Upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista?

I'm asking this here because it's not strictly entirely game-related, so that's why it's not in the Tech Issues part - and also I'm used to certain names from the EU boards providing reliable answers (*massages several egos*)

Anyhoo - I have had this really nice quad-core machine running Vista 64 with a NVidia Geforce 9400 GT for a few months now, and the sheer amounts of lag and rubber-banding have been really, really bad. SP2 appears to have imroved things, but it still has a habit of throwing laggy responses around at unfortunate and irritating moments. It seems worse than on my old, slower, XP/ATI machine. When it's not lagging, it looks lovely, but the persistent rubber-banding back to the start of the map just as you fire off your slow-recharge power on a boss, or running up the same flight of stairs 17 times in a row while Fury dissolves, is driving a requirement for a catalogue of new expletives.

So now I'm looking at Windows 7 and wondering if this will help. Would the new shiny make things all better? And if so, should I get the upgrade edition or the full edition? (They're both the same price, and it seems from what I've read that a clean instal and re-intallation of all my applications and setting etc will still be quicker than the 24-hour upgrade people have warned about).

Anyway - that's why I'm dipping my bucket in this well of crystal clear wisdom.

Can anyone offer an educated opinion? The future of my CoH gaming fun depends on it!

It's extremely unlikely that Vista is the cause of your lag. I've certainly never experienced anything like you describe and I use Vista x64 AND Windows 7 x64 RC. Both run sweet as a nut.

I'd be looking at some other cause for your lag, such as your ISP or perhaps a driver related issue.

Thanks FFM!

I've been assuming it was Vista because that's what people have told me before - but perhaps what they meant was that some driver somewhere isn't as happy under Vista as it's predecessor was under XP.

I've updated my graphics card drivers and upgraded Vista to Service Pack 2, which did make a big difference.

As far as you're aware, is it possible that some driver issues that may exist under Vista may improve under Win 7? I read now and again that they might, but I'm assuming that it's just not possible to know for sure because the specifics of each rig are going to be different.

But, as someone who has both Vista and Win 7, would you recommend Win 7 over Vista? And if so, upgrade or full install?

(I'm going to be buying it one way or another, so don't feel like you're telling me to spend my money - only I probably won't spend it just yet if I hear Win 7 is not a good idea )

Oh, I definitely approve of Win 7 over Vista. NEVER do an upgrade though. Microsoft have done a lot to improve that process, and it's generally fine these days; but really, if you're upgrading your OS, you want to start with as clean a slate as possible, so go from clean if you can.

Aside from the video driver model upgrade (which is being backported to Vista anyway), there are no driver differences between the two. A Vista x64 driver will work fine on Win7 x64. What MAY be the cause of your problem is something like motherboard/chipset drivers. It's probably a good idea to get those fully up to date, same for your audio drivers as well.

There are some changes to Win7's network stack that might help as well, but I don't actually notice any difference between the two OS's when it comes to network performance.

Thanks again

Motherboard, chipset drivers... erm? Maybe I need a book...

You can't actually upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista. It's part of the "we have to be mean to our users because the EU are mean to us" startegy which results in you not being able to buy a copy of Windows 7 with a browser in it.

Essentially, you will have to do a clean install of Windows 7. There is no upgrade mechanism in the EU disks, so you won't be upgrading, but installing all your software from scratch. The sop provided is that you get a 'full install' version of W7 for the price of an upgrade version. (Upgrade would normally be cheaper than full because you must have a copy of another Windows OS to perform the upgrade.)

I may get around to putting W7 on my PCs at some point because Vista is the modern version of Windows 98, but more annoying.

Today I installed my shiny new Windows 7 on my Vista 64 PC... and then I reinstalled Vista...

Seems Windows 7 doesn't work with Ralink RT61 chipset or the EDIMAX EW-7128g PCI card.... and neither have an update for Windows 7 yet. Windows 7 also fails to recognise the driver for my A3 scanner, and although knows that my printer is a printer, it doesn't know it's an Epson.

Now, after reinstalling Vista, I try launching CoH and the Updater wants to reinstall the whole shebang, and starts downloading 2.8 gigs...

Am I unlucky, cursed, or just plain dumb?

EDIT: The answer is, of course, plain old dumb. I'd forgotten to redirect the Updater to the correct directory...

I installed the RTM on my laptop/desktop a few months ago (MSDN FTW), and everything (including CoH) runs smooth as silk (aside from my laptop on the Mothership, but that's to be expected).

Desktop: GTS 250, 4gb ram, intel quad

Laptop: 9300m GS, 4gb ram, intel duo

And I *think* you can get around that 'upgrade' problem by installing a less than legal US version of Win7, but using your normal product key. Just a guess though.

Thanks for that, O

I'm also running 4 gig ram quad core, and what I've read is that the new RT61 drivers seem to have freezing up issues with this kind of set up - especially when combined with that PCI card. Neither Ralink nor Edimax have a Win7 driver on their sites (Ralink have even taken down the page for their RT61! )

I'm definitely no more than a simple layman when it comes to this stuff, so I'm happy to take your word for it that there's a way to make it all work. But because I'm just a simple layman I''m drawing a line under this for now - wasting a day moving files about, installing one OS then reinstalling the old... that's enough time wasted for me.

I'm sure Ralink and Edimax will update their drivers eventually - I'm more worried about my A3 scanner, which Win7 doesn't recognise: my Mustek cost £100, but to replace it would set me back maybe 5 or 6 times that much. And I only bought Win7 early to take advantage of the pre-order price

If I have to buy bits and bobs to make everything work nicely with my shiny Win7, I'll wait until I know what will make the beautiful-looking Going Rogue look and feel its best.