Thread: Operating System for Gaming

So right now I'm using Windows 7. I recently got myself a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 and I can barely run it and have fun playing it because of all the lag. I know that since I'm only running 1 gig of ram that nothing is really gonna run perfect, but I'm just wondering if Windows XP would run games better than Windows 7.

Don't say "buy more ram" because I would've already done that if I had the money, and I won't be getting any money for a good while.

What kind of computer do you have?

A Compaq Presario SR5254X

Just save money and buy a new computer...Jesus that thing is outdated. You could build an infinitely better system for 700 bucks. I know this isn't the answer you are looking for, but if you build your own system you can get a much better computer for very cheap.


Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive


MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Rosewill DESTROYER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan

LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1333LV4GK

Antec earthwatts EA500 500W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply


AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ965FBGMBOX

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard




Subtotal: $724.93

not bad. That would run any game you want and would feel 1000x faster than what you currently have. Assuming you live with your parents and have a summer job you could buy that thing after a month of saving.

Just save money and buy a new computer...Jesus that thing is outdated. You could build an infinitely better system for 700 bucks.

Originally Posted by Tyler

Don't say "buy more ram" because I would've already done that if I had the money, and I won't be getting any money for a good while.

Yea... since when is a computer cheaper than RAM... jeeziz
I think he knows that getting a new computer would help.


Anyways, Tyler, there is a possibility that it could run better on XP.
What I think you should do is dual boot XP, so that if that fails, you will still have your old Win7.

Originally Posted by slash112

Yea... since when is a computer cheaper than RAM... jeeziz
I think he knows that getting a new computer would help.


Anyways, Tyler, there is a possibility that it could run better on XP.
What I think you should do is dual boot XP, so that if that fails, you will still have your old Win7.

Changing his OS won't make a noticeable difference.

Dual-boot? I'm pretty sure further reducing hard drive space wouldn't be all that wise...yeah, it's likely to be more an issue of RAM, graphics card, and processor speed. Probably time for a full-system upgrade, sad to say. Alternately, if you want to try and squeeze out a tiny bit more power, you could boot in safe mode, which will turn off all unnecessary programs, including things like resource-hogging display programs. That should free up some resources. To get into safe mode, restart the computer and immediately start hammering on F8 (probably). If you get to the login screen, try again.

XP won't be enough, you need to switch to Windows 95.

Or buy more RAM.

With a system like that, changing the OS won't be much of a difference on newer games like Left 4 dead 2. You might be able to get a bit of performance increase, but not a whole lot. If you want to play new games like Left 4 dead 2 I'm afraid the only thing that's gonna give you a worthy performance increase (with a system like you've got) is a full upgrade. I'm not even sure extra RAM will take you all that much further since the rest of your equipment will bottleneck it ( that is to say, if free memory is indeed a problem for the game, you might reduce lag and increase your FPS, but it still wouldn't be running at awesome speeds with the rest of the system being outdated ). Still, upgrading your RAM is the cheapest way to gain extra performance boost, not really disagreeing there, even though you didn't want to hear that there really isn't much else to suggest, and even with that suggestion I'm still doubting it'll do you all that much good.

What settings are you running the game on? And have you tried toning down all the visual effects in Windows 7? There's a lot of ways to squeeze out some additional performance by altering the Windows configurations ( and a lot of guides on it, too )

Originally Posted by Mario92

Alternately, if you want to try and squeeze out a tiny bit more power, you could boot in safe mode, which will turn off all unnecessary programs, including things like resource-hogging display programs. That should free up some resources. To get into safe mode, restart the computer and immediately start hammering on F8 (probably). If you get to the login screen, try again.

Don't think that's a good idea. When you boot in safe mode, windows only uses generic drivers, so your graphics card won't perform as good.

Kill all processes running above 30,000kb in your Task Manager.
This helps quite a bit trust me. Limewire is a huge cause of loss of performance in your computer because it takes up 300,000kb.

-CV

Originally Posted by ClearView

Kill all processes running above 30,000kb in your Task Manager.
This helps quite a bit trust me. Limewire is a huge cause of loss of performance in your computer because it takes up 300,000kb.

-CV

Limewire is a huge cause of loss of performance in your computer, because it absolutely destroys it.

Okay guys, thanks.
I guess I'll try to get a job this summer and buy myself a better computer.

Originally Posted by Marvo

Limewire is a huge cause of loss of performance in your computer, because it absolutely destroys it.

That's why I use torrents now

Originally Posted by Tyler

Okay guys, thanks.
I guess I'll try to get a job this summer and buy myself a better computer.

That's why I use torrents now

Unless you're on a private tracker, there's really no way you can say that torrents are safer. Limewire is going to go down soon though, since the guy behind it finally got busted. Guess all the kid pirates will have to migrate torrents.

Fun fact, the recording companies want him to pay some ridiculous amount of money for each supposed illegal file download. Some quick looks at numbers reveals that the guy is gonna have to pay, at least, several hundreds of trillions of dollars.

Good times!

Torrents are great. Get all the music from all your favorite artists in one go. I'm not advertising here, or hoping I'm not breaking the rules, but I use a great torrent site called " www,DV doesn't allow discussion of torrent/warrez material or pirating,com " ~ MementoMori. Its a great website, no viruses, and lots of seeders. Average seeder to leecher ratio = 5:1

-CV

Originally Posted by ClearView

Torrents are great. Get all the music from all your favorite artists in one go. I'm not advertising here, or hoping I'm not breaking the rules, but I use a great torrent site called.......... Its a great website, no viruses, and lots of seeders. Average seeder to leecher ratio = 5:1

-CV

Yeah, I'm pretty sure such talk/advertising isn't allowed D:

Originally Posted by khh

Don't think that's a good idea. When you boot in safe mode, windows only uses generic drivers, so your graphics card won't perform as good.

I'm fairly sure that there's a way to configure what drivers/programs load in safe mode. Add the graphics card driver, and you're good to go.

Originally Posted by ClearView

Torrents are great. Get all the music from all your favorite artists in one go. I'm not advertising here, or hoping I'm not breaking the rules, but I use a great torrent site called NOT ALLOWED ON DV ~ MementoMori. Its a great website, no viruses, and lots of seeders. Average seeder to leecher ratio = 5:1

-CV

With something as heavily monitored as music, I prefer using youtube or last.fm or Pandora or any other number of sources...for everything else, there's pirate bay. And don't forget about having a very good proxy.

Sorry if I broke the rules or something in that matter.. Just recommending a site for other people.. Mods delete if you wish, and those who want the link after viewing the post or what not PM me or contact me by other means.. -> This is still advertising it, if you wish to discuss such topics please do so away from this discussion board thanks ~MementoMori

-CV

Originally Posted by Tyler

So right now I'm using Windows 7. I recently got myself a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 and I can barely run it and have fun playing it because of all the lag. I know that since I'm only running 1 gig of ram that nothing is really gonna run perfect, but I'm just wondering if Windows XP would run games better than Windows 7.

Don't say "buy more ram" because I would've already done that if I had the money, and I won't be getting any money for a good while.

I run 1 gig of ram on one of my desktops and I can run L4D fine on native res with lowest graphics settings. Try Tinyxp. The torrent is easy to find and as long as you own a legal XP license it's not illegal. Tinyxp has sped the hell out of of a lot of apps I run.

Posts violating the rules have been edited
Now you know the rule on that subject, happy posting my friend.


Also, Tyler, kill everything but the essentials that you need running. Even explorer (make sure you have the game already running) so that the only things running are what you need for the computer to operate and the game... i would do this on mt parents ancient computer and i could run GW with no prob whatsoever... i donno how much of a boost it will provide but it should help quite a bit. Good luck!

Thanks for correcting me Memento. Sorry about any trouble, I wasn't quite sure with the rules on warez and things of that matter.

-CV

np, now you know the rules, and there's no trouble other than what i briefly cleared up. back on topic shall we go? lol