xp pro to vista ultimate 64bit

[oldtimer1949]

hello all, this is my first post on this forum, anyway, i have been running xp pro and decided to try vista ultimate 64bit. the installation went very smoothly. i immediately loaded super pi and 3dmark06 to compare benchmark scores with xp pro. i was surprised to see that the vista scores were 10 to 15% slower. i loaded the latest gpu drivers and loaded the motherboard drivers from the installation disk.

should vista score less than xp pro or is there something i can do to correct this. please remember that i know very little about the vista or xp for that matter.

thanks

 

[joel406]

Wellcome to the forums oldtimer1949.

Vista is a a new system from the ground up, and does use more resorces then XP.

If your laptop had XP preloaded prehaps it could use a boost in the RAM department. You can see how much RAM your system currently has by right clicking on computer in the start menu and selecting properties. If you have 1gig or less an upgrade would be the first place to start.

You should also limit the amount of programs that start up everytime Vista does to the ones you need. Like AV and such. Open defender and select the tools option and open software explorer to see what programs are starting with Vista and disable any unnessasary ones that can eat at your systems resorces.

But dont expect Vista to run as fast or faster then XP on the same hardware as you ran XP. Vista Ultimate x64 is the top shelf OS and as such demands a little more power then XP.

I ran XP with a hypertreaded P4 CPU and 512mb of ram and it ran great.

Now I use a Core 2 duo with 6gigs of DDR2. Its the bomb. Its faster then XP ever was but I also have 10X more power. Combinded with the video card.

I often wonder how XP would run with this kinda power, then I remember XP. And go happily back to Vista.

Tell us your specs or make and model of your laptop and we will try and help you decide if an upgrade will help.

Again welcome.

 

[oldtimer1949]

joel, thanks for the reply. you can see my system in 'my system" specs. sorry i did not mention that.

 

[joel406]

Thats my bad. I have my nose in computers all day and when I'm at home I tend to divide my attention.

 

[joel406]

Looking at those specs you should be screaming.

Are you haveing problems with performance?

Sure XP will run faster on this setup, but Vista should perform on par, and in many cases better.

How many processes are running? What AV are you useing? What firewall? What programs are running?

When will I stop saying "what"?

 

[oldtimer1949]

no performance problems that i know of, just slower than xp. if that is to be expected, than that is fine. just making sure all is well. the only other program running would be core temp. i am using the vista default firewall and i don't know what av is. i was wondering if there might be something that i am missing. i love the features in vista but all the security will take a little time to get use to.

 

[joel406]

Antivirus programs can be a big spoonge when it comes to performance. If you have (god forbid) Norton, you would pay in spades with performance.

The Vista default firewall is fine. Heres what I use and I stay bug free and so does my family.

AV is NOD32. Its the best there is. And to all the future flamers...get over it!
Firewall I use Comodo free version. Without the AV.
I layer those with Malwarebytes antimalware, a-squared, spybot S&D and Boclean from the comodo team. And of course defender is there by default.

And of course a router(3 of em).

oldtimer you really should be moving like greased lighning. If your system doesnt feel as snappy as XP, and it really should run better. I would check all drivers, check for motherboard BIOS updates and maybe run a memtest86 check and possibly a PC Doctor check from a Hirens disc. I really doubt you have a hardware problem, just probably a configuration issue. If it were only on my bench I could be of more help.

 

[johngalt]

Wow - I use Symantec Endpoint Protection, and UAC....

And a Cable Modem router. All that layering BS is not nearly as applicable to Vista is you let UAC do what it was designed to do...between that and the better (perhaps even effective?) use of permissions and ownership make Vista a lot less needy in terms of layered hex....

 

[oldtimer1949]

super pi scores are close but 3dmark06 went from 16000 with xp to 15000 with vista.

btw, i have no antivirus running yet.

 

[bruce2]

Hi oldtimer1949, welcome to the board.

Really interest to hear the bench mark result again after may be a week. This may not be the factor, but Vista does need some time to sort itself out such as indexing.

Enjoy and post back.

 

[coolnewyorker]

Or sometimes it simply takes a few start ups and reboots for a new OS to acclimate to all your set ups. See, if built in [C:] defrag helps. And then try registry re-alignment with Auslogic Registry defrag.

Maybe you might start from start before we all get carried away with advanced measures: Start > Control Panel > Performance and Informations. Here, at the left panel are topics on all the basic measures that can improve Vista performance.

But Auslogic Registry defrag is not there. I think it's a third party program.

 

[oldtimer1949]

all of my performance sub scores are 5.9. i have only installed drivers and some benchmarks so the registry should be clean but i will try defrag on the c: drive.

btw, my c: drive is a 32g raptor so i would like to put the my documents folder on my d: drive. can i move this to the d: and will windows look for it on the d: drive for pictures, videos, ect exactly the way it does if it were on the c: drive?

 

[johngalt]

In Vista, it is relatively easy to do so. And this will make it pretty permanent, with 99% of all applications working with it.

see http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html

 

[oldtimer1949]

In Vista, it is relatively easy to do so. And this will make it pretty permanent, with 99% of all applications working with it.

see http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html

thank you so much!

 

[johngalt]

FWIW - I do this all the time - I have all those special folders on a completely separate HD - so if I need to reinstall, it is just a matter of reinstalling the OS and the apps, not having to copy my files to a different location, then formatting, then installing, then copying the files back.

This set up makes fixing problems a *lot* easier because all of my downloads, documents, pictures, etc are never affected by an OS reinstall. After installation, of course, I just use that method to move all those special folders to the other drive.

Also, it makes it easier to share the same folder for documents, downloads, etc across multiple OSs - I have both Vista and Windows 7 using the same set of folders, making my life now three times as easy. In fact, I have extended this idea to my browser profiles and my Thunderbird profile as well - so installation of a new version of Fx / a test version of Fx / a new version of TB is easy as pie - I install, then point it to the existing folder on another drive, and presto, I am back as if I had never uninstalled Fx - same old bookmarks, settings, the whole nine yards.

Just a word of advice though - if you move *all* of them, move the Links folder *last* - cause it updates the system links to point to the new location, and moving it and then moving a different folder might not update the link for that particular folder.

 

[oldtimer1949]

FWIW - I do this all the time - I have all those special folders on a completely separate HD - so if I need to reinstall, it is just a matter of reinstalling the OS and the apps, not having to copy my files to a different location, then formatting, then installing, then copying the files back.

This set up makes fixing problems a *lot* easier because all of my downloads, documents, pictures, etc are never affected by an OS reinstall. After installation, of course, I just use that method to move all those special folders to the other drive.

Also, it makes it easier to share the same folder for documents, downloads, etc across multiple OSs - I have both Vista and Windows 7 using the same set of folders, making my life now three times as easy. In fact, I have extended this idea to my browser profiles and my Thunderbird profile as well - so installation of a new version of Fx / a test version of Fx / a new version of TB is easy as pie - I install, then point it to the existing folder on another drive, and presto, I am back as if I had never uninstalled Fx - same old bookmarks, settings, the whole nine yards.

Just a word of advice though - if you move *all* of them, move the Links folder *last* - cause it updates the system links to point to the new location, and moving it and then moving a different folder might not update the link for that particular folder.

roger that, thanks again!