Does OS make a difference?

[Forgetful]

Just wondering if anyone has any info on whether the OS, i'm thinking mostly Win2k or WinXP, has any difference on the speed a game runs at.

[Faust]

in a word... yes.


of course this depends on exactly what you mean by "faster".

faster as in network performance?... yes. 2k and XP are better at handling network communications.

faster in 3D performance? well, i would say yes for XP, not 100% sure about 2k (even though thats what i am running now... 2k). one of the "pitches" by MS was increased 3D performance with XP. there was a time back in '00 and '01 where win2k kinda sucked for certain kinds of 3D performance, but most of that has been worked out.

is it a night & day performance difference?... probably not. noticable?.... probably. depends on the exact scenario (game, system specs, and support from mfgr's for both). win9x is approaching the age of not being supported too much anymore (by MS as well).

[Forgetful]

Thanks for the input Faust. I have to reformat and reinstall soon so i'll guess i'll just stick with XP.

[Faust]

no problem, man.


just out of curiosity, what would be your alternative (as far as an operating system)? in many examples, win98 se can be a good performer, but the amount of support is quickly dwindling (updates/updated drivers and the like). i actually used it up until about a year ago, and was still, at that point, pleased with it. i just switched to 2k to work on my day-to-day, as well as technical knowledge of the OS. i have had XP for about a year and a half (in the retail packaging), but haven;t installed it on my main rig. will be doing a reformat/fresh install in a couple weeks and will probably intall XP then. i think it's had anough time to mature.

[ScottE]

Yes the OS makes a huge difference in how games and other applications run. The OS is a bridge between the hardware of the computer and the applications that run on it. The more efficient the OS the more efficiently the application runs.

[Forgetful]

It's my daughter's pc. Currently on a 1gig duron and winxp. I was thinking of going to win2000 pro. She basically just uses it for music, chatting and playing Sof2. No money for an upgrade yet so i was just wondering. Not sure i'd like to go back to win98, pretty sure she wouldn't either

[ScottE]

2k pro is rock solid. It really opens up when you have 256 megs of ram as opposed to XP that really needs 512. I had 2k pro running on a 233 K6. Ran like a champ.