http://www.apcstart.com/teched/pivot/entry.php?id=6 to get all of the info .

I think the article itself is a bit confusing:

In the begin of the article it says:
Nigel Page is a strategist with Microsoft Australia. He told APC today that Vista would work best on a video card with more than 256MB RAM, 2GB of DDR3 memory and a S-ATA 2 hard drive.
But this is only the specs you need to run it the best way...

later on it says:

• "In a 32 bit environment, half a gig of RAM is heaps. It's going to fly. For 64 bit you're going to want 2 gigs of DDR3 RAM.
  
• "If you move from 32 to 64 bit, you basically need to at least double your memory. 2 gigs in 64 bit is the equivalent of a gig of RAM on a 32bit machine. That's because you're dealing with chunks that are twice the size… if you try to make do with what you've got you'll see less performance. But RAM is now so cheap, it's hardly an issue.
  
• "In terms of disks, you're really going to want S-ATA 2hard drives with NCQ capability because it gives the OS the ability to get on with stuff while disk tasks complete. All the tier 1 and tier 2 vendors can provide this capability today.
  
• "Thirdly, the graphics card and system bus is essential. PCI x16 is going to be very important. Any of today's 3D GPUs will be fine… we're not waiting for some mystical monster that may or may not come out. But they need to have 128MB of RAM on it. If they've only got 64 don't panic.
  
• "We acknowledge that many corporate notebooks have fairly low-end integrated graphics chips. They're not exactly high performance graphics systems. For those users, we will provide a classic UI that looks like XP, and then we will have Aero that will start to make use of the GPU, and then there's Aero Glass that will demand the higher level
  
• "We are talking a year out here, so I have no doubt the vendors will address this in that period of time.”

quote:

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Originally posted by Markus
"In terms of disks, you're really going to want S-ATA 2hard drives with NCQ capability because it gives the OS the ability to get on with stuff while disk tasks complete. All the tier 1 and tier 2 vendors can provide this capability today.

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I doubt the graphics demands will be much of a problem, at least for gamers who have the latest GPUs anyway. And by the time Vista comes out, there'll be an influx of cheap powerful GPUs like the GeForce 7xxx, since there'll be at least a GeForce 8xxx by then.

quote:

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Originally posted by Markus
Graphics are of course important because customers like a nice UI, but why the hell would we want an OS whith such a graphics that it requires a 128 mb graphics card ..

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This will offload a lot of graphics processing to the GPU, leaving the CPU to do more appropriate tasks, such as actually running your apps. Overall, there should be a big boost in app performance on Vista.

It runs on a (Dual P3 866MHz, 512MB PC800 RAM, Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB, 2x 18GB 10,000rpm SCSI Hard Drives) perfectly fine.  Also on a Athlon XP 2500+, 1GB PC3200 DDR, Radeon 9600XT 128MB, 40GB ATA133 Hard Drive.  Neither of these old machines use a HDCP Compliant Monitor either.


Final Minimum Requirements will more than likely be closer to 1GHz CPU, 512MB DDR or DDR2 RAM (DDR3 may not even be out and at present DDR2 = DDR on performance), 64MB Graphics Card with Hardware T&L Support, 10GB Free HDD Space, Sound Card, Internet Connection (you never know), Mouse & Keyboard.

HDCP will most likely never see light of day in Vista (maybe in the Pro version) as more than 90% of consumers will NOT shell out the premium for a HDCP Compliant Monitor over a generic variant.

quote:

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Originally posted by Garndell
It runs on a (Dual P3 866MHz, 512MB PC800 RAM, Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB, 2x 18GB 10,000rpm SCSI Hard Drives) perfectly fine.

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