Are You Ready for Vista Graphics?: Page 6 of 8

While many late-model laptops will meet the CPU and memory requirements even of Vista Premium, the graphics requirements of Aero will put them out of the running because they lack either 128MB of dedicated graphics memory or the support for DirectX and WDDM to run it. To make matters even worse, of course, very few laptops have upgradeable graphics.

Fortunately, the scalability of the Vista interface comes to the rescue. The Windows Standard or Windows Classic interfaces will run on many of these machines, as long as they meet Vista's minimum system requirement of 512MB of system memory, an 800MHz processor, SVGA (800x600) graphics, a 20GB hard drive with 15GB free, and a CD-ROM drive for the install disk.

This is even lower than the minimum requirements for the Windows Capable logo program, and it obviously represents a decision by Microsoft to bring as many existing laptops into the Vista tent as possible while maintaining that all-important "user experience" that has become Microsoft's mantra for Vista.

The lower graphics capabilities, however, does mean that some of the fancier applications built into Vista won't run. In other words, you'll be restricted to what Microsoft is calling the "core experience" of Vista. These features -- Parental Controls, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Defender, and Instant Search -- are what Vista delivers with its Home Basic version. More graphics-intensive features, like Windows Media Center and Windows Aero with Flip 3D will require a newer laptop built expressly to be a media machine.

The dividing line is support for DirectX 9. If the graphic possibilities of Aero and Media Center are driving your interest in Vista, dig into your laptop's graphics specs to see if that's on the list before you decide whether to upgrade the machine's OS to Vista, or go shopping for a new Vista Premium-ready laptop.