Windows Vista spotlights graphics

It is thought that Windows Vista will be able to assess the capability of any computer it finds itself on, and serve up one of four user interfaces. Graphics will therefore take center stage when Vista comes onstream.

The bottom layer is the Classic theme, similar to Windows XP. Then, successively more advanced features follow, responding to more powerful graphics. Top of the bill is the flashy three-dimensional Aero Glass with transparent windows.

eWeek comments, “… what’s still unclear is where many of today’s PCs will fall on the Vista interface spectrum and thus how consumers and corporate buyers who wish to gain the most advanced features can get prepared.”

Indeed, many of today’s PCs’ graphics processors, which are built into their chip sets or groups of enabling chips that help shuttle data inside a PC, are inherently unprepared, analysts say. Designed more with costs in mind than performance, most are not expected to muster enough performance to make the cut for Aero Glass. That means, short of a graphics upgrade, only a small number of consumer PCs and even fewer business machines purchased in the last year are likely to leap that hurdle.

Dean McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research claims, “If you want the really sexy effects, that’s not going to happen with most of the integrated graphics installed base. If you want everything to work, you’re always going to be safer buying toward the higher end.”

[Source: eWeek]