Vista OS hardware requirements

[LindaHewitt]

I am looking at purchasing a new laptop and was interested in what the optimum hardware requirements are for Vista.

Has Microsoft published any? There minimum requirements are always a joke. Have any of the beta testers published any?

Thanks for your assistance.

Cheers,

Linda

[SuperSparks]

It's a bit early to say exactly what they'll be. But an absolute minimum of 512MB RAM, with 1GB being more realistic. And a graphics card equivalent to an Nvidia 6600 or better if you want to use all the advanced UI features.

[SpywareDr]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/win...ahardware.mspx

Windows Vista Hardware
Which decisions to make now so that you're ready for Windows Vista
By Charlie Russel, Microsoft MVP for Windows Server, Security, and Tablet PC

So you’re getting ready to buy a new computer, and you want to make sure that the computer you buy now will work well with Windows Vista. Well, the good news is that just about any new computer you buy today will work fine with Windows Vista. Because of the way Windows Vista is designed, it will work well across a broad range of hardware. However, to get the best Windows Vista experience, there are some basic system requirements and suggestions you need to know about. In this column, I’ll take a look at how to make decisions now that will leave you in the best possible position when Windows Vista ships. The examples I’ll use below cover the products that are available as of beta 1 (July 2005).

[...continues...]

[SuperSparks]

Here's a bit more info:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30128

[SpywareDr]

I.e., minimums: 2GB RAM and 7GB hard drive space on an NTFS partition.

[bistro]

I hate to say it, but I anticipate a whole new crop of reported problems with folks trying to run this one on a weak system.

[SpywareDr]

Can I upgrade a 16 MHz 386SX with 4MB RAM and 20MB HD from Windows 3.1 to Windows Vista?

[Drawinger]

Why does Windows Vista need all this power for?

[Steve R Jones]

Every version of Windows to date have been bigger and more powerful...

It's the ol catch 22. Hardware makers make more powerful pc's and software developers develop apps to take advantage of it.

I'm running Vista on a Sepron 2400 - 1gig of ram and an ATI9600se and it runs pretty well. It's only using 333megs of ram with only IE running. Could sure use a better video card though...

[bistro]

Can I upgrade a 16 MHz 386SX with 4MB RAM and 20MB HD from Windows 3.1 to Windows Vista?

Sure! At least..uh.....that's what that Gypsy fortune teller told me the other night.

[jmtjet]

Can I upgrade a 16 MHz 386SX with 4MB RAM and 20MB HD from Windows 3.1 to Windows Vista?

Dream on.

[LindaHewitt]

I can't upgrade a 486 with 128 MB RAM to XP. I was told essentially that everything would need to be replaced as in buy a new machine.

[SpywareDr]

I was just kidding folks.

In spite of what bistro's Gypsy might think, the 386SX mentioned above doesn't even have enough 'umph' to run Windows 95.

System Requirements:

Windows 95
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138349/

Windows 98
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/182751/

Windows Me
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253695/

Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314865

Gotta watch those reflections bistro

[lgbpop]

Here's some more tidbits about what Vista's going to need (or want). I wouldn't mind all the opinions if they weren't all so different.

Shockingly, the CPU, a 3.00Ghz Pentium D 64-bit processor only managed to score a 3.6 for system performance. What it would take to get a 5 or better is kind of scary to consider. Probably with the advent of dual-core CPUs, it’s going to be necessary to use one to get any decent performance from Vista.

This refers to the Windows System Performance Rating for a new machine they built just for Vista.

[judge john]

well here is mine with the specs in my sig;
processor (running at3.9GHz): 4.6
Memory: 5.6
HD: 4.9
gfx: 5.9
Gaming gfx: 5.7
overall=4

one of my friends get's a rating of 2 and he can run Vista fine, with all the 'flashy' options on. so it is important to know that the rating system rates how good your pc is in general and not at running vista!