How much diff does a gfx card make to the speed of vista?

All the GUI functions will be offloaded into the graphic processor which means that a faster GPU would give faster "GUI" performance HOWEVER there is a point where faster becomes insignificant. So something along the lines of a 6800XT to 8600GTS and higher is recommended.

Get a DX10 card - g80 series or ati 2900 i think. For games.

Otherwise get a real cheap card. No aero desktop, but who gives a fuck.

Vista is the problem. When I had it on my machine...3d graphics slowed to a crawl. I've heard many others say the same thing. I used a program from Passmark, called "performance test". I scored a 750 with XP pro, and 275 under Vista...and I was getting half the frame rate under Vista.

To me, Vista is a big box of poopy..I'll wait and see what happens after Service Pack 1.

Nietz has pretty much touched on it, Vista can allow you to utilise Aero.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/experiences/aero.mspx

Aero pretty much contains features that you'll find in most Linux GUI's, like thumbnails and Stacking, however to my knowledge MS hasn't embraced the Multiple sessions capability to the full extent like certain Linux GUI's where they can have more than one load out to a screen configured and switched at the touch of a button. (This is understandable in regards to Vista's resource usage in comparison to a Linux build)

Vista isn't really built for old Legacy equipment, such OS's are meant for the new equipment although even companies like Dell initially had problems and reverted back to preloading XP.

Currently I'm using it and notice that it's just loaded with Gimmicky features in comparison to XP. It does the same tasks, just with more load on resources.

Think I will upgrade my card as its running slower than my old computer, it must be the drain from vista.

I agree stryder that vista has turned the OS into something much closer to a toy. However, I like it is polished and with cpu's getting faster its nice to have some finishing touches even if you may not need them.