Vista to XP

[bLOODSAW]

My computer is currently running vista, and i plan on "upgrading" to XP. How much of a performance boost should i see with psu?

Current specs

Model:Compaq Presario F700 Notebook PC
Processor:AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobil Technology TL58 1.9 GHz
GPU:NVIDIA GeForce 7000M/nForce610M
RAM: 2 Gb

I know it's shitty, but it's all ive got. The only way i can run this game tolerably is at lowest settings, 640x480 and post effects turned off at frameskip 1.

Now This is on Windows Vista, and from what ive heard, this game runs much better on XP. In terms of graphics the only thing i really want to do is to be able to have post effects on.

Any idea how much of a performance boost i'll get by switching ot XP? (I'm doing this regardless im just wondering what to expect)

Also certain character expression faces make my game lag horribly. A freind who used to play the pc version said there was a way to stop faces from lagging your game. Anyone have any idea what he's talking about?

One more thing... what does anisotropic filtering do, and which is better for better framerate, on or off?

Any help will be greatly appreciated http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

[NikkiC]

I haven't used vista myself, so I can't really say what will be different if you go back to XP, but there's no harm in trying at least - if it doesn't turn out to be better you can always go back to vista. If I'm right, comparing your specs to my old system, the only thing letting you down is the graphics card. I used a 7300GT, and with post effects on it took a considerable performance hit. Then again, every card is different so maybe you'll have more luck.

As for the expressions, I can only assume you mean the cut in chat, in which case I think it would lie somewhere in the game's graphics options, but I have no idea which one. Try messing with some of the settings and see where it gets you. The LOD settings at the bottom do... something, not sure what, but higher number is better visuals, lower is better performance. Normal/compressed textures never seem to make any noticeable difference for me, but normal is better visuals (allegedly) and compressed is performance. Don't know about mipmap, can't even hazard a guess. Aniso filtering is sharpness of textures in the distance, so off is for performance.

I know I've only answered like 1/100 questions here, so in an effort to be more helpful I'll link this - http://www.nvhardpage.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=18
Basically it's a program that allows you to toy with some settings, but as a general rule try not to mess with something if you aren't sure of what it does. If you don't know what the setting is then google it or something and find a site that explains what it is. Hope this helps.

[AnnabellaRenee87]

You would be better off Running Windows Server 2008 and converting it to a Workstation.

http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/

Runs so much better than Vista and you can make it look and run/look like Vista if you really want too.

You can download a 60 day free trial from Microsoft.

[Sekani]

Switching OSes probably won't do you much good since the bottleneck is your video card; it's not really designed for 3D gaming. Leaving anisotropic filtering off will improve your framerate somewhat, but in the end you'll just have to curse Sonic Team for releasing such a horribly optimized game.

[Zos1396]

Playing around with the graphics settings is much easier than installing an operating system. Running both operating systems, i'll make the claim that they run psobb exactly the same minus a warning in vista.