why is windows 98 faster in the game

[mercurycs]

ok here is my confusion. I have a dual boot system that has windows 98 and windows xp professional with sp2 installed. I installed civ IV through xp and ran it and it runs ok. My major problem is the wait for the military advisor screen to load and a little jerky on the scrolling. no big deal really.
Just for the heck of it I installed the game throughwindows 98 to see what the speed dicrepency would be and see how stable it would run and windows 98 runs the game FASTER. I have virtually 1/3 the wait for my military advisor screen or my grid to load and even at max resolution and graphics detail the game is smooth scrolling.
I can't understand why the game would run faster with the older operating system when ALL the computer components and drivers are exactly the same. (they kind of have to be since it is the same system)

could anyone explain this??

my system
radeon 9200
1 gig ram
athlon 2800 processor

 

[Wolfwood]

Windows XP is a newer system and, as such, it requires more system resources to run. Don't you know about the conspiracy between Microsoft and processor makers? Who would need Pentium M or Athlon if we were still using Win98?

 

[warpstorm]

Because you have more of your Gig of RAM free than XP users will.

 

[Pounder]

I'm still using Windows 98 and loving it.

It may not be because of more memory, even though you have 1 Giga of memory, can't Win98 only address upto 512MB. Someone told me this before, is there anyone who could verify it.

I have put off upgrading to 1gig of RAM because I was told 512MB was the limit with WIN98. If it supports more, I may upgrade.

Edit: Moot point for me. I just checked the specs on my motherboard and it says 2 x 256MB memory. Is it possible that 256MB was the largest memory at the time and the motherboard will actually support larger memory simms/dimms. (P3 800Mhz)

The game is running fine, but it is always good to have more memory for the larger games.

 

[mercurycs]

windows 98 is limited up to 512 megs of ram unless you install the unofficial windows 98 service pack. I have a gig of ram installed and it works just fine.
You can get it at:

hxxp://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html


works for me

 

[kettyo]

Win98 is faster because there are much less services and programs are running on it than on WinXP standard.

But you can always 'downgrade' your XP to the level of a Win2000 or even under it by disabling all the extra services and non-essential elements like Windows Themes, System Restore and the such.

That way XP will be much faster.
But why not install a 98SE instead?
Maybe because new hardware is usually not supplied with 98 drivers only with XP/2000 and maybe ME (which is a very bad OS).

 

[VimesUK]

Do you happen to know if W98SE can access NTFS drives..?
I know that I would need to create a FAT32 primary partition to install 98 but I would find it useful if it could see NTFS drives and access them.

 

[alexti2]

I'm still using Windows 98 and loving it.

It may not be because of more memory, even though you have 1 Giga of memory, can't Win98 only address upto 512MB. Someone told me this before, is there anyone who could verify it.

I have put off upgrading to 1gig of RAM because I was told 512MB was the limit with WIN98. If it supports more, I may upgrade.

Edit: Moot point for me. I just checked the specs on my motherboard and it says 2 x 256MB memory. Is it possible that 256MB was the largest memory at the time and the motherboard will actually support larger memory simms/dimms. (P3 800Mhz)

The game is running fine, but it is always good to have more memory for the larger games.

Win98SE can address more memory than 512Mb, but you need to add couple of lines to system.ini, for example
[386Enh]
MaxPhysPage=30000
for 768Mb
That's just MS's concept of supported means "supported without user having to edit any files". With some more tricks it can support a lot of RAM, 4Gb or maybe even more. Ideas is to create 1 or more RAM drives and put Windows virtual memory on them

 

[alexti2]

I can't understand why the game would run faster with the older operating system when ALL the computer components and drivers are exactly the same. (they kind of have to be since it is the same system)

could anyone explain this??

You drivers are certainly different, because XP drivers and Win98 drivers are not compatible. Win98 is slightly faster, because of lack of isolation and protection and less overhead, but if the difference is big it's probably drivers

 

[oyoyoy]

Originally Posted by Morgan UK
Do you happen to know if W98SE can access NTFS drives..?

No win98se can't normally see or access NTFS drives. There is a way to sort it out, but unless you are more of a geek than me/have a lot of spare time on your hands I wouldn't bother. I've got a dual boot win98se/winXP and have a small FAT partition which win98 can access. Just make it sufficiently big for whatever your needs are. You can always move stuff over while in winXP. Win98 is a lot faster at just about everything compared to XP -so I would recommend having it installed. It has also got the added bonus of being able to run a lot of older stuff without having to fiddle around for ages (if at all...) using XP.

 

[eric_A]

ok here is my confusion. I have a dual boot system that has windows 98 and windows xp professional with sp2 installed. I installed civ IV through xp and ran it and it runs ok. My major problem is the wait for the military advisor screen to load and a little jerky on the scrolling. no big deal really.
Just for the heck of it I installed the game throughwindows 98 to see what the speed dicrepency would be and see how stable it would run and windows 98 runs the game FASTER. I have virtually 1/3 the wait for my military advisor screen or my grid to load and even at max resolution and graphics detail the game is smooth scrolling.
I can't understand why the game would run faster with the older operating system when ALL the computer components and drivers are exactly the same. (they kind of have to be since it is the same system)

could anyone explain this??

my system
radeon 9200
1 gig ram
athlon 2800 processor

Mercurycs:
The system requirements say you need XP or 2000, I'm suprised it works
at all in win98!!

 

[Janos]

Because Windows XP takes up a load of your memory to run itself, 98 doesn't so much. Still, it should run better on XP because it's been designed for it. Oh well, whatever! Good for you