"Games for Windows" My Ass

I've had it with Vista and vVidia driver restart errors so naturally I rant.

As a producer for a game company I can't express my displeasure on this issue enough. Of the machines that I have built to test out on Vista, fully half of them suffer from restarting nvlddmkm errors.

My experiences on multiple machines are very similar to the posts in these threads in that each machine seems to have a different set of symptoms. Some machines crash if you do anything in windows or even when you do nothing.

Some machines are identical except for a single part such as the mobo and one will crash and one will not. Some only crash on 3d etc.

The deeper problem is that I cannot go in and "fix" these machines to get them working.

I have to assume that my customers are not even technical enough to find a forum like this let alone derive which of the 20 posted possible fixes might be right for them and execute that fix without bricking their machine and calling my tech support.

I can say with all honesty that for the last 6 years I have exclusively recommended nVidia graphics cards starting with TNT2's.

I recommend a mid level card every season to our playerbase (7600GT right now) and I always recommend nVidia chipset motherboards.

I can currently not recommend "Games for Windows" using Vista nor can I recommend nVidia with any conscience.

Fortunately for the games business, most gamers are quickly learning NOT to upgrade to Vista. It will be a real shame if they learn not to purchase nVidia while they are at it. Like me, they have long memories and as early adopters they often set the tone for the more casual in the space. Every hardcore or technical person has a particular brand that they shy away from for life (ECS anyone?) because of a single bad experience.

Please don't let this be that experience for me nVidia.

-Gophur

Ok, so it's a weenie of a rant but I've learned that screaming like a baby doesn't actually make anyone who can do anything about it want to bother to read it. You learn those kinda things in this biz. Anyhoo, if you're having these issues, and if you are running nVidia and Vista I'd say it's 50-50, please take a moment to post.

Viruses, Infections, Spyware, Trojans and Adware.

Just in case you missed it V.i.s.t.a. is going live today and before you ask, no we will not be supporting it by tomorrow. Despite the fact that the nVidia driver is still not released today and there is no hope in sight for a Creative driver, by all accounts Vista is not running games as fast as XP and let's be honest, WWIIOL doesn't need to be any slower. The good news is that despite all the hooplah spewing from Bill today, M$ knows Vista isn't ready and has already announced plans to release SP1 in a few short months.

To be honest, I kinda dig on the new OS. I've installed it with luck about 50% of the time. Those machines run the game great. The other installs I've done are simply plagued with issues including the mysterious rebooting video driver. Oh joy. So if you are one of those uber dorks like I am who have a tidy system with good parts, you're probably Ok. If on the other hand you can't name the model number of your mobo and report from memory the exact date of your current bios upgrade, you should probably hold off. Oh and if you think you can trust this thing, you're crazy. Maybe AMD's works better, its your life, take a chance.