As the title of the thread says, post your benchmarks, experiences, performances and anything that you can compare in terms of gaming in XP and Windows7. Which one better handles games, resource usage, CPU_threads,etc.
I didn't notice a performance drop or increase in Win7 compared to XP. I believe the difference depends on which graphics driver you use.
Not only the graphics driver, but the graphics settings as well. Apart from resolution, the various antialiasing settings (including temporal antialiasing, different antialiasing types such as box or edge detect), anistropy, LOD bias, etc., you also have other tweaks and settings which number in the dozens that aren't available in the control panel or most tweak programmes. For a true comparison these settings most all be identical. If a game has both Directx 9 and Directx 10/10.1/11 (there are a couple of Directx 11 games out now) options, you must compare the same in game Directx utilisation as well. Comparing a Directx 10 game is hardly fair between XP and Vista/7, as Directx 10 is slower than Directx 9. Comparing a very rare Directx 10.1* game between XP and Vista/7 is reasonably fair as Directx 10.1 is much faster than Directx 10, so you can take the better graphics and speed in to consideration. *Directx 10.1 is essentially what Directx 10 was meant to be originally, and is rare because a certain 6 letter GPU manufacturer starting with N threw its weight around. You won't see any Directx 10.1 games with the Nvidia logo on it , although Nvidia have only just incorporated Directx 10.1 in the GTX 3xx range, despite it being around since Vista SP1.
On my mid-range system (Core2Duo 3.7GHZ Wolfsale, 2GB RAM, 512MB AGP ATI HD3850), it's a tossup. Some games get a few frames more, some a few less. Nothing drastic in either direction. That said, 7 does it smoother.. don't necessarily get a higher frame rate, but it's definitely more consistent, where XP would be all over the place at times depending on the game. Assassin's Creed I would get FPS spikes in XP depending on where I was; in 7, it's very smooth. Most games I can run at my native 1680x1050 with everything turned up to maximum. Of course, the only exception so far is Crysis, which I have set to "high" across the board. Even my older games run just fine, the only quirky one being Atomic Bomberman (from Win95), it has a distorted color palette. Some games that support windowed mode run better too under 7. World of Warcraft or Guild Wars for example, I keep 'em windowed so I can look at a browser and whatnot at the same time. In XP, it works but I'd take a noticeable FPS hit. In 7, nada. Just as fast. 7 has a couple minor quirks, but gaming definitely isn't one of them.
...I agree its pretty much a toss up... After you get the game operational... W7 has some (more than a few) issues getting some old games to run easily after installation, although I have been 100% successful, so far (after a fair bit of messing with them). With XP it was, usually, a matter of install the game and play. With W7 its; Install game (sometimes get an incompatibility warning) Download drivers and patches (and hope) Then swear at the manufacturer for going out of business or stopping game support. Install software... (scratch head) Mess with compatibility trouble shooting in the compatibility wizard. Sometimes run the 32 bit executable, instead of the 64 bit executable (when availiable)...frustration; I bought 64 bit hardware and OS for a reason... Some times search for and install an older driver (instead of the newest driver) Etc, etc... Enjoy! Edit; I run an intermediate system; 965BE @ 3.4, 4GB ram, 8800gts, 1680x1050 res (typical).
Happy Joe does bring up a good point. If you're in XP and pondering switching to 7, make sure your hardware hasn't been shelved into the "legacy junkbox" by the manufacturers. For example, my husband's machine is similar to mine, but an older video card, an ATI X850. No good with Windows 7, officially retired. (Kinda sorta works with an older Vista driver.. but I can't recommend it.) Do your homework and check for current drivers for your hardware if your system isn't terribly new. Audio, video, any sort of capture cards, etc etc.. no surprises later. Save yourself a headache.