Re: The Witcher Performance Issue.


"Rick Cortese" <ricortes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:2KidnVpvD_VSitXVnZ2dnUVZ_hCdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Word is Vista gets its performance from larger cache and what gets cached. If you don't have a system with tons of RAM and fast access to it, I am not sure you would see any gains. Indeed in the Tom's Hardware benchmark with same system/RAM, there was no gain.


'Word is'? You mean you don't know? Then why comment on it?

SuperFetch is a fantastic new caching mechanism that uses RAM. Just to emphasise the point, XP managed it's memory poorly (hence why there were so many 3rd party memory managers around), and people spent all their time trying to clear unnessary crap out RAM to improve performance - in Vista, Superfetch works on the basis that free RAM is wastd RAM, and so tries to predict what you are likely to be wanting next. It can track what time of the day you use applications in and in what order and it aggressively caches files in anticipation.

Hence beyond a certain amount, XP didn't really benefit from extra RAM (2-4GB max), whereas Vista will allow and use a whole lot more.

To me, this is smoke and mirrors. I mean if quadruple the amount of RAM in an XP system and increase cache size as well as cache USB, you are going to appear to be faster.

As I explained, it doesn't work that way.

And the 'cache USB' I think you are referring to is ReadyBoost - which is a great (and cheap) way of improving performance in Vista on machines with less memory (<2GB). Strike 2 to Vista.



No OpenGL support was on the first page of the Tom's Hardware benchmark. Once again, ipso facto.


I don't think you actually know what ipso facto means.

More importantly, Vista shipped with OpenGL support from day one. In fact, OpenGL support in Vista is almost identical to XP. To quote OpenGL themselves:

"OpenGL hardware acceleration is handled in exactly the same way in Windows XP and Windows Vista - through an Installable Client Driver (ICD) provided by graphics card manufacturers. Without an OpenGL ICD installed, Windows XP and Windows Vista both revert to rendering OpenGL in software on the CPU rather than using GPU acceleration.

Did you actually read the article? Here are the conclusions (directly from OpenGL remember):

"OpenGL is fully integrated into the Windows Vista display architecture just like Direct3D -both interfaces are first-class graphics API citizens. OpenGL hardware acceleration is available on Windows Vista through highly optimized drivers provided by the graphics hardware vendor just as on Windows XP. OpenGL applications can benefit from the improved resource management provided by Windows Vista. OpenGL performance on Windows Vista is extremely competitive compared to Windows XP and will rapidly improve as support for this new operating system matures. "

Quite clear and unambiguous, wouldn't you agree?

"The enhanced Windows Aero user interface can decrease graphics intensive application performance by about 10% but this performance drop can be eliminated by selecting Windows Classic or Windows Basic user interface style or using full-screen applications. "

Which is what detractor have noticed, and commonly recite...

"To ensure maximum performance and stability on Windows Vista, users should regularly check for driver upgrades from their graphics hardware supplier."

Ah, so this performance difference will be removed (or even reversed) when Nvidia and ATI improve their drivers? Well that is re-assuring to know.

Don't get me wrong, I may one day buy Vista."

Don't. You'd probably spontaneously combust.


I've found it is better to wait a couple of years after MS releases something before I even think about installing it.

A perfectly reasonable response. But could you perhaps wait in silence? I've got a headache.


.

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