Questions about VistaX64 optimizing and gaming.

[hobs0n]

I have always closed most demanding applications before I start demanding games and I wonder if this is really necessary with 4Gb of RAM, mulitcore CPUS and Vista these days? So far I havent really tested it so much, playing mostly WoW (which runs great as always) and Crysis (which always runs like crap hehe).

Are there any nice tweaks/optimisations for Vista X64 for gaming?

What ya pandas say?

[dawdler]

I havent closed down apps since I used a 700mhzer. On my current rather crummy X2 3800+ I've never closed apps before launching, but that's not on Vista... Its on a near year long WinXP installation with so much crap it literally stinks up the whole room.

[Crisler]

First you must understand that even in the XP days most of the so called tweaks where placeboes that produced little to no real gain, this continues today in Vista.

Multicore processing has come a long way in allowing real multi-taksing, by that I mean things like gaming and running other CPU intensive apps at the same time.

With 4 Gigs of RAM, a Q6600 and Vista 64 without doing an "tweaking" I have rendered DVDs while playing Supreme Commander and never saw a slow down at all. I have done backsups of my system while playing LOTRO and the system ran super. I have run virus scans while gaming with no slow down.

[hobs0n]

Ok that was the answer I was looking for, spanks!

[moshpit]

Multitasking while gaming is totally doable on the described system. Using Vista x64 and 4Gb on a quad core system, I commonly play SoaSE while Media Center is up and running on my secondary monitor. Firefox and MSN is also usually running as well so that I can do my normal daily stuffs. Virus scanner, utorrent, Everest and a few other things running in the background as well. The game runs totally smoothly while all this other stuff is going on. It's VERY nice to not have to shut stuff off while gaming.

[-n7-]

Let Vista do it's thing.

Seriously.

Unless it's a service you will absolutely never use & you are running a silly low amount of RAM like 512 MB in Vista, there's no need to start disabling services or anything.

Also, if you have dual displays you can watch Vista do its own optimizing when you launch a game.

As soon as you launch the game, Aero gets disabled, & you can watch Desktop Window Manager's RAM usage drop massively.

For this thread, i watched dwm.exe's RAM usage.
In Windows:
~ 150K
After game launched:
~3K

As i mentioned, Vista will handle things just fine on it's own

[moshpit]

As i mentioned, Vista will handle things just fine on it's own

This is the conclusion I've come to as well. Vista manages itself very nicely if you let it. Maybe I've just gotten spoiled

[Crisler]

This is the conclusion I've come to as well. Vista manages itself very nicely if you let it. Maybe I've just gotten spoiled

AHh the old days of tweaking the autoexec.bat and config.sys to get 1 more K of low mem. I miss those days os much, NOT! Nice to have an OS you just install and use.

[moshpit]

AHh the old days of tweaking the autoexec.bat and config.sys to get 1 more K of low mem. I miss those days os much, NOT! Nice to have an OS you just install and use.

That's how I feel about it. Other then the occasional driver update or windows hotfix, drive cleanup and defrag, the system takes care of itself without any needed interference from me, and that's how it should be.

[jimmt]

Multitasking while gaming is totally doable on the described system. Using Vista x64 and 4Gb on a quad core system, I commonly play SoaSE while Media Center is up and running on my secondary monitor. Firefox and MSN is also usually running as well so that I can do my normal daily stuffs. Virus scanner, utorrent, Everest and a few other things running in the background as well. The game runs totally smoothly while all this other stuff is going on. It's VERY nice to not have to shut stuff off while gaming.

I was able to do most these things on my Dual P4 Xeon 2.66mhz system with 2GB of ram.

I always have Outlook and MSN up as well as streaming movies. I even played DVD movies while gaming. I never bought into any of those tweaks.

[jimmt]

AHh the old days of tweaking the autoexec.bat and config.sys to get 1 more K of low mem. I miss those days os much, NOT! Nice to have an OS you just install and use.

Well, I miss them because the quality of engineers we are getting really don't know how to troubleshoot. You take a guy who had experience with Dos and games and you find a guy who can troubleshoot. You had to master your system back then.

[vinistois]

I found that disabling whatever services you don't need still helps bootup time, my system is responsive much sooner if I dont have everest, avg, etc etc launching at run-time.

Since most of us are OC'ing, spending time in the bios, installing new drivers often... think of how often you are rebooting and how annoying it is to sit there and wait while a bunch of useless stuff starts up.

but as far as gaming performance, the only thing I noticed is that Everest cpu usage shoots up to about 25% every 4 seconds or so, which can cause a slight lag in certain games, and also seems to lower benchmark cpu scores by a couple hundred points. It's actually enough to keep my cpu a couple degrees warmer at idle, which annoys me to no end. If I am not touching anything, and not doing anything, I want CPU usage to drop to zero, and stay there. If it does not, I find why and kill it.

Other than that, for sure with a quad core, I would have to agree that any effect is placebo and likely is making a negligible difference to gaming performance.

[benjy355]

For this thread, i watched dwm.exe's RAM usage.
In Windows:
~ 150K
After game launched:
~3K

OH MY GOD! 150,000mb?! (teehee)
I get 60mb! (Yes, dual monitors)

Btw, I don't think you have to do anything to optimize your system for multi-tasking while gaming, just when you play in window'd mode, I suggest disabling Aero manually. (Or compatibility options)

[hobs0n]

Damn I wish I had dual monitors, anyone know of a good desktop manager for multiple desktops? Im so used to litestep and blackbox with multiple desktops..