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:


On the next pages you can find the game benchmarks.