Over the past few weeks, I had received a recent-issue motherboard, CPU, graphics card and RAM as a gift from a friend who likes to “tinker” with computers. Then I had moved my Windows Vista-based installation to this installation and had noticed a significant difference in the performance of this operating system.
Previously I was running Windows Vista on a very old motherboard, CPU and graphics card and it was definitely sluggish. This was more so with how the system handled graphics and the older setup had a Windows Experience Index of 1.0 with the graphics card holding it down. The card was an older AGP-based card with an older ATI chipset that didn’t have drivers optimised for proper operation under Vista.
Now the system is reporting a 3.0 Windows Experience score with the ability to use the full Windows Aero Glass trim and quicker response from the display.
You are much safer buying a new computer if you want to work with Windows Vista. On the other hand, if you intend to deploy Vista to an existing computer, make sure that the system is running with hardware made since 2006. You have a greater chance of the computer performing properly for Vista and working with drivers that take advantage of this operating system.
