Hmmm... 32bit or 64bit this time....

[$n][pErMan]

Well (hopefully tomorrow) I will start building my new system. I have Vista Business which I will use in duel boot with XP Pro again. I was just wondering if I should try a 64bit install this time on my new CPU. Is it worth it the headaches or have they fixed many of the critical problems?? More importantly... will I be able to game on it (hence the XP for a backup OS)? Specs in Sig :) Thanks!

[Q]

If you are someone who only formats every three years, go with 64. We are going to see some games that use more than 2Gb of ram in the next year or so and the only real way to use more than 2Gb is with a 64 bit OS.

My view is to just wait until you need the 64 bit OS before trying to deal with the BS. I'm running Vista Ultimate right now for my Media Center server and its doing great. I'm running it with 2 GB of ram, but I like being able to just throw another 2 sticks in when I please if I need to. There are still some significant gaming issues on 64, so its a no go for a lot of us here. With 4GB of ram most of the performance issues are negated, but there are still some compatibility issues here and there.

Last night I actually went back to XP MCE on my gaming rig. Previously I was running Vista 32 on it (since the first NV driver release for the 8800), but I've eventually gotten fed up of a lot of little stuff under Vista 32, much less under Vista 64. By a lot of little stuff I mean some games not loading at all, others have corruption, others run like trash, etc. I'm not saying everyone will have tons of problems because that's not the case. But if little things bug you, even Vista 32 is going to make shudder.

Back to your needs, though... ;)

In all seriousness, if you don't mind formating in another 6-18 months I would go ahead and use Vista 32. You'll get all the benefits of Vista without as much of the BS. Vista 64 is going to be where its at in a year or two, but right now its got just a few more problems than 32 without enough benefits to compensate.

[methimpikehoses]

[pErMan']Well (hopefully tomorrow) I will start building my new system. I have Vista Business which I will use in duel boot with XP Pro again. I was just wondering if I should try a 64bit install this time on my new CPU. Is it worth it the headaches or have they fixed many of the critical problems?? More importantly... will I be able to game on it (hence the XP for a backup OS)? Specs in Sig :) Thanks!

I'm running Vista x64 and it has all gone pretty well so far regarding drivers. I have played Civ4 Warlords, Medieval 2, Supreme Commander, and Oblivion so far. I did have to run a fix for SC to recognize all of my 4GB though I don't have the link handy right now.

The other thing with x64 is that there aren't programs to OC your GPU that I know of... ATiTool worked in x86 but no more. Also having issues with Intel TAT in x64.

[nekrosoft13]

i been running 64bit vista since mid january. runs great, i would say it runs better then xp even.

i have over 40 games installed, only one doesn't work becuase of the OS, and one crashes because of driver issue.

its not hard to find 64bit drivers, especially now that MS requires companies to have both 32 and 64bit driver to get WHQl

[einstein_314]

I agree with Qlitchford. Go 32bit. I'm going back to 32bit from 64bit this weekend. I haven't had any huge problems with 64bit...it's just that there's no 64bit driver for my TrackIR 4...so I can't use it.

[nvnews-reader]

I think most people would like to buy an OEM version. You can save almost $200 on the ultimate version. But if you do you have to decide on 32bit or 64bit up front.

[Zelda_fan]

I recommend you dual boot with Vista x64 and Windows XP 32bit

You have XP for old games and compatibility, and you have Vista x64 if you plan on using more than 3.2GB of system RAM. Native 64bit apps (not a lot out there - IEx64, 7-Zipx64, among others) run a lot quicker.

I run x64 myself. It is a good OS, but for gaming compatibility you really need XP on your machine.

[Rakeesh]

That is what I am doing. I gave 32-bit XP pro a 100GB partition and gave 64-bit vista ultimate a 50GB partition. I am still waiting for proper DDL drivers to come around for vista anyways. As soon as that comes around I will probably dual boot 32-bit vista and 64-bit vista.

[crainger]

I recommend you dual boot with Vista x64 and Windows XP 32bit

You have XP for old games and compatibility, and you have Vista x64 if you plan on using more than 3.2GB of system RAM. Native 64bit apps (not a lot out there - IEx64, 7-Zipx64, among others) run a lot quicker.

I run x64 myself. It is a good OS, but for gaming compatibility you really need XP on your machine.

Same here. I haven't been running Vista 64 long, but it's going great so far. Only issue was due to me trying to install a 32 bit driver :o