Win 7

[cyberpilot]

I'm seriously thinking of replacing Vista 64 with Win 7.

Two questions:

1. Is it worth it in terms of improving the overall performance of FSX/FTX?

2. Are there likely to be any issues with FTX when I install Win 7 and if so how should I deal with them?

Thanks,

Frank

[Wolter van der Spoel]

Hi Frank,

Can't comment about Vista as I do not have had that, what I can comment on is that W7 handles things a wee bit better/faster than XP, as for fsX from XP to W7 was a noticable improvement, not so much on the fps as on the smoothness and more snappy reaction of the sytem as a whole, at the end of the day things are quite dependant on the hardware you use, I myself have used the W7 Ultimate RC1 64 bit from the day it was released and I'm pretty chuffed with it, as for my system specs see under my sig, so mileage may vary from system to system.

[cyberpilot]

Thanks for that Wolter.

[Virtualwombat]

Don't expect to see any significant improvement in FSX by going from Vista 64 to W7 64. On the other hand, don't expect any problems either. It was the smoothest OS install I've ever made. You might take the opportunity of doing a clean install, which might give you a few frames over your current system.

Cheers,

Noel.

[Blitzer]

1. Is it worth it in terms of improving the overall performance of FSX/FTX?

2. Are there likely to be any issues with FTX when I install Win 7 and if so how should I deal with them?

Hi Frank,

1. I recently switched from Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit to Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit myself and to be honest my initial experience was that I was getting slightly worse performance than previously. However, once I'd reset and tweaked a few more things I would say the overall performance is very slightly better i.e. smoother flight than previously even though the FPS gives me about the same readings. Basically on my given hardware there is only a very slight improvement at best, but certainly no worse.

2. When I install Win 7 I also replaced my main HD and got another HD for installing FSX onto. I now have 3 1Tb in total but this give me plenty room for eveything and has allowed me to install the OS, normal programs, my documents, FSX (and add-ons) and areas set aside for backups all on and in different drives and partitions. When I done all this I documented the process in real time as it were and posted it in this thread - http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=15787.0

As a result the thread is a little long but it is a warts and all account of what I done with regards to what I installed, where and when I installed it, any problems I had or any silly mistakes I made along the way. It's quite along read but I hope worth reading if this is something you are considering doing - it may help you avoid the silly mistakes I made or remind you of something you might otherwise forget.

Personally, had I not needed to replace a faultly hard drive or unless I was upgrading my PC where an OS re-install woudl have been required I would have stuck with Vista until I upgraded. That said I do prefer Windows 7, finally Microsoft seemed to have created an OS where they are not throwing all these "helpful" features in your face by default like the side-bar that is using more resources etc. Like others have said it's also been the easiest installation of an OS that I have experienced - once the installation process had finished I had a fully working PC including all necessary drivers even if they then needed to be updated or replaced with more specific drivers. Overall Windows 7 is better IMO, although I would change due to an upgrade rather than just to get Win7 as I did not personally experience any great gain. HTH. 

[Nyxx]

I've also gone from Vista 64 to W7

Look at our W7 forums good info there.

But i did a little upgrade with W7 because I really wanted a very clean and hopyfully an improvement with it, so i bought to raptors and set them it RAID.

Very clean install on raptors

Defrag after adding anything more than 200mb

fsx runs smoother and because of the combo of the above now my textures load much faster and better than i have personly seen before.

So atm i would give W7 on RAID raptors 10/10 SSD would be faster but a LOT more money.

[cyberpilot]

Thanks guys, really appreciate your advice.

Might hold off on Win 7 for the time being.

[Sniper31]

I upgraded from Vista 64 to Win 7 many months ago (first Win 7 beta, then Win 7 RC) and have never looked back. EVERYTHING is smoother for me in Win 7, and I have had not one issue with driver's or software not working. It could not have been a more flawless experience for me. Also, I DO notice a nice improvement when it comes to FSX and Win 7 over Vista 64. I have not had to do any special tweaking to get things working either. Honestly, I can think of no reason to stay with Vista 64 now that Win 7 is available. That said, although Vista 64 was more of a resource hog than Win 7, I am not a Vista 'hater either, as Vista always performed fine for me.  In the end though, it comes down to the fact that Win 7 is simply a better OS than Vista---it installs faster, runs smoother and cleaner, is more stable, and runs everything that Vista and XP run. What's not to like about that?