Windows XP SP3 to Vista SP1, worth it?

Well im getting ready to go over to Vista and need a bit of help...

My friend has Vista U and the RAM IDLES on 900mb....that's just bloody stupid! so ill have go for the 4GB but that means me having to get 64bit and suffer compatibility issues.
some quick questions:
How much does the FPS dropped in game from XP SP3 to Vista...iv seen in benchmarks its around 10fps? i hear that between XP SP3 (which im running now) and Vista there is a MASSIVE 20% performance differents!
And does 64bit still suffer LOTS of compatibility issues or is it better than what it was?

Just wont to clear up the rumors and speculation....

The reason im going Vista is coz the new 3Dmark is Vista only( http://www.futuremark.com/3dmarkvantage/ ) and XP is slowly loosing support for over programs and soon games, also i wont DX10 as im upgrading from a 7950GT to a 9800GX2 in march. So if i don't convert now i will have to later if i like it or not.

(would like replys from Vista uses, but all is welcome)
Thanks for your help!

 

Dependent on how much RAM you system has, Vista uses a different amount. I have 2Gb, so it uses around 900mb, if I had 4Gb if would be around 1.5Gb. The reason why it does this is something called "Superfetch", which basically means that it caches your most frequently used programs in memory, so that they open quickly when you want them. After all, what's the point of having all that RAM if you don't use it?

As soon as another program needs the RAM, it cuts back significantly.

I would go with the 64-bit version, the system in your signature should not have any issues with drivers for 64-bit. I run 64-bit myself and I haven't had a problem at all.

 

Boom. The biggest problem with noobs + Vista.

 

the only negative i've seen on vista is the horrible file copy. also, the UAC thing is kind of annoying, but you can turn that off. vista64 used ~850 ram when i had 2gb, now it's sitting at 1414 with 4gb. definitely go with 64-bit. there is not really any benefit to the 32-bit anymore.

 

Go with 64-bit. SuperFetch does a great job at clearing the RAM to allow your processes uses as much as they need.
There is not a significant slow down in games with Vista over XP. As Vista will be in 64-bit, it does help giving you a higher performance for your applications and game over the 32-bit Vista. However, it has been said several time over the internet, that the performance decrease in Vista is mainly due to unoptimized drivers available for the OS. Each new release of video card drivers, shows better gaming compatibility and significant performance increase. Up to now, I think the VISUAL margin between game performance on XP and Vista is near thin (but that depends on what game you play, system hardware and how picky you are (as we are taking about VISUALLY))

I think after 2-3 drivers updates (if they continue at that rate they are now), the difference for most games should be paper thin, and even possibly superior as more and more games gets developed on the Vista OS by default with possibly DX10 support.

 

I often read this complaint about Vista stealing RAM, well that's sort of what you want from an OS.
You want it to use RAM effectively , you want it to prefetch data to the RAM so it's available as and when you need it.