Vista, does it really do this?

[edbert]

I am currently working on putting together a computer that will eventually run Vista, but I just thought I would let the bugs get worked out first instead of having to deal with it first hand. Out of curiousity, I have been looking around the internet reading reviews, tips, etc. about using Vista. I came across the PC Magazine article, Vista Made Easy, 50 tips and tricks (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2115471,00.asp), and decided to check it out. Everything seemed to be pretty good tips and didn't really show anything negative about Vista, just some work arounds to make it more pleasant on a day to day basis.

That is until I came across tip #40. Which reads,
"40. Gain Speed
Does Vista seem slower than XP to you? A default power setting in the "Power Saver" plan limits the CPU to 50 percent. Open the Power Options control panel and change it to "High Performance" to give it full throttle."

What?!?

Is this for real? Microsoft honestly thought that as a default it would be good to limit a processors power to 50%? Can someone currently running Vista verify this for me? I couldn't believe it when I read it and of course have no way to verify it myself.

Also, I may have read that all wrong. If someone would like to educate me on what that really means, then please do. At this point I am still glad to be sticking to XP Pro.

Thanks!

[dylan]

That sounds fishy to me. The help file says "What is the difference between a power plan and a power scheme?
There is no difference. In earlier versions of Windows, power plans were called power schemes."

If it is like the old power schemes, than it's mainly a group of 'when to turn the monitor off after inactivity, go in to hibernate, or go in to standby, etc'. I didn't see any impact on benchmarks before or after setting mine to high performance.

That being said, you're probably wise to wait a little bit to let bugs get worked out. I'm dual-booting Vista at work (I'm in IT) to see how it interacts with hardware, and its quirky. Sometimes parts of my taskbar disappear, my desktop will show through active windows, I jump through hoops to get my software to install, etc.

But more important (for my home machine anyway), there's seems to be little audio support for Vista even now. Industry standard companies like Creative Labs (sound blaster) and Turtle Beach are struggling with the changes in Vista audio. Check out Creative's message board for a bunch of PO'd people.

[sucks2beme]

That would be most likely for a mobile setting. Throttling down laptops
to save battery power is typical. I plan on avoiding Vista for a long time.

[liordra]

+1 on a laptop setting.
I'd wait until vista SP1, available ~ Q4 2007.

[dudeinaroom]

Yes the default is 50%. But that is when the computer is idle. It sometime takes vista a bit to realize that you are back at the computer. It's for power saving purposes, our computers now days eat a lot of it. A lot of the manufacturing companies are starting to make "green" components that are more energy friendly. I guess Microsofts way of doing it is to rob you of performance. I have copies of Ultimate in the 32 and 64 bit flavors, and will not install them until there is support for my capture card.

[edbert]

Okay, that makes more sense on the laptop settings and I can see it doing it while things aren't running. The way it was worded made it seem like that was an all the time setting.

Just curious, anyone know where I can buy a copy of XP Pro for a decent price?

[audiobliss]

Befriend a kid at a local college/university. I bought a few copies through such a friend for $10. :D

[Fireman32]

Wont buy Vista for quite a while. XP is working just fine for me.

[avguytx]

I, unfortunately, got stuck with it being on a new Gateway laptop. It's taking some getting used to. It's just like the Mac/PC commercials...too funny. I asked a buddy of mine at the place I bought it from and he said they (Gateway) would void warranty if Vista is taken off and XP put on. Oh well. I'll get it figured out one of these days. For now, I'll do what I can.

[sucks2beme]

One of the big guys(Dell?) just started offering XP as an option again.
MS is pushing this hard. I have never bought a name brand pc, so
that useless warranty crap never came into play.
At some point, OEM versions of XP will evaporate.
The OEM versions are available from a couple of places here in North
Texas. Big cost savings there.
Nothing like the OS costing more than the @#$%^ PC it's running on.