I’ve been using XP 64 ever since it came out. I’m about to set up a new computer and I need to decide on an OS.
I know Vista was horrible with max performance early on… has this changed at all?
Would people recommend I still avoid Vista or is has it been tuned up over the years?
I’m running with plenty of RAM and a Quadro -- if that affects anything.
Yeah…but you get all those cool little gadgets on the side. 
I would go with the XP OS!
I run it at home, with no real problems. I’m running max as well. At first there were some video card issues, but my card runs awesome at home now. The only things I don’t like really are some windows, like different windows settings are still really slow to open because they have to ask for permission to open first (same issue with installing things), and I also don’t like the way it handles folders. They don’t seem to remember their settings properly. There is a hack out for that though.
If you do buy Vista I’d try and wait till June so you have a free upgrade to 7.
If you like QTVR you’ll want Vista though. Also if you burn anything with itunes. Everything else seems fine in XPx64
I’ve been running iTunes 8 under XP64 on my home computer since I bought an iPod Touch. No major issues, although the last update required some tinkering. If anyone’s interesting I can post the link to the tutorial for the basic instructions.
yeah i run it fine too. It just says it can’t burn CD’s or DVD’s. I can’t say I’ve actually tried it at work though. I have Vista at home. Just bought a standard box for using my TV as a monitor and such.
Does burning work ok on XP?
Don’t think I’ll go back though. I like to keep up with what other people have since I help many people on how they use their comps. I may build a hackintosh to play with soon so i can help friends with their mac issues too. I’ve been having more of those lately than anything else. Not sure what they are up to lately…which is why i was thinking of building a fun hobby machine.
Andrew -- are you talking about the UAC causing delays when opening stuff?
On my wife’s machine I just disabled the damn thing and she doesn’t deal with any annoying prompts.
But as for your max performance, videocard response etc., do you think it is comparable to XP/XP 64?
Part of my problem is that I have a spare copy of Vista around but I might have to go and buy XP. So I’m biased towards Vista -- but not if it means my workflow is going to be dogsh*t slow.
You need to track down the Gear drivers to burn stuff and get rid of that error message. Um… here’s the link.
I am using both XP64 and Vista64 on the same computer dual boot. I rarely work with Max in Vista. Max is just too damn slow in Vista. I have tried about every way imaginable to adjust the performance inside Vista, but it is just slow. The real killer is that Vista, Max2009 and VRay Proxies = can’t navigate your scene. The real problem is that I am getting similar performance problems inside of Windows 7 also. It is really disappointing. System specs: Dual Xeon 5355 2.66GHz Quad Core 8GB Ram Vista Ultimate 64 & XP x64 nVidia GeForce GTX 280
I just bought the Dell M4400 it came with windows Vista 64bit Ultimate, I was trying to install 3dmax 9 last night both 32bit and 64bit and nethier one would install :[ - the 32bit install took but max wouldn’t launch and the 64bit refused to install giving the rather obscure warning that software was not compiled for my processor which is :
Intel Core 2 Duo X9100 3.06GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB haven’t done the investigation yet, was trying to do all this last night at 2am but I am tempted to go with XP 64bit instead of Vista - maybe I can bogart you’re thread and get some answers on my max 9 issues
Thanks as always for you’re help
adam
For the proxy issue, we found putting all the proxies into an Xref file made a huge difference in performance. this was Max 9 / XP 64 with Quadros, but I imagine you should see a similar gain, and being to easily hide the xrefs helps as well.
After further investigation I am pretty sure I’ll be downgrading ? to XP 64bit. Unbelieveably lame that Vista 64bit does not support 3dsmax 9 64bit or 2009 !!! I am also having trouble installing my dongle, you also loose all the fancy graphics stuff going in and out of max so I’m of the opinion what exactly is the point of Vista ?
I’d stick with XP 64bit, or work a dual boot system, that’s what I’m going to do
had no problems running 2008,2009 and 2010 under vista64bit
what computer / processor are you using
I think it might have something to do with my new laptop and it’s processor.
no issues here with max 2009 or vray on vista 64 business…
did you install as administrator? (right click/run as administrator)
Thanks for the heads up on the Proxy within an XRef…I will be trying this later on today!
I’ll double check the administrator settings - I think I’m finding it doubly frustrating because things have been so hectic over here at work what with heading out of the country on Saturday and all that good stuff and I didn’t even consider there being any issues with Vista at this stage of the game, it’s probably been out about 5 years already.
Thanks as always for you’re help
Also remember that Max9 was released BEFORE Vista or very close to the Vista launch. So Max9 won’t run on Vista unless you install SP2 for Max9 first. Just FYI.
I run Max 9 32 and 64 bit on Vista x64 without any problems, does kill the effects though of course. One of the first things i did was turn all the UAC stuff off though so that probably helps.
I’m running MAX 2008 & 2009 without problems now…I had some issues but I resolved them turnning off all the effects that Vista has by default to get the best performance(it works).
I noticed the exact same thing in Vista X64 with max 2009 and Nvidia GTX 285.
Setting windows to “best performance” mode made the viewports in 3dsmax at least twice as fast. Especially wireframe view is now several times faster.
This might also work on ATI cards.