Can Windows 7 become the number one operating system for gamers? PC Games Hardware made the first benchmarks with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7.
As a gamer you often have to decide for an operating system. Currently we are searching for the best Windows operating system for gamers. XP is eight years old already, but is still used by many players. Windows Vista becomes more popular by the day because of DirectX 10 and 64 Bit. Professionals on the other hand recommend Server 2008 which can be transformed into a desktop OS with little effort. Furthermore Windows 7 is casting a shadow ahead: A open Beta is supposed to be launched soon and the final version is expected in early 2010.
We compare Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 in 32 and 64 bit. The results are compared to those of the 32bit Windows 7 build 6956 - as an orientation for the future so to speak. Microsoft recommends not to run any benchmarks with the pre-release version and thus our benchmark results can be classified as a preview only. The first reliable performance tests won't be possible before the first beta version of Windows 7 is released. Nevertheless we want to show you the first results for Far Cry 2 and Call of Duty: World at War (dt.) and several comparative screenshots.
The Windows versions used for this test:
| |
Windows XP SP3 x86 |
Windows XP x64 |
Windows Vista SP1 x86 |
Windows Vista SP1 x64 |
Webserver 2008 x86 |
Webserver 2008 x64 |
Windows 7 x86 (Build 6956) |
| Price |
about 70 Euro |
about 120 Euro |
about 70 Euro |
about 70 Euro |
about 300 Euro |
about 300 Euro |
Not available |
| Supported RAM |
4 GiByte |
128 GiByte |
4 GiByte |
8 to 128 GiByte |
4 GiByte |
32 GiByte |
4 GiByte |
| Supported CPUs |
2 Pro/1 Home |
2 |
2 (1 Basic) |
2 (1 Basic) |
64 |
64 |
64 |
| Supported CPU cores |
NA |
NA |
256 |
256 |
256 |
256 |
256 |
| DirectX version |
9.0 |
9.0 |
10. Jan |
10. Jan |
10. Jan |
10. Jan |
10. Jan |
On the next pages you can find the game benchmarks.