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Windows 7 vs. Vista: high-end graphics put to the test

Graphics

Published: Friday 27th March, 2009 | Author: Tarinder Sandhu
Companies: Gigabyte (All Gigabyte content), ATi Technologies (All ATi Technologies content), NVIDIA (All NVIDIA content), BFG Technologies (All BFG Technologies content)

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Next page: System setup and notes

Introduction

ATI rolled out a unified driver for Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 Beta last week, intimating Vista-matching performance for the new operating system whose release candidate is scheduled for the end of May 2009.

Windows 7 uses an updated driver model, WDDM v1.1, and ATI's confident that its drivers are up to scratch right now. We took a look at Vista and 7 performance on an ultra-high-end Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB card, finding that, in our gaming suite at least, ATI's claims were borne true.

Choosing the twin-GPU 'X2 as a worst-case driver scenario, comparing it against the GeForce GTX 295, ATI's performance was more consistent. However, these £300-plus cards are few and far between, so, today, we take another look at Vista vs. 7 performance, but with a Radeon HD 4870 1GB vs. GeForce GTX 260 896MB - with both cards now shipping at around £175.

Read on to find out who is better in the real enthusiast gaming space.

Next page: System setup and notes