Tom’s HWG outlines specs for Vista-capable PC tiers

Tom’s Hardware Guide posted an article today on “How capable is a ‘Vista-capable’ PC?” In it, the author collected information from various reports and specs from across Microsoft and outlines the hardware requirements for different Windows Vista hardware configurations that meet the logos requirements:

	Designed for Windows XP	Windows Vista Capable	Windows Vista Ready (Basic tier)	Windows Vista “Compliant” (Premium tier)
Main memory	128 MB	512 MB	512 MB (req.) 1 GB (rec.)	1 GB (req.) 2 GB (rec.)
Graphics driver support	DirectX 7	DirectX 9	DirectX 9.0L (for WDDM)	DirectX 9.0L w/ Pixel Shader 2.0
Dedicated graphics memory	None	None (req.) 64 MB (1280 x 1024) (rec. for Aero)	None	128 MB (1280 x 1024)
Graphics memory bandwidth	N/A	1800 MB/s (rec. for Aero)	None	1800 MB/s

Tom’s reported…

“The Windows Vista Capable PC Program,” a spokesperson for Microsoft told TG Daily late yesterday, “is a program that will provide information to customers about PCs they can buy today that will be able to run the next version of Microsoft Windows operating system. PCs with the Windows Vista Capable logo will ensure the best possible computing experience today, while helping create a seamless transition to Windows Vista.”

As I mentioned over the weekend re: the Windows Vista Capable PC Program, I’ll stick by my plans for new machines, but add an additional 1GB of RAM and at a minimum a 128MB graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0L… ‘though I’ll consider a reasonable 256MB card.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Vista.

2 replies on “Tom’s HWG outlines specs for Vista-capable PC tiers”