Windows 7 vs. Vista

[Leonidas42]

If i was to ugrade to Windows 7, would my gaming experience increase? would it run RS2 better? If you can I want to know all the benefits of upgrading to Windows 7 for gaming. I currently run all settings at medium on my HP Laptop with large unit scale. What would increase if I switched to Windows 7? Thanks.

[General Brittanicus]

It probably wouldnt have much of an effect if your computer is already pretty good for gaming purposes, but i have wind 7 and im pretty sure it runs less background tasks than vista, which could help you but it may also just be my imagination.

[Siegfriedfr]

If you manage your computer well (ie no cluttering useless programs, regular defrag and reg cleaning) and have half decent graphic card and at least 3gig of ram, the only difference will be in pure benchmarking.

[Leonidas42]

I figured. I'm upgrading this weekend and I was just trying to see if there was an overall improvement. I do have another question: if you go to task manager and set priority to rome:total war on High, does it run more efficient?

[Sebastos Abdes Pantera]

Upgrading from Vista to windows 7 is always a good idea. Windows 7 runs games better than vista. However since the game was designed for XP I guess it wont make much difference.

[Leonidas42]

Good point. I'll keep that in mind and won't get my hopes up.

[Brusilov]

If you want to increase your PCs performance close down as many backgrond services you can to free up some memory. THis can be dome with msconfig, which comes with Windows. Make sure that you check to see what each services is on google before doing so.

Alternatively, you can use IOBIT's Game Booster software. This can be used to put your PC into 'Gaming Mode' which closes a lot more services than I've ever slosed manually. What's better is that it's free.

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

Yes, I do use it as well.

It won't mean that you can increase your graphic requirements but the game should run smoother.

[Leonidas42]

I do use Gamebooster as well. Great program.

[Sebastos Abdes Pantera]

I use that to get a bit more fps in COD4. I can do without it in RTW though. If your fps suffers, you can turn shadows off and turn unit sizes up.

[{Kevin}]

this will tell you what each startup program does and if you need it i found a couple trojan programs
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

[ROFL Copter]

If you manage your computer well (ie no cluttering useless programs, regular defrag and reg cleaning) and have half decent graphic card and at least 3gig of ram, the only difference will be in pure benchmarking.

Programs on the hard disk hardly affect gameplay. Plus I only have 2GB of ram. Is that considered low? Rome has always ran well if I only use large units and low shadows.

[Brusilov]

Programs on the hard disk hardly affect gameplay. Plus I only have 2GB of ram. Is that considered low? Rome has always ran well if I only use large units and low shadows.

On Windows XP I'd say no problems. I think Vista is a bit hungry with memory so with the same rig you may need another 1Gb). 7 is supposed to be an improvement over Vista but it probsbly wants more than XP.

With a 32 bit OS it will only ever be able to access about 3.5Gb while with a 64 bit OS the sky is the limit - although anything over 6Gb is probably not needed for such an old game. With more recent games they should use these features.

[Ybbon]

I use GameBooster as well. it does shut down a lot of unnecessary services. Make sure any A/V you are using has a game mode or knows this is a game and so doesn't try to control it in some way - if you don't have one, stop what you're doing and go put a freebie one on first (Comodo is pretty good), I would suggest that if you do most of these things the OS will make less difference. If it is starting to run slow check your hardware is OK - my hard disk died recently but there was nothing obvious other than it getting horribly slow mid-application. More RAM and better graphics card will give you more of a boost if you can add them.

[Centaurion]

If you only have 2 GB of ram I would most definatly stick with XP.

Win 7 is much better than Vista, but you need at least 4 GB if you want to get the best use of Win 7.

[Leonidas42]

I updated to Windows 7 and Battles run a lot more efficient. And thanks for that info Kevin I'll be sure to check it. +1 rep

[HMonk]

I have been very happy with win 7, works well with RS 2.0

[Timefool]

if you go to task manager and set priority to rome:total war on High, does it run more efficient?

Still isn't answered and I would also like to know the answer.

[Leonidas42]

Listen to this: After I upgraded to Windows 7, I did the base score for my "Windows Experience", and my gaming graphics increased from a score of 3.5 to 5.0! How weird??

[ROFL Copter]

Windows 7 uses considerably less resources than Vista. Less than a third. If your computer used to run Vista (like mine) and you upgraded it, it should actually run better.

[Leonidas42]

Still isn't answered and I would also like to know the answer.

If you figure out derek let me know.


@ROFL, I've noticed that. I love it.