As a gamer, I was initially unmoved when I first heard about Windows
7. Although I'm not a Windows XP hardliner like many of my gaming brothers
and sisters, I've had my share of issues with upgrades, updates, and driver
tweaks needed to make other operating systems match XP for gaming. I just
wasn't ready to believe I would actually be eager for another change. When I was
helping with the Alienware
M17x beta earlier this year, I heard something about the Windows 7 beta that
piqued my interest: all the engineers working on the Alienware product betas had already switched
to Windows 7 on their gaming boxes, and loved it. I didn't quite believe them
when they told me Windows 7 outperformed Vista, and even XP, on their favorite
games. That couldn't be right. The OS was still in beta!
I tried it for myself recently, and I was dumbfounded.
The OS installation
took less than half the time my last Vista installation did, and was even
faster than the last installation of Windows XP I had done. From
inserting the disk to usable desktop clocked in at just about 20 minutes on my
XPS 730X, and the default drivers worked perfectly. Start up and shut downs were
noticeably faster than before... and though I didn't pull out my stopwatch to
double check, I dare say it was even faster than XP. The user interface was
familiar and attractive, very reminiscent of Vista. I quickly noticed an
improvement in the Windows
Sidebar: the gadgets could now be moved anywhere on the desktop, a change
I've felt was long overdue. After I installed a few games the fun and excitement
really began.
Games launched noticeably quicker than in Vista or XP, and frame rates on my
favorites were notably higher than I had expected... higher even than my
streamlined XP gaming installation. Was this just my experience? I found a great
comparison on driverheaven
that confirmed my suspicions. Windows 7 is a must have for PC gamers. It
simply performs better where gamers will notice it most: in-game performance.
It wasn't just me. Even back in January, while Windows 7 was in beta, it was
still measuring up to XP in terms of gaming performance according
to sites like FiringSquad. Other places like Anandtech have offered a more
recent assessment back in May. Doubtless that there will be tons more
written on the topic from Anandtech and elsewhere after Windows 7 ships.
If the launch of Windows 7 shows this much promise, one can only think it
will only get better as hardware becomes more advanced. I recently wrote a blog
about the
latest Alienware offerings where I mentioned the future benefits of DirectX
11. While this new technology won't
be a Windows 7 exclusive, it certainly won't be supported for Windows XP,
and Windows 7 improvements over Windows Vista are just too compelling to ignore.
If you are interested in tweaking Windows 7 for gaming, check out
Extremetech's 10 Tips for
Turbocharging Windows 7 Gaming. With hot DirectX 11cards like ATI's Radeon
5870 and the
5850 already available, it's clear that gaming on Windows 7 will be solid
the day the OS ships on 10-22.