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

by Tarinder Sandhu on 27 March 2009, 21:41

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376), ATi Technologies (NYSE:AMD), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), BFG Technologies

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qarly

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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.

 

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