Official Windows Vista system requirements

Microsoft has also officially released the Windows Vista system requirement.

The next generation operating system requires the following hardware:

• minimum - Windows Vista Basic:
  • processor: 800 MHz
  • memory: 512 MB
  • graphics driver: DirectX 9 support and a minimum resolution of 800 × 600 pixels
  • optical drive: CD-ROM
  • hard drive: 20 GB capacity, 15 GB free space for installation
• Recommended - Windows Vista Premium:
  • processor: 1 GHz
  • memory: 1 GB
  • graphics driver: DirectX 9 and Pixel Shader 2.0 support, WDDM driver, 128 MB VRAM
  • optical drive: DVD-ROM
  • hard drive: 40 GB capacity, 15 GB free space for installation
  • other: sound card and Internet access

Of course, you can install Windows Vista on weaker configurations, but then you may not be able to enjoy all the features in the right quality. The limitation on system memory should be taken very seriously. From our own experience, however, we can say that even a S3 Trio3D will do it as a graphics controller, 32-bit Vista also supports this rather old card anyway.

Weak pirated copies of leaked RTM versions