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Computer Discussion => Operating Systems => Topic started by: Chandler on January 09, 2009, 16:28 hrs

Title: Wow, Vista is quick...
Post by: Chandler on January 09, 2009, 16:28 hrs
...if you leave it "booted" and don't shut down or use hibernate.

I have begun to appreciate just how well Vista performs compared to XP on the same PC, given enough RAM (and this is the biggest factor in my opinion).  With plenty of RAM, Vista will use as much as possible to cache as many programs as possible and the result is that even large programs load up almost instantly.  Programs start much faster on Vista compared to XP.

I know that shutting down and booting back up will mean it has to recache everything after rebooting (along with the associated heavy disk usage) but what I didn't realise until recently is that hibernating will do the same thing. 

I've always used hibernate going back to XP, because the standard sleep is not "safe" in the event of power loss.  If the power goes off while the system is in sleep it's as if the power is lost while the system is running - any open documents are lost.  Vista offers hybrid sleep which gives you standby, but it also creates the hibernate file in case the power is lost.

So now I use hybrid sleep.  This way everything stays in memory, and the system sleeps without removing everything from memory.  The active memory (minus the cache) appears to be what goes into the hiberfile, but that's just there as a safety net in case power is lost.  If power IS lost during hybrid sleep, all you lose is the cache and this will be rebuilt when the system comes back up again.

Best of all is that sleep (S3) doesn't appear to use much more power than hibernate.  In my opinion, the availability of Superfetch along with superior power management are the main reasons to upgrade to Vista.  Aero gives advantages too - not because of the fancy effects, but because it's 3D accelerated and again performs better than the slow GDI+ on XP.  XP can tear like mad with 2D desktop whereas Vista is silky smooth.  I couldn't care less (http://incompetech.com/gallimaufry/care_less.html) about whether or not my windows are semi transparent, but at least they can be without incurring a performance hit.
Title: Re: Wow, Vista is quick...
Post by: Mark H on January 09, 2009, 16:48 hrs
I really like Windows Vista 64, which seems to go against the main stream.

Mark H
Title: Re: Wow, Vista is quick...
Post by: Buffalo2102 on January 10, 2009, 03:43 hrs
I do too.  I've been using it as my primary OS for some time now.

Buff
Title: Re: Wow, Vista is quick...
Post by: pat on January 10, 2009, 10:52 hrs
I also use the sleep feature instead of always turning off system. The one problem with my system though is the bright blue LED on the front of my case that flashes when the system is in standby. Dang, that thing is so bright it lights up the room. Same thing on my monitor, these blue LED lights are just way too bright. I like the green ones better.

And yeah, Vista works great for me.
Title: Re: Wow, Vista is quick...
Post by: Chandler on January 10, 2009, 11:00 hrs
Yes, blue LEDs are far too bright.  It's as if ever since they discovered how to make high brightness blue LEDs cheaply, manufacturers feel that they have to put them in everything.  The worst offenders are monitors - I want to be able to see the image on the screen and not be blinded by some silly light.  One could argue that we don't need an LED on something like a monitor anyway!  I find that if they are easy enough to get to, a bit of "colouring in" work with a felt tip pen solves the problem (assuming that they are behind a light pipe type thing).
Title: Re: Wow, Vista is quick...
Post by: halokid on January 26, 2009, 21:06 hrs
I must say that since ram has been so cheap as of late and Mobos have been supporting more and more amounts of it, the once thought to be bloated "vista" runs  pretty well with the right amount of ram. I think that vista came out too early ( some would say too late) as far as hardware/software performance is concerned. The hardware to run it smoothly at first seemed to be reserved more for the pc hardcore/enthusiast crowd spending xxxx amount of dollars. Now it feels much more mid-range.

But i have yet to get vista as i am a Hardcore gamer who has a sour taste in my mouth from them trying to make dx 10 exclusive to vista when it can easily be incorperated into xp ... HOW DARE THEY!
Title: Re: Wow, Vista is quick...
Post by: Mark H on February 14, 2009, 19:24 hrs
With Vista 32 on the laptop, Vista 64 on my photo machine and a trial install of Vista 64 on our main PC, I found that it seems to use around 50% of the available memory.

On the laptop and our main machine, it used about 1 GB out of 2 GB when checking performance on task manager. On the photo machine, it uses about 2 GB out of 4 GB. As a result, memory is important and I would recommend 2 GB when using Vista unless you use Photoshop CS3 or something similar that likes RAM (then I would go to 4 GB). In a nutshell, 2 GB seems fine for Vista 32 or Vista 64 in my opinion.

Mark H