We all remember the fiasco when Vista was first released. Companies and individuals were scrambling to find the minimum requirements and plans for a massive upgrade. Vista required at least 128 MB onboard memory video card that was DirectX 9 capable. While these were the minimum requirements, it soon became obvious that more was needed for this memory and graphic intensive program. With the release of Windows 7 possibly as early as Fall 2009, these same set of questions are coming up again? Hopefully this can shed some light on what you need to do before the release of Windows 7.
There are many misconceptions about what exactly is needed for a video card. It really depends on what your primary use is for your computer. If you are a person who just checks email, writes papers, surfs the internet, etc – you don’t need a massive video card that costs hundreds of dollars. The onboard video card is probably plenty powerful for that use. Obviously a PC gamer or someone who uses 3D applications will need a much more powerful card. For this article I’ll stick to the requirements for a basic PC user.
What exactly is a video card? In short, it’s what allows the information on your computer to be displayed on the screen. All computers come with an on-board video card. These are usually low to mid range cards that do the job for most users. But what if your computer is a few years old and you are considering upgrading to Windows 7? You may need to upgrade your card.
Let’s take a look at the Windows 7 minimum requirements.
• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of avaiable disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Doesn’t look all that different from Vista does it? In all honesty, I think these requirements are actually quite close to reality. Windows 7 is supposed to have much better video and memory utilization. Vista was called a memory hog, and that was an understatement.
What does this mean for you? I believe that if you are running a semi-modern PC (2-3 years old) you should be able to upgrade to Windows 7 with no hardware upgrades. Again, this is for the normal PC user who doesn’t run massive games or 3D programs. I for one am very excited for the release of Windows 7. I currently run the Release Candidate and love it. I’ll save my Windows 7 review for another day.
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