The 3-Way battle between Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 is much closer when you exclude the second GPU benchmarks; other than ARMA II, the Radeon and GeForce GPUs performed remarkably similar regardless of OS (as long as you exclude the GeForce Windows XP x64 numbers). No one OS really pulls away from the other, they just trade wins and more often than not, they're tied in performance. For this reason I'd have to give the overall nod to Windows Vista and Windows 7, as they generally run just as fast as XP, with the obvious addition of DirectX 10 and DX11 support.

So is Windows 7 the best OS for gaming? Based on the results we've just looked at, I'd have to say 'yes'. Windows 7 delivers the best combination of features and game performance of any OS tested today. From what I've seen so far, it's also just as stable as Windows XP and Vista and seems more responsive. The addition of gestures and the new taskbar really push Windows 7 over the top.

I'm not a huge fan of the new system tray but I can understand Microsoft's reasoning behind the changes and it's an easy adjustment to make. Compatibility could be the one issue where Windows 7 takes a backseat to Vista and Windows XP, as I did have to manually install a third-party driver to get STALKER to run properly (I don't recall the manufacturer, but I believe it was related to the game's copy protection scheme). Even though it’s less aggravating, I also continue to disable UAC.

Comparing the issues Vista faced on its launch day to Windows 7 though, all signs point to Windows 7 being a huge success. Windows 7 builds on the foundation Microsoft laid with Windows Vista and takes it to another level. Based on everything seen so far, I see no reason why Windows 7 won't be a homerun for Microsoft.

Gamers reluctant to upgrade from Windows XP fear not. You finally have a reason to upgrade. If I was running Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 though, I wouldn't be in a rush to pick up Windows 7. It's definitely an improvement over Vista, but unless you plan on running SLI or CrossFire, it's probably not worth Microsoft's asking price. After all, it is fundamentally just a highly polished extension of Vista. Instead I'd spend that money on a better graphics card or CPU.