Windows 7 does away with Vista’s graphic requirements
Windows Vista has become the operating system most of us love to hate. We hate it yet use it because there is one piece of software or another that requires use of Vista. It is also one of the most bloated pieces of software ever created. Windows 7 may fix all that.
In fact Windows 7 is so great that it doesn’t even require a graphics card. According to Gizmodo, it includes a technology that allows Windows 7 to make use of the processor as a stand in for a graphics card.
There is one caveat here, but it’s a small one. Windows 7 will need at least an 800MHz processor to take advantage of that and that ancient Pentium III probably won’t cut it. But, if anyone has a computer that old then running Windows 7 is out of the question.
This is both a good and bad thing. It allows graphics capabilities for the user interface to be standardized across almost all computers. That’s the good. The bad is that it gives manufacturers a very good reason not to offer even a basic dedicated card in low-end systems.
This new technology is not designed to run games by any stretch of the definition, but Microsoft says that Crysis on Windows 7 running on a Core i7 processor without a graphics card was 42 percent faster than Intel’s own GMA graphics. Of course, that was with an 8-core 3.0GHz Core i7 processor.
Crysis was set at the lowest resolution and still only managed an average of 7 FPS. Seven. Unplayable. Just like the GMA cards. In fact, exactly like them.
There is some potential here but I dare them to try that with a Celeron or Pentium (T3200) processor and see how far it goes. My guess, not very.
The only application for this technology is to run with Windows 7 GUI on a computer that lacks a half decent graphics card. That’s it. Despite what Microsoft may try to make you believe with all its technical documents and wording there is no stretching this technology to play games or do serious video work.
There wouldn’t even be any point in enabling it to work with a graphics card because the boost would be non-existent.
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December 1st, 2008
Hmmm…your main PC at home a headless Windows 7 box and the user interface a “netbook” over wifi home lan? Neato. Java type gaming that runs on smartphones would run plenty fine and be hours and hours of time wasted for many! Don’t we all realize that Solitaire has mor usage hours logged (maybe) than any app in Windows history?
December 1st, 2008
The only people that hate it are the useless people that don’t know how to prevent viruses and don’t know spyware when they see it.
December 1st, 2008
Or people that know Windows is heavily dependent on exploiting the battered wife or the Stockholm Syndrome in it’s users. “Don’t sweat much for a fat girl” isn’t really a compliment.
I know how to prevent infestations, I just don’t see the advantage in an expensive, bloated OS that treats me like a criminal. If I was an avid gamer, ok. Otherwise? Nah.
What if you could run an OS that’s fast on decent hardware, automatically keeps every piece of software installed from approved and tested sources up to date, requires no AV software? I don’t hate Vista. I do pity the users who have only known Windows.
December 1st, 2008
No one seems to realize that when Windows 7 releases, the desktop norm will be a quad or octo-core processor. Right now, anyone can walk into BB or CC and get a quad core desktop for $600-700. A year from now, we’ll see much more in the way of quad cores all around including notebooks and most likely dual core netbooks (which is a focus for Windows 7). Octo-cores aren’t out of the question.
December 2nd, 2008
@ncaissie,
So tell me, how useless are the people who take five years and spend billions of dollars and *still* manage to come up with an OS that is so prone to being infected by viruses?
December 3rd, 2008
Hmm you seem to be forgetting that people do use the GMA to play games. Not Crysis. Or GTA4. Or anything like that. But Microsoft Tinker, Spore, WOW even probably Sims 3. Not with the best settings obviously but these sort of ‘casual’ games and MMOs are very big segment of the market. (The Sims series is one of the best sellers of all time)
So yes, if you can do better then a GMA then yes, why not?
You seem to be making the mistake a lot of more hardcore games make (of which I am one, but not one who makes the mistake) of forgetting that there is a very large market out there beyond all the latest eye-candy best-seller and for better or worse, a lot of people do play games on the GMA and other crappy GPUs.
As anon said, don’t forget by the time Windows 7 comes out oct-cores will be nothing special. Yes the budget series of graphics will be slightly better but history has shown, probably not much.
October 18th, 2009
well here is what i have discovered..ran windows 7 rc as soon as it came out..found the work around to put tinker on it and was successful..on windows 7 actual release it comes up and says it is only allowed to run on vista ultimate..not a good idea..so some of the people need to find the solution for this..