WinXp 64 or Win7 x64

[johandt]

Do any of you have a opinion of why (or not) to upgrade to win7 64 from xp 64?
We need to upgrade our pc, and cannot get an conclusive answer on this issue from our suppliers vs opinions of users. We are currently using primarily using Civil 3d 2010, Autocad 2010, and I am currently also slowly starting to use Autocad 2011.

According to our Autodesk supplier, they recommend sticking to WinXP 64, as apparently Win 7 64 is considerably slower than XP (?) - and apparently the Dell suppliers also recommends Win XP 64 for Autodesk software. (?)

I have seen a white paper stating that Autodesk does not officially support 2009 and lower software running on Win7, but do recommend Win 7 for 2010. I have had no problems running Civil 3d on my home cad pc, but after switching operating systems way back when with initially Vista, and now Win 7, cannot conclusively state that yes, Win 7 is faster and does offer enhanced performance.
My feeling is that we should go the win 7 route, but without being able to state exactly why, our IT department will go the XP route, as suggested by others. I have no method of proving to them that win 7 is definitely a better alternative.

[bulletproofdesign]

I have been using XP-64 for some years now and it is fairly stable. Both RAC2009 and RAC2010 run fine.

I will be upgradeing to ceven-64 soon. I have a dual install, so don't lose out if things get rough.

Seven, like the ribbon is the future, whether it is stable enough? That is another question. I am soon to be working with a company who have half their machines running seven-64 and others running seven-32. They have employed it in a commercial environment, and it appears stable.

[jaberwok]

I can only say that I like XPx64 and I like Win7x64 more - now I have the networking sorted out.
This is for home use so it isn't hard usage.

[Glenn Pope]

The biggest issue people have with XP64 is driver support. Since you been using it, that probably isn't an issue for you.

In that case the big thing for me would be support. XP is a old OS that will be getting less and less support from software and hardware makers. (ex. Next release of IE 9 not running on XP)

We run Win 7 64 on our main CAD machines and have been very happy. Performance is very good. Haven't had a crash of windows and very few crashes of Civil 3D. There is really no reason not to go to Win 7 except if you have old hardware that doesn't has drive support.

[jaberwok]

I've had no great driver problems even for older computer components (my #3 machine is an AthlonXP running 32-bit Win7). I imagine any problems will be with support for your plotters.