Windows 7 - took the plunge. Performance problems
TLDR: Skip to the bottom for my actual questions...
So, I merrily went along to install and test Win7 the other day. I created a new partition on my primary HD, formatted it as NTFS, and all my research taught me that Win7 would install to it and setup dual-boot between it and my old XP install on the first partition.
WRONG.
It installed itself as the only OS. After several hours research (most of which ppl said "gotta format and reinstall xp to get it back (idiots)), I found one article describing how to use bootdbc (or whatever) to tell Win7 about the WinXP partition and make it a boot choice. Try that out and...insta-reboot when I choose that option <cry>. So I figured maybe it's the old standard "NTLDR is missing" error, so I booted from my WinXP CD and did a FIXBOOT. (not a FIXMBR, that'd blow up Win7 and may or may not even grant access to WinXP again). Nope, still insta-reboot... I think the problem is even WinXP sees itself as installed on D:\ now...when I loaded the recovery console and it asked what installation of windows to logon to, the only choice was D:\Windows (either that or it logged me onto the Win7 installation sigh)
Second problem: Wow runs at a much lower framerate in Win7. I've tried some performance tweaks, but will have to research and try others as it's still not as high-performing...playable but not extremely playable.
Third problem: My laser printer is not recognized as a printer by Win7. It's recognized as a "USB device - other". There's no Win7 driver for it, heck there isn't even a Vista driver for it. So I found on the web that it's exactly the same as/compatible to a Samsung printer model, just relabeled. So I downloaded the Vista64 driver for that Samsung printer, but Win7 refuses to load it stating it's not a Win7-64 approved driver. Still need to research a workaround on this.
Fourth problem: Already solved. Ventrilo was a bitch to get working but I got it working eventually.
THE ACTUAL QUESTION:
What performance tweaks do you guys know of that I should try to get WOW to run better under Win7-64? I've already done the following:
* Turned off Ambient Occlusion on the nVidia control panel
* Set nVidia to 'Single Display performance mode'
* Set Win7 power options to 'high performance mode' (ie no power saving in place). Haven't tried the game yet since making this change...
Anything else obvious I can try? Especially since I seem to be STUCK with Win7 as my OS now lol...
