Its official, Microsoft has signed off on Windows 7 Ready To Manufacture (RTM), and some OEMs will be receiving the OS in its completed state this week.<\/p>\n
The release of the OS will be followed by service packs and various incremental updates, but as it stands, it is effectively ready to go to retail. The final build is Windows 7 7600.16385.<\/p>\n
The OS will be hitting retail shelves on October 22, and from that point it is expected that new PCs will ship with Windows 7 installed, finally ending the disastrous Vista era.<\/p>\n
We have been using the OS on our primary gaming rig since Microsoft sent Windows 7 RC our way, and we have been highly impressed by it in every single department.<\/p>\n
From the gorgeous interface to the speed and responsiveness, Windows 7 is looking very promising at this stage.<\/p>\n
We were initially worried about hardware and software support for the unreleased OS, but discovered that all our hardware was instantly recognized and installed without Windows missing a step. Even our two 4870s in crossfire were recognised and worked without any tweaking or editing driver configurations, an impressive feat for an OS that ATi only officially recognized today with the release of Catalyst 9.7.<\/p>\n
We tried a broad selection of games released over the past two years, including Bioshock, Crysis Warhead and CoD4.<\/p>\n
Without any tinkering, they all ran, and we were pleasantly impressed by high frame rates.<\/p>\n
While not quite as quick as XP, the new OS left Vista choking in its dust.<\/p>\n
In DX 10 mode Windows 7 ran Crysis Warhead with everything set to enthusiast and 4xAA enabled running between 20-40 fps with a consistent average of around 32fps.<\/p>\n
Our admittedly monstrous test rig (AMD Phenom II 955BE, 2x 4870 2Gb VaporX, 4GB Mushkin DDR 3 1600MHz) maintained frame rates of 60 with vertical-sync enabled in every other game maxed out with 4xAA enabled.<\/p>\n
The performance was very close to Windows XP SP3 in DX9 mode, and put Vista to shame. Quite frankly, if Windows 7 can perform as well as it does in RC form without properly optimized drivers, then we are confident that over the next few months as the OS is fine tuned and drivers are matured it will outstrip XP in gaming performance quite easily.<\/p>\n
Of course with DX11 set for release alongside Windows 7 in October, the playing field is expected to shift. However, for now the OS is looking very good.<\/p>\n
The only issue with Windows 7 RC is that Punkbuster does not work correctly in it. This means that online games such as CoD4 will kick players out periodically due to Punkbuster not recognizing the OS.<\/p>\n
With Windows 7 going RTM this week it should not be too long before the Punkbuster issue is resolved.<\/p>\n
Once this issue is solved there will be no reason to continue running a dual-boot setup with Windows XP.<\/p>\n