[PC] Crysis

[NuclearCrap]

Are you going to update for the game or not?

Why not? I already have the hardwares, plus the new nVidia driver gave a performance boost for all 8-series, now I can run my card in Vista as fast as I can in XP. I'm moving to Vista as soon as I put together my C2D setup. Last time I tried it the X-Fi driver was crap and prevented me from games but I heard it's all fixed now.

[Cotterik]

ah ok. Just wondered if you considered Vista a worthy upgrade at the moment while all the bugs are looming around.

[NuclearCrap]

ah ok. Just wondered if you considered Vista a worthy upgrade at the moment while all the bugs are looming around.

Other than sound driver, Vista x64 worked perfectly for me.

[ruim20]

Bought a Laptop, last week, it came with vista... i'm just waiting to get home for the weekend and format the thing to get XP in it!

[jediali]

Bought a Laptop, last week, it came with vista... i'm just waiting to get home for the weekend and format the thing to get XP in it!

wouldnt that ruin any potential support you got with the laptop, warrenty, software etc? Its the kind of thing i would do too.

[Cotterik]

I cant see a single reason to upgrade to vista other than DX10, and that wont be the real flow of games for a good year to come (or more)

[Zytek_Fan]

I cant see a single reason to upgrade to vista other than DX10, and that wont be the real flow of games for a good year to come (or more)

Yeah. The only reason I'd get Vista is DX10. Driver support is absolutely terrible right now.

Read this:

WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows Me Two (MeII), is a joke that no one wants. It did two unprecedented things this week that frankly stunned us.

Dell announced that it would be offering XP again on home PCs. The second that Vista came out, Microsoft makes it very hard for you to sell anything other than MeII. It can't do this on the business side because it would be laughed out the door, but for the walking sheep class, well, you take what you are shovelled.

This is classic abusive monopoly behavior, Microsoft wrote the modern book on it. It pulled all the major OEMs in by twisting their arms with the usual methods, and they again all fell into line. Never before has anyone backpedalled on this, to do so would earn you the wrath of Microsoft.

But Dell just did. This means that MeII sales are at least as bad as we think, the software and driver situation is just as miserable, and Dell had no choice but to buck the trend. If anyone thinks this is an act of atonement for foisting such a steaming pile on us, think again, it doesn't care about the consumer.

What happened is the OEMs revolted in the background and forced Microsoft's hand. This is a big neon sign above MeII saying 'FAILURE'. Blink blink blink. OK, MeII won't fail, they have OEMs whipped and threatened into a corner, it will sell, but you can almost hear the defectors marching toward Linux. This is a watershed.

The other equally monumental MeII failure? Gates in China launching a $3 version of bundled MeII. Why is this not altruism? Well, it goes back to piracy and how it helped enforce the MS monopoly. If you can easily pirate Windows, Linux has no price advantage, they both cost zero.

With MeII, Microsoft made it very hard to pirate. It is do-able, you can use the BIOS hack and probably a host of others, but the point is, it raised the bar enough so lots of people have to buy it. Want to bet that in a country with $100 average monthly salary, people aren't going to shell out $299 for MeII Broken Edition?

What did MS do? It dropped the price about 100x or so. I can't say this is unprecedented, when it made Office 2003 hard to pirate it had to backpedal with the student edition for about $150. This time though, things are much more desperate.

If you fit Microsoft's somewhat convoluted definition of poor, it still wants to lock you in, you might get rich enough to afford the full-priced stuff someday. It is at a dangerous crossroads, if its software bumps up the price of a computer by 100 per cent, people might look to alternatives.

That means no MeII DRM infection lock in, no mass migration to the newer Office obfuscated and patented file formats, and worse yet, people might utter the W word. Yes, you guessed it, 'why'. People might ask why they are sticking with the MS lock in, and at that point, it is in deep trouble.

So, it did the unthinkable, and dropped the price. I won't bother to hunt down all the exec quotes saying how people can't afford clean water would be overjoyed to sell kidneys to upgrade to the new version of Office, but they are out there. This was a sacred cow, and it is now hamburger backed up against the wall.

These two actions by Microsoft are proof of what I suggested three years ago. Microsoft has lost its ability to twist arms, and now it is going to die. It can't compete on level ground, so is left with backpedalling and discounts of almost 100 times.

What we are seeing is an unprecedented shift of power. It is also an unprecedented admission of failure. And the funniest part about the moves made? They are the wrong things to do. Microsoft is in deep trouble.

[Rockefella]

Dayum!

I didn't know that Vista was so hated. I actually like my beta version of it a lot.

[Zytek_Fan]

Dayum!

I didn't know that Vista was so hated. I actually like my beta version of it a lot.

Mostly because driver support is so bad. Otherwise it's pretty good. Comparing it to Windows ME is a little harsh. All Vista needs is more time and it'll be hella better

[Cotterik]

XP with Vista theme & DX10 = ca-ching!

[ruim20]

wouldnt that ruin any potential support you got with the laptop, warrenty, software etc? Its the kind of thing i would do too.

I'm not sure about that, but i'll obviusly check before i format the thing, still, it's better to lose all those things than to have a laptop with a pretty desktop that i can't do anything with. Out of 5 games in only one works, the little gismo that says how much memory is being used states that 34% of memory is being used while the desktop is visible, i mean ONLY the desktop... 34% of 2gb memory...

[jediali]

So 34 % that's about 680mb ram, my pc uses about 300MB (of 1Gb) on desktop alone.

[NuclearCrap]

I'm not sure about that, but i'll obviusly check before i format the thing, still, it's better to lose all those things than to have a laptop with a pretty desktop that i can't do anything with. Out of 5 games in only one works, the little gismo that says how much memory is being used states that 34% of memory is being used while the desktop is visible, i mean ONLY the desktop... 34% of 2gb memory...

My PC uses about 36% of 2GB with only desktop (XP), so I don't see what's wrong with that, although I like to keep a handful of background tasks running. When I tried Vista it was using 50%, that's because Vista preloads the memory so that they're always ready for your next move, unlike XP, so it's not really using 50%, just a different approach at memory management.

[ruim20]

I had no ideia it used so much memory on desktop alone, still i think 680mb is too much for a desktop alone on a "blank" pc.

[Matra et Alpine]

Dont' panic !!!

"only desktop" is (I hope) meaning not running an application. Which means, in reality, that your firewall, virus scanner, pop-up blocker and ad-blocker are "running" along with any and all services daemons for printers, scanners, cameras, networking, etc etc.
You can find out all the processes running - and how much memory they've allocated - by CTRL-ALT-DEL and select processes tab.
If you look at all those processes with 0 against the CPU usage then you will notice most of them don't run often ( if at all ).
When an application isn't running and nobody else needs memory then it sits "using" memory. When memory is needed it is swapped out and the real memory given over to the application/process.

So no real problem unless you are trying to do lots of simultaneous activities - coz then all the apps want to run and need to swap back in and then back out. MAchines running on the limit make themselves obvious by the sound of the swapfile disc "thrashing"