Windows Vista On Hand

I recently picked up a copy of Vista Beta 2 to play around with on a couple different machines. I've used several versions from Beta 1 on up to the various CTP's that have been released to this point, but the public release of Beta 2 means that the product is just about done. There will probably be a release candidate 1 and 2 after this, and then the retail version should ship out to manufacturers by the end of December. With my earlier piece describing what you want in a PC today, I felt an update would be good.

First off, there are two ways to use Vista: first is with Aero Glass and second is just plain Aero. Once you see Aero Glass in action, you'll probably want to have the ability to run it. It's just freaking cool. Without a video to show it in action, it's hard to really give you the idea of what a great User Interface Microsoft has put together for us. Windows kind of spin down to the taskbar when you minimize them. When you want it back up, it's a quick pop back up. On one system I installed the software in, the movements were silky and very nice, on the other, not so much.

Just to recap, Microsoft currently requires a modern 1.0ghz CPU for Vista Premium. After watching the beating that was put on my Athlon 64 at 2.6ghz (a tick above 4000+ model rating), I highly recommend a dual-core CPU. My system was literaly stopped dead a few times while just listening to music and surfing the web. With the extra core to take the overhead, you'll have one left to use for real work.

Microsoft also requires 1GB of system memory. Both systems I used have a lowly gigabyte of RAM, and it really should be 2GB for this system. Vista is a huge OS, using up about 50% of my memory constantly. I've seen the usage go up as high as 75%, and I think that included the 1.5GB page file. Whether or not Vista utilizes all of your memory any better than XP did is still to be seen, but having the extra will always be a good idea, especially if you are going to be running Office 2007.

The last requirement that we really need to worry about is the "graphics processor that runs Windows Aero" bit. Just below is 128MB of graphics memory. The main difference between the two systems that I used was the graphics processor, and man, it's a big one. In one system an integrated GeForce 6150 was used, the highest end of the integrated GPU spectrum, with 128MB of shared memory. The other has a GeForce 6800 with 256MB of memory. Both cards are from the same generation, with the 6150 being significantly cut down with much slower memory and a fraction of the pixel pipelines of the 6800. On the 6800, everything was silky smooth, however with the 6150 things are choppy. It's not quite a disaster, but it's annoying to see one system run smooth and the other not.

One reason why the 6150 system ran so much slower is the monitor that was used with it. It was a 17" LCD panel with a native resolution of 1280x1024. That's a whopping 1.3 megapixels, and probably too much for a 128MB frame buffer. At 1024x768 or lower, things would probably smooth out a bit, but Vista is really designed for widescreen monitors anyways, at a 1280x720 or higher resolution. You can tell that when Sidebar is set to stay on top, everything looks out of whack on a 4:3 display.

You may have thought it was all bad news, but wait... there is something good to come from this: Vista is remarkably stable so far. Previous builds were about as buggy as you would expect beta Windows to be, but Beta 2 has surpassed my hopes so far. If it wasn't for an issue with my LCD HDTV not hooking up right, I would probably be using it on a 24/7 basis at home. There are some other little things, like the network connection likes to drop out every now and then, and sound controls are less than stellar, but things will get better with time. The fact is, the redesigned device driver model is working great. Where in XP you would see a blue screen and a reboot, now you just simply hear the device being unhooked and reinstalled, all automagically.

So you may need to get a new machine to run this beast, but if you have the performance, you'll be very happy. Now if I can just get this TV hooked up, I'll be very happy.