WoW + Vista = ????
by Barb Dybwad 
Jan 30th 2007 at 3:40PM
So Microsoft had a little launch of its own yesterday (why can't they do these things at midnight like normal people?), and reader Scott Harris wrote in with a relevant question: "Has anyone tried to see how compatible WoW is with Windows Vista?" If the above banner snagged at CES is any indication, the fun is only beginning -- then again, something tells me they weren't thinking about Warcraft.
I'm not gonna lie -- I have zero plans to upgrade my XP box to Vista anytime soon, mostly because I'm primarily a Mac person (yes, flame on, people, flame on) and the thought of doing the upgrade to the only Windows box in the house sounds about as fun as major surgery to me. However, the trusty intertubes contain some accounts of compatibility, and so far the reports are mixed:
- WoW + Vista = poor frame rates.
- No way n00b, it's totally faster!
- l2computerz people, Vista really has no effect on WoW performance.
P.S. If you want to snag a free copy, get your Need Roll in over at Download Squad.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Tyson Jan 25th 2008 1:25AM
I have installed wow and bc but when i try to get to the login screen this message in a white box comes up it sais something about error # 134 fatal condition or some crap.
i am running vista. please tell me if you no how to fix me problem my hotmail is wowroks@hotmail.com.
thanks
squeaky4590 Jan 29th 2008 12:34PM
I am running WOW on Vista Ultimate 32bit w/4 gb ram. It seems to run fine for about 1 hour then locks up. My graphics card is PNY 512 Nvidia Gforce.
BananaFish Feb 26th 2008 2:00PM
Well I was browsing the interweb for a solution to my issues and came across this little post. Now windows Vista may not directly slow down your gameplay directly but...
Specs:
CPU: AMD64 3500+
RAM: 4x512mb (2Gigs)
GFX Card: Geforce 8800 GT OC
Last week I was running windows x64 playing wow my typical framerate would be in the 90s, in a major city anywhere from 30-60 (depending on time of day) and around 30fps when raiding (same frame rates in kara as gruuls).
This week I did a complete reformat, closed my eyes, crossed my fingers and decided to give 64 bit vista a shot. Now its possible that the nvidia drivers for 64 bit vista are not as bug free as win x64 however I have experienced a significant decrease in Blue Screen of death crashes, Direct X you have to reboot your computer because the proper drivers can't be loaded anymore errors >.
BananaFish Feb 26th 2008 3:58PM
Well I was browsing the interweb for a solution to my issues and came across this little post. Now windows Vista may not directly slow down your gameplay directly but...
Specs:
CPU: AMD64 3500+
RAM: 4x512mb (2Gigs)
GFX Card: Geforce 8800 GT OC
Last week I was running windows x64 playing wow my typical framerate would be in the 90s, in a major city anywhere from 30-60 (depending on time of day) and around 30fps when raiding (same frame rates in kara as gruuls).
This week I did a complete reformat, closed my eyes, crossed my fingers and decided to give 64 bit vista a shot. Now its possible that the nvidia drivers for 64 bit vista are not as bug free as win x64 however I have experienced a significant decrease in Blue Screen of death crashes, Direct X you have to reboot your computer because the proper drivers can't be loaded anymore errors >.
Josh Mar 2nd 2008 5:46AM
Yeah I HAD WoW on vista, but My computer was freezing alot & well I only ever played it on Vista, but yeah I know it shouldn't have been going crazy, but it did, sooo I uninstalled WoW, & guess what! My computer works now! ( I hate this damn thing!)
BUT I'm getting XP back if it's better for WoW!!!
Tim Fox Apr 2nd 2008 10:02PM
When I went from XP Home to Vista Ultimate, I upgraded from 1 gig of ram to 3 gigs, and from a 4200 RPM HD to a 5400 RPM HD.
Overall Vista seems faster, but my framerates have dropped over 50%. WoW is now almost unplayable with the graphic settings turned all the way down, where it was awesome with the graphic settings turned all the way up in XP.
argxry Apr 9th 2008 5:31PM
well when i try using blizzard downloader to download patches it gets to about 15% and then stops and stays on 15% for ever :( its realy annoying me
i hate windows vista
HauntedWebby Apr 25th 2008 11:24AM
I hate WOW on Vista. I run WOW on a laptop that has triple the min requirement, and Vista. I don't run anything else but WOW on the laptop (well except internet searches).
I have to re-install WOW at least once a week. Sometimes repairs to the software works, sometimes not. When it runs, it runs great. But it seems something in Vista currupts the software. I never have problems on my XP desktop that has a million things (and probably a few viruses) installed.
Basically what happens is I go to run WOW and receive an error that the software needs to be repaired. I'm in the process of a re-install, next time I'll post the exact error. It's really hit and miss. For a while every time I was on a flying mount the program would crash. Then it stopped doing that.
Demonic Jun 4th 2008 1:31AM
I have never been a fan of Vista and WoW together. I have played WoW for over 3 years on my P4 2.8 with 1.5 GB RAM and 256 Video card with XP. Never had a problem. I bought my wife a puter with Vista and limited gaming ability. Her WoW craches constantly, and would not download patches. Fixed the pathing problem by turning of the UAC on the puter but performance sucked. I just upgraded my gaming PC to a 1.8g dual core, 3GB ram with a 1GB PCI-E card. Only difficulty I saw was it is has Vista. I have been running it for two 12 hour nights now with no problems, 70-100 FPS, 60-70 FPS in 25 and 40 mans and over 50 FPS in Shattrath during peak hours with over 100 addons and all graphics set at the highest levels. I must say either Vista has improved or the difference in video cards and RAM is making a huge difference. My recommendation is this. Disable your UAC security on Vista and make sure you are running alot of system memory and don't skimp on the video card.
SolarKraken Sep 9th 2008 11:50PM
I can't say anything about performance because when i got vista it was on a whole new machine, but i can't find any vista compatible mods, thats the only difference so far. Can any1 help me out with mods?
grayfox Sep 27th 2008 7:56AM
I've just bought the WoW battlechest (WoW + the burning crusade + guides) and I just can't get it installed on my windows vista pc.
when the installer reaches 29% it gives some sort of error saying it could not verify the common.mpq file
and that it's cause there is something wrong with my system :(
so i'm guessing WoW + Vista = No good
P.S.: if anyone knows how to solve this problem please contact me
Bolt Jun 19th 2009 6:57PM
On lower-end systems, Vista shreds the WoW experience.
2Ghz single core with Nvidia 6800 = 60fps in XP.
2Ghz single core with Nvidia 6800 = 20fps in Vista.
In a yr and a half I have never really figured out what
Vista does differently then XP to demand twice as
much CPU to render the same scene on the same hardware.
ANd in that long time I have tried pretty much everything you can Imagine.
No matter what settings are changed, drivers are tried, or processes and
services are trimmed, on a Single core CPU with no SSE2
Vista needs twice as much CPU as XP to render the same
High-Poly scene.
It scales the same with all my Direct3d/Opengl Games.
almus Jan 30th 2007 3:48PM
I've been playing wow in vista since Vista Beta RC1, back then it had problems, the bigest thing to consider is if your video card has good vista drivers. Otherwise preformace seems to be about the same except alt-tabbing out of wow in vista seems faster to me.
(running Vista Ultimate on a Dual 3.6ghz P4 with 6gb of ram and an Nvidia 9800GT)
jmet Jan 30th 2007 4:01PM
I have had Vista for a month or so now (Action Pack Sub through the company I work for) and it does affect performance of WOW.
Not so much because of the requirements as Aero disables itself upon launching a game but due to poor drivers from Nvidia at the moment.
Vista is great, driver support right now not so much, my gaming box is back to XP and getting about 20fps more.
Terd Fergeson Jan 30th 2007 4:45PM
When I had Vista installed playing WoW, it seemed that the security features blocked most of my addons and game settings from being remembered. it was beta from a while ago, RC2, but still enough to turn me off until I know it's fixed.
Kaelmas Jan 30th 2007 4:09PM
I have noticed a slight performance drop but not too noticible..
Dick Jones Jan 30th 2007 9:57PM
I have been a Vista beta tester for some time. Wow ran flawlessly from rc1 forward. It has, since rc1, become more stable and has increased performance dramatically. The thing to remember about a new ms os, is you go in expecting NOTHING to work so when stuff DOES work, you are impressed.
Nigel Holderby Jan 30th 2007 5:21PM
Ran Vista RC1 with WoW, and it played just fine for me. I have a "fairly" fast PC, albeit not PCIe/DX10, etc., but it ran wonderfully...just like on XP.
Swiftlydead Jan 30th 2007 5:14PM
Actually, though Vista will run 3d applications slower, Macintoshes will still run them slower. It's sad but true and confirmed by benchmarks across the board that have a PC and Mac's using the same hardware. Granted they were done using WinXP vs Mac, I've seen WinXP v. Vista and Mac was an average of about 30% slower on the same hardware than WinXP, and Vista's an average of about 15-20% slower than WinXP.
I dunno about you but I'd be QQing if I shelled out the outrageous pricetag a Mac commands and still got that kinda performance!
Scott Jan 30th 2007 4:50PM
Of course you will get a performance drop the operating system is brand new it demands more if you want it to run better get more ram or upgrade