Is Win7 worthy? Probably not, but that means you could be also running W2K instead of XP.

The only difference that most likely will play a role here is DX10. Does your VGA or your planned VGA upgrade include DX10 support? Sooner or later, the answer will be - Yes.

Then, the right question should be: Why not Win7?

I pre-ordered Windows 7 a few months back.  My system is about a year old,NVidia I7 motherboard, duo core, 4 gigs of ram and a NVidia GTX 285 video card.  What I am worried about is, I run some older games, like IL2 Sturmovik 1946.  Will I still be able to still run these type of games?

 mm if i heard correctly w7 will have an xp compatible fonction

sorry dont recall the exact name but  w7 will work as xp work on that specific mode

get w7 64 bit is my advice

It's only Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate editions that have Windows XP mode, and not Home Premium, which is what most people would get.  Windows XP mode in Windows 7 uses virtualization, which is slower, but for an old enough game, that should be fine.  Perhaps more relevant is that the virtualization cannot do 3D graphics, though it does 2D gaming just fine. 

32-bit gaming shouldn't be a problem in 64-bit OS for Windows Vista or 7.  If it was pitch forks would have been raised when Windows Vista was released.

I am playing Star Wars Jedi Academy and Mechwarrior4  with no problems I am using Win7 Ultimate 64-bit on a Dell Inspiron 1720 with a Nvidia 8600 GT card 4gb of ram ....  You should be fine.

Although i cant get Cabal or 9Dragons to work  bu  WoW,  Aion, Champions Online, CoX, DDO, LOTR all work. There is very little reason to only have Win XP. Win 7 is much more practical. If you just want XP as a back up OS then dual boot Win 7 and XP.

I've been using the Windows 7 RC on two computers, and while it's a no brainer that my reasonably new gaming desktop is going to be able to handle it without issues, what's really more significant is just how well I've gotten it to run on older hardware. My notebook with 1.5GB of ram, a dual core 2ghz Turion 64, and a Geforce 6150 was able to run it beautifully, leaving enough resources left over to play any game that machine was ever able to handle under XP.

I expect that if DX11 lives up to promises, it'll become widely adopted before too long with newer titles, and with potentially large performance gains from the new API, that'll be good reason for people to get away from XP if they have compatible hardware (which most of us should given that any DX10 GPU should be DX11 compliant from what's being said).

Bumping an old thread to see if we can get any updated feedback on win7 since the official retail release. 

My HD crapped out a few days ago and I couldn't find my xp Pro disc, so I've taken the plunge and ordered win7 64bit home premium and 4gigs of memory (upped from the 2gig i was running on xp).  Also have a dx10 compatible vid card and a dual core processor.  Hows things going with win7?  More specifically, hows the driver scene out there? 

I have been using Win7 since the early beta builds and its now my favorite OS beating XP because of features. All the features of vista + some also the same if not faster speeds than xp. Gota love it :)

Drivers are not a problem. I have never had problems finding drivers for windows 7. All the big companies have been very up too speed and I would be shocked if you cant find windows 7 drivers anywhere. How ever if you cannot find win7 drivers the vista ones work fine.

If you don't have any real needs for upgrade (more memory or dx10/dx11 etc) I wouldn't spend my money on it. However if you even have one of these, go for it. Drivers are fine, and some minor parts which don't have own w7 drivers, can use vista drivers as they work as well in w7. 

Time to give up  the XP and get the WIN7.. you wont regret the upgrade.

If XP isn't giving you any problems I would stick with it. If my hard drive ever crashes I might just go back to XP, I'm using Vista Ultimate 32bit right now.

 You're going to have to switch to 7 pretty soon. (Oh, and I've used both Vista Ultimate 64 and Win 7 Ultimate 64 and 7 blows Vista and XP out of the water) MS is going to stop supporting XP pretty soon. If you have a multi-core, then 7 will handle the processor much much better than XP, however, I woul recommed 4 gigs of ram

personally upgrade to 4gb Ram and upgrade to Windows 7 in my opinion.  I have got Windows 7 64 bit and its far better then Vista in every shape and form.  However, if you're upgraded from XP then i would say upgrade if your hardware is new, which yours does seem to be, it is better then XP for general desktop and internet use in my opinion. 

the only downside of Windows 7 i've really noticed is software support, you may find some of your older applications that work fine under XP may not be compatible with Windows 7, but most software can be patched, so its not really an issue, just means you need to do some afk patch downloading while you drink a cup of coffee or watch the TV.

oh one last thought for you, MS will stop supporting XP pretty soon, so you will need to upgrade at some point, and unlike other Windows releases, Windows 7 seems to be the most stable, well released version ever in my opinion.

Windows 7 

Originally posted by Merlin1977

personally upgrade to 4gb Ram and upgrade to Windows 7 in my opinion.  I have got Windows 7 64 bit and its far better then Vista in every shape and form.  However, if you're upgraded from XP then i would say upgrade if your hardware is new, which yours does seem to be, it is better then XP for general desktop and internet use in my opinion. 

 

the only downside of Windows 7 i've really noticed is software support, you may find some of your older applications that work fine under XP may not be compatible with Windows 7, but most software can be patched, so its not really an issue, just means you need to do some afk patch downloading while you drink a cup of coffee or watch the TV.

 

oh one last thought for you, MS will stop supporting XP pretty soon, so you will need to upgrade at some point, and unlike other Windows releases, Windows 7 seems to be the most stable, well released version ever in my opinion.

Agreed on all counts, 7 is the way to go by far.

No advantages, lots of disadvantages to running Win7 today.  If DX11 takes off and offers something DX9 doesn't without needing top of the food chain gear... then we can talk.  Be at least 2011 before MMOs and Win7 see each other.  If you had an i7 system and low quality of life expectations Win7 may be worthwhile today.

Personally I'm evalutating it at home for our corporate requirements and no I wouldn't be running it otherwise.

 If you plan to do anything...and I mean *anything* with this system aside from gaming, go for Win7.  If you want a glorified Wintendo...get an xbox.  Championing the usage of a nearly-decade old OS is laughable.

Windows 7, but give it a while until the driver support is established.

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Originally posted by thinktank001
Windows 7, but give it a while until the driver support is established.

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You can use Vista drivers for Win7 so pretty much set in that regard.

Windows 7 all the way. Finally nice to see an operating system on par with Apples new one. If only Microsoft didn't screw up vista.....

I'm getting ready to get 7.  Nvidia just released a free 3D driver and all you need is a pair of ordinary red/blue glasses to get the 3D effect.

If you had a poll, it'd be 99% "Get Windows 7" right about now.

Win7 is awesome.

Support for some of the older peripherals has gone. No way to get an old scanner I had working...but then that never worked under Vista either. Apart from that and a network driver issue that neither MS or Realtek seem able to sort out, I've had no problems. Setting up was easier than any earlier version of Windows and everything, apart from the old scanner and the network card whch has to be reset every time I start the machine, has worked perfectly from day one.

Takes a bit of getting used to after XP but those people saying you should wait for at least a year before getting it so the problems can be ironed out are conveniently forgetting that it has already been out in the wild being tested by thousands of people for *ages*.

I don't regret changing to Windows 7.

 Personally I am running Vista 64-bit, I am really happy with my current set-up. I probably won't switch to 7 until I am at a disadvantage using Vista, I have 6 GB memory so I have some to spare even tho Vista is a hog. 

For you, I think that it is safe for you to upgrade to 7. XP is getting to the point to be out-dated. Like stated before in this thread pending on what your system, still think you should upgrade. Hope this helps.