Windows Vista System Requirements Released

[Slimy]

Microsoft has updated its Get Ready Web site to include the minimum system requirements to run Windows Vista. A Windows Vista Capable PC must include at least a CPU running at 800MHz, 512 MB of RAM, a DirectX 9 graphics card capable of at least 800x600, a CD-ROM drive and a 20 GB HDD with at least 15 GB free for the install. Of course, systems with bare minimum specifications will be unable to run Vista in the Aero interface.

In order a PC to be certified as ?Windows Vista Premium Ready,? it must have at least a 1 GHz CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory, Pixel Shader 2.0, DVD-ROM drive, a sound card, internet access and 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space. For Windows XP, users who did not meet the minimal requirements for XP Home (300 MHz, 128 MB) were still able to install and run the operating system, albeit rather slowly. It remains to be seen if Windows Vista will allow installs on machines lesser than minimal specification.

DailyTech

[Sniper101]

nice now we have the offical specs we can see how obsurde and how much we need to blow just for this stupid OS

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

nice now we have the offical specs we can see how obsurde and how much we need to blow just for this stupid OS

No one is forcing you to use it.

[AdverseDeviant]

vista capable needs a cd-rom? wtf

[primexx]

vista capable needs a cd-rom? wtf

looks like they'll be releasing a cd-rom version after all

[BreakingBenjamin]

Cool move, I don't want to buy a DVD drive just to install Windows ... :rolleyes:

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

Wasn't this already mentioned before?

Also, I find 1gb of ram not enough for Vista. 2gb is ideal. Crazy I know.

[Daniel Tablas]

Awesome, just got a pc this weekend. It should run Vista pretty well (Y)

[JustGeorge]

Cool move, I don't want to buy a DVD drive just to install Windows ... :rolleyes:

LOL....It blows my mind that people still think a DVD-ROM drive is some sort of major investment. You can nab the damn things for like $20. Hell, you can get a DVD Burner for less than $30. If your PC doesn't have a DVD Drive, then it prolly doesn't have enough power to run Vista anyway. No offense, just my opinion.

***Disregard this if you're talking about a laptop.***

[Toxicfume Veteran]

15GB for install, damn.

[halcyoncmdr]

Also, I find 1gb of ram not enough for Vista. 2gb is ideal. Crazy I know.

Really? I find that my computer runs Vista without a hitch.

[azz0r_wugg]

What did you expect? 1gb?

[Marshalus Veteran]

I've installed Vista on a machine with 512MB of RAM and it ran pretty smooth. Obviously not as well as the machine that had 2GB :)

[richardsim7]

I ran Vista nicely on my machine with 1.5GB :)

-Rich-

[ozgeek]

1GB RAM should be enough to run as low specs to run the aero feature. But won't matter for many people are starting to put in more ram like I have in October (I now have 2GB of DDR2 RAM :D)

The Cd-Rom is just minimum. You can run as low as a basic CD rom drive on Vista. But almost everyone will have a DVD drive most a burner so that won't matter much anyway.

[Quillz]

My notebook doesn't even have a dedicated graphics card and runs Aero Glass fine.

[sn00pie]

Looks like my 256MB Ram computer will never see Windows Vista. :pinch:

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

Really? I find that my computer runs Vista without a hitch.

Oh i'm not saying it doesn't run bad on 1gb if nothing is loaded, however Vista at startup uses 600mb of ram.

Play a game and Vista is worse than XP on 1gb, or play some music, surf the net and use messenger, it begins to get slower.

Vista is a ram cow, it uses 400mb more than XP at startup. It's a shame I find. Sadly it uses more once you have programs running at startup. Such as Anti-virus and other things...

Don't get me wrong its a good OS, but make sure you have 2gb of ram if your gonna game, or use many applications at once, 1gb just isn't optimal.

However, with ram prices falling it's not that expensive to upgrade.

[kribby]

No one is forcing you to use it.

...until the first DirectX 10 game you really want comes out ;)

[Churma]

Looks like my 256MB Ram computer will never see Windows Vista. :pinch:

I have seven computers (five pc's, two apple's), and none have under 2GB of ram. I don't know why you would bother to even run a pc or mac under 1gb of ram. All the new apps and games are mem hungry. Whats funny is I have 18,000 songs in iTunes and when you have iTunes open to album art view eat eats the ram like no tomorrow.

[ToneKnee]

Not this stupid argument again.

Offer time, system requirements for everything increase. You make it sound bad that a Operating system made for today's computers don't run on the minimum system requirements of Windows XP when it was released. Seesh.

Technology gets faster, and to Operating systems, software, games need to use faster hardware to take advantage of the new/more advanced technologies. *sighs*

[scooterman]

Vista 335 MB of ram used with sidebar closed and some system tray driver apps open. sound video amd monitor etc.

what was xp like in the 250 mb range it doesn't use too much more considering the window display manager (areo glass) uses 80 mb if you close that your down to what XP uses.

[Allan]

If you don't have a DVD-ROM at the minimum on your computer, (or laptop evne) it's time to upgrade. That rock that sitting on your desk, is about as good as a door stop....

[Orien]

Seriously, if you don't have a DVD-ROM drive, you need to get one. :p

Vista runs quite nicely on 2GB of ram.

[RaisinCain]

Since when are these requirements new? They've been out for some time now. If they are updated, they're still the same as was previously released (except for the CD-Rom drive error).