When do you think 64 bit CPU's will become commonplace?

[monkeydust]

I'm trying to plan my hardware upgrades here... ;)

I've got an AthlonXP 1900+ and a gig of ram. I'm wondering if 64 bit CPU's will be the "one to get" when upgrade time comes around again. I've seen several comments from developers that say that 64 bit CPU's will probably not perform as wel as 32 bit CPU's for 32 bit applications.

Do you think 64 bit processors will be commonplace say... 2nd half of next year?

[FastM]

Probably depends on when M$ releases a 32/64-bit OS. But the way things are going i would say late late next year the earliest.

[budd_wm]

It will probably be 2-3 years before 64-bit procs become common place. Don't worry about the Hammer from AMD right now. By the time 64-bit does become common place, it will be time to upgrade again anyway.

[SavagePaladin]

Common right now, my friend, is BUDGET.

Don't get your hopes up too much.

I think UT2003 is gonna go x86-64 (yay!) but I'm not sure yet.

Anyway, I'd say common will wait til 2004 or 05 for 64 bit stuff. If Intel does it at all for consumers, which they don't seem to be doing.

[monkeydust]

Thanks for the input. I guess I'll have another 32 bit CPU upgrade at some point next year before making the 64 bit jump.

[StealthHawk]

commonplace? not until Intel plans on releasing a consumer 64-bit CPU. and i honestly have no idea when they plan on attempting or actually doing that. it won't be next year. supposedly AMD Clawhammer has been pushed back into 2H 03, but that will be high end, not commonplace at all.

anyway, until 64bit CPUs become low end or midrange, they won't be "commonplace."

[The Baron]

64-bit will be common place in MAYBE 5 years.

There's ONLY one way to get common people to upgrade, and that's by releasing a version of Windows or a killer app that only works on a 64-bit proc.

So... until Intel releases a 64-bit proc and Hammer has some market saturation, that's not going to happen.

It's basically a chicken or egg thing right now... you need market saturation for a killer app, but people won't buy them until there's a killer app. :p

[SavagePaladin]

It looks like Windows really is going x86-64 (I know of the announcement, but theres been no news since...)

Excellent

[Phyre]

Isn't 64-bit Linux in the works also? If I correctly remember the Hammer announcement (call in) from early this year, 64-bit Linux was run on a Hammer testbed before Windows XP. If 64-bit Linux is out when the Hammer comes out, that might be a nice litte experiment. Who knows? Maybe the 64-bit Linux binaries for UT2003 will be out then.

Phyre

[SavagePaladin]

the state of linux drivers is still holding me back...

like audio

[LuminousFriend]

If you think getting linux drivers is difficult, try getting FreeBSD drivers!

ack.

[thcdru2k]

i think it might be commonplace sooner than we think, i mean if it took epic just one week to make ut2k3 64-bit optimized, it can't be that hard to get software out for 64-bit.

[The Baron]

Originally posted by thcdru2k
i think it might be commonplace sooner than we think, i mean if it took epic just one week to make ut2k3 64-bit optimized, it can't be that hard to get software out for 64-bit.

software's not the problem.

drivers are. :p

[SavagePaladin]

NVidias gonna be supporting it, so what do I care about drivers, especially when they get their nForce for Hammers out
muahaha

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by thcdru2k
i think it might be commonplace sooner than we think, i mean if it took epic just one week to make ut2k3 64-bit optimized, it can't be that hard to get software out for 64-bit.

yeah well, UT2003 supposedly uses VS to accelerate performance...to little avail.

besides, it says it "takes advantage of" the 64bit CPU, not that it was optimized for it. there is quite a big difference.

i'd like to see some performance numbers, but with Clawhammer still far away, that isn't likely too happen soon.

[budd_wm]

The average consumer is not going to care if UT2k3 supports 64-bit or not. They will only care if it runs on their computer. If all consumers were like us who browsed the forums, then I'm sure 64-bit would move a lot faster, but since that isn't so and we're actually a very small percentage of the computer market, I'm saying at least 3 years before it becomes commonplace.

[serialdave]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2109107,00.html

windows will be 64 bit when the AMD chips hit the shelves. UT will be there and all 32 bit apps will run on the chip anyway. As in the day of 386 chips being the first 32 bit cpu's and not until windows nt os2 and QUAKE did software take real use of it. This go I think things will go much faster towards 64 bit.

With linux windows and mack all getting ready and game developers already taking advantage it will probably be towards the end of next year that most people will be longing for the 64 bit upgrade : )

just my .02

[ReDeeMeR]

Originally posted by thcdru2k
i think it might be commonplace sooner than we think, i mean if it took epic just one week to make ut2k3 64-bit optimized, it can't be that hard to get software out for 64-bit.


Yeah, if it's really so easy to make games run faster using 64bit HW I think it's great, you will still be able to run all your 32bit apps and games and some of them could take preformance increase from 64bit.