gain performance. (not only realflight.. my work's e-mail client doesn't play well with Vista either..)

I have XP desktops that I consider to sub par to this laptop that seem to run the sim better.

Does anyone have a dual boot xp/vista system, or one they have had both at one point and experience on the sim?

[tdswan]

I'm running a Vista machine and like you mentioned, the user feature just had to be changed on the shortcut to run it as administrator. I'm not having any performance issues atg all. This machine's pretty buffed up, though. It's an ASUS Gaming laptop with 2.4 Core 2 duo, 2 gigs of RAM, nVidia 8600 256 meg (dedicated) card with up to 768 shared. I'm getting about 40-50FPS on a 3D field and can range from 40-100+FPS on a photo field.

At first I contemplated putting XP on it just because so many people hated Vista. I still wanted to give it a chance and I don't mind it much aside from re-finding settings that I changed regularly. I'm used to it now, so I likely won't go back to XP.

[JadeKnight]

Older video drivers in Vista might be your issue. Is it an NVidia chipset?

For a long time, NVidia chipsets and Vista did not get along well at all. When I got my Vista notebook with an NVidia 7900GS, the performance in every game was horrible (lag, stuttering, low framerates). When I downgraded to XP, everything ran great (more mature drivers in XP).

NVidia has finally fixed most of their driver issues, and I plan on putting Vista back onto my laptop at some point. Especially since some of the hardware on it doesn't have XP drivers...

Long story short, Try updating your video drivers and see if there is an improvement.

Also, Are you running Vista 32bit or 64bit? Lots of apps don't get along well with Vista 64bit.



BTW, I also use Vista on my desktop, and RealFlight G3.5 runs great.

Then again, my desktop is a home-built 3.0GHz OC Core 2 quad with 4GB ram and dual 8800 GTS-512's in SLI. :D

[heliguy87]

Its a dual core machine, but has the 32bit vista install.

I will check drivers tonight, though I updated them a month or two ago.

[JadeKnight]

Its a dual core machine, but has the 32bit vista install.

I will check drivers tonight, though I updated them a month or two ago.

Laptop drivers (especially video) often work differently than desktop drivers. Usually there is a long delay in getting the *actual* latest drivers on a laptop, due to the manufacturer.

For the longest time, I used 'hacked' NVidia reference drivers on my older notebooks to have the latest drivers, sometimes months before the manufacturer released their own versions.

Post what the video driver version is when you can (along with the type of card).

Also, what brand and model is the laptop?

[heliguy87]

toshiba satellite, its actually got an ATI radeon x1200 chipset.

Driver Packaging Version 8.401-070727a-051583C-Toshiba
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 7.01.01.670
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0517
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.6747
Catalyst® Control Center Version 2007.0727.2307.39475


I will look around for newer drivers tonight..

[JadeKnight]

The ATI site shows the latest drivers as version 8.471 (Catalyst 8.3 package, see release notes).
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/integrated-vista32


It appears that your version is 8.401. One thing with laptop drivers is that sometimes manufacturers put special features in their drivers, hence the delay in release.

Usually the reference (ATI) drivers work, but you might lose some Toshiba specific features (if any). Other times, the driver package will simply not install, saying you do not have the correct adapter for the drivers.

I do not have any experience with ATI cards in Vista, so I don't know if these drivers will solve your problem, but it's worth a shot...