Ok so reports are that windows 7 works pretty good with fsx, some saying it's better than vista. My question is does it run fsx better or worse than winxp?? Because of my coursework at college I can get win7 for free and I really only use my computer for fsx, web browsing, and maybe some call of duty. I apologize if this has been asked before, I remember topics about the switch from vista but not xp.
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Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
Not another Windows 7 topic
- Thread starter deimos256
- Start date
For me, it runs about the same as XP, but I can run a lot more programs alongside it without hiccups, due to moving from 32-bit to 64-bit. All in all, I'm enjoying W7 rather a lot. And of course, you'll have the DX10 option available in FSX, which is not something you can do in XP.
kilo delta
Charter Member 2015
Assuming you have a DX10 compatible graphics card
. Win7 is also DX11 ready....though that'll mean diddly-squat to us FSXers.
vora
Charter Member
My change from XP 32 to W7 64 brought a tremendous boost for FSX. Especially the "DX10 Preview" is a booster now... ca. 20 FPS more! And of course the OOMs and graphic spikes are a thing of the past.
Funnily enough a friend of mine who had changed from Vista to W7 also reports a big FPS boost in DX10 he never saw under Vista. Got me into thinking that maybe DX10 was a half-baked thing (like DX8) and DX11 should be really called DX10.1. That would explain why MS called the DX10 only a "preview" in FSX.
Of course you also have to take into consideration that whoever has changed to W7 now has a clean Win and FSX.
Funnily enough a friend of mine who had changed from Vista to W7 also reports a big FPS boost in DX10 he never saw under Vista. Got me into thinking that maybe DX10 was a half-baked thing (like DX8) and DX11 should be really called DX10.1. That would explain why MS called the DX10 only a "preview" in FSX.
Of course you also have to take into consideration that whoever has changed to W7 now has a clean Win and FSX.
R
raptor19
Guest
Windows 7 definitely boots faster and closes down significantly faster than Vista on my PC (Intel Q6600 processor and Nvidia 8800GTX Graphics). FSX seems to load quicker too although I have not noticed any appreciable difference in the running performance of FSX. In my humble opinion it is not as much of an update over Vista with SP2 as Microsoft claim but if you are considering an update then definitely go for Win 7. As for stability I never had any significant problems with Vista and seemingly also have none with Win 7. Be careful though if you have older software as some that worked on XP and Vista doesn't work on Win 7 (Roxio 10 for example). Thankfully this doesn't apply to FSX or FS9 which both appear to work fine. In fact I have even got IL2-46 running O.K.
My son has upgraded from XP to Win 7 on his older single core Athlon and reports that his frame rates with World Of Warcraft have decreased a bit but with no real visual impact. Microsoft have a Win 7 compatibility programme on their website, if in doubt download it and give it a try and it should hopefully notify you if you have any software or hardware compatibility issues.
raptor19 (JohnN)
My son has upgraded from XP to Win 7 on his older single core Athlon and reports that his frame rates with World Of Warcraft have decreased a bit but with no real visual impact. Microsoft have a Win 7 compatibility programme on their website, if in doubt download it and give it a try and it should hopefully notify you if you have any software or hardware compatibility issues.
raptor19 (JohnN)
SkippyBing
Charter Member
You can leave it in no problems, just make sure you point the W7 install at the right hard drive!!
I upgraded from XP/32 to W7/64 in November. A very good experience. FSX is smoother, and I can now use the Russian light bloom add-in without losing AA. Hardware: Q6600, 4gb RAM, Nvidia 8800GT (512mb).
Installing the new OS to a fresh hard drive is a good idea; you can move over at your own pace. W7 handles dual booting very smoothly, but if you do this be sure to make your W7 drive invisible to XP; otherwise, when XP boots, it will delete your W7 restore points. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185 and here http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/127417-system-restore-points-stop-xp-dual-boot-delete.html.
Installing the new OS to a fresh hard drive is a good idea; you can move over at your own pace. W7 handles dual booting very smoothly, but if you do this be sure to make your W7 drive invisible to XP; otherwise, when XP boots, it will delete your W7 restore points. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185 and here http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/127417-system-restore-points-stop-xp-dual-boot-delete.html.
modelr
SOH-CM-2025
I'm very happy with my Win7 Home Premium 64bit on my new machine. My XP SP3 registry was so over loaded when the system folder over loaded because it made EVERY entry go 4-6 folders deep, and MS reinstated a registry size limit, so any update or new load would come up with errors or ignore notifications. It made the system extremely slow. NONE of the registry fix programs, free or pay, looked at the system folder, and MS refused to see a problem. It sometimes took 15 minutes for XP to boot. FS was almost unflyable because of registry errors. NO complaints with Win 7, so far.
Well since nobody at my college will answer me until monday i guess ill ask around here, I put in the install disk and I get an error saying the install disk isnt compatible with my version of windows. I tried restarting and it never recognized the disk, just loaded up XP. Do I need to get a different version from the school or format and then install?
I've run the FSXmark benchmark with Fraps comparing FSX on XP 32 vs Win7 64 on the same machine (dual boot). The Win7 tests were much faster. The XP tests averaged something like 30fps. The Win7 tests averaged over 50fps. I believe that Doug Horton will have an article in an upcoming Computer Pilot that will compare FSX running with the various flavors of Windows.
Since I installed Win7 I haven't booted to XP in a long time.
Since I installed Win7 I haven't booted to XP in a long time.
Well I got FSX and Accel running in win7, now granted this is with bare bones basic install, no addons yet, but i had all sliders right except for autogen and water, and its butter smooth. The same settings even with water turned down still would have produced mediocre results on the same rig with xp. Also i have the framerate unlocked and im not getting stutters anymore with dx10 preview. Hopefully it keeps doing good as i add some payware and put my machine thru its paces.
I have found an issue with Win7 running FSX that I didnt encounter in Winxp, or it was at least less pronounced. When switching views, panning, or turning i get pauses in the game, as if it cant keep up with loading textures perhaps? My framerates are great, just these bad pauses. Now I read that Win7 64bit requires a minimum of 2 Gigs of ram, and thats what i currently have. Would I be correct in assuming only 2 gigs of ram is my culprit? Also I was considering buying an additional 4 Gig of ram to make a total of 6gig, but I saw somewhere this is useless with FSX because its a 32bit program, but would 6 gig be able to handle more stuff going on in Windows and thus free up a true 4 gig for FSX?? Sorry this is so drawn out I tend to ramble hahaha.
I'll try that when I get home. I used a third party defrag and it greatly improved the pauses. I'm still getting pauses but not as bad and some blurries, but they could have been caused by zooming over Los Angeles in my f16 at over 400kts haha. I still think I'm gonna get an additional 4 gig of ram