Hey guys I upgraded my computer a few
months a go from a 12.1GB to 160GB
and I went from Windows 98 finaly to
WindowsXP pro.And I noticed a difference
when I went to play Jedi Acadmey on the
new Harddrive that the game was a whole
lot faster and the A.I. was smarter so I
think upgrading my PC made a big difference let me know if yall noticed a
difference in the game's preformace on
your PC I sure did.And I noticed the same
thing with Jedi Outcast also.................
....
That makes no sense :-/
I lose 20 fps on xp compared with 98.
Ai getting smarter is not possible, you must be imagining it.
There's a couple of things about performance increases with windows upgrades.
First off, you should know that Win9x has a flaw in it wherein it leaks memory over time. This (in a nutshell) is why rebooting seems to "Freshen up" the computer and make things run more smoothly. Also the windows registry gets cluttered over time (called "memory rot" by some) and this causes all sorts of problems. That is why people recommend a clean-system format every 6-9 months to keep things running smoothly.
Windows 2000 series and Windows XP series are based on a similar architecture, from what I understand, which is much more stable (but eats a bit more memory) than Win9x series. XP eats even more memory, which is why systems normally come packed with nearly double the ram to compensate (so it seems). Of course Xp can be tailored (so I'm told) to run pretty much as fast and efficiently as 2kpro for example, some of us still prefer 2k to XP (according to a poll I saw a few months back, more computers still use some version of 2k over XP, by a significant margin).
Some ways in which you can put off the windows rot and other problems inherent to windows are regularly running a registry scanner/cleaner utility, like Registery Mechanic. Defragging your drive may also be good (though I haven't had much luck with it myself), as well as regular scans for spyware/malware with programs like Adaware or spybot, and virus scanning.
So there are a lot of factors with improved game performance. However I'd say the factors that will improve your game performance the most are:
1) Video card
2) RAM
3) Processor
Operating systems shouldn't be too bad (unless you're running 95 or ME) if you take care of them and keep things cleaned up and in good working order.