Need advice - Is Vista 64 for me?

[Rastaman]

A couple questions for anyone with experience using 64 bit -

* Will most properly written 32 bit apps run on a 64 bit OS?

* Can I expect better performance with 32 bit apps by installing 64 bit
Vista?

* Is 64 bit considered better for gaming?

Primary purpose of computer is gaming
Secondary use - internet browsing, playing music

AMD 64 X2 3800+
Abit SLI mb w/ nVidia nforce4 chipset , 2 gigs RAM
2 GeForce 7800gt cards SLI

Would just like to know if I should install the 64 bit version. I have
installed Vista 32 bit, and networking, sound, video - everything is working
fine. I am really looking forward to being able to use both of my video
cards, though -- Hopefully nVidia will release better drivers soon.

 

[Zack Uribe]

I have been running Vista x86 and just set up a machine running 64bit.

MSI 7600GT, AMD 64 3800+, 2GB Ram, Nforce 4 chipset...I thought SLI would
hang your system at boot? Guess that is what I get for believing all the
posts I see in this newsgroup... ;-)

Oblivion ROCKS!!!..have not installed/played any of my other games yet.

 

[Kerry Brown]

A couple questions for anyone with experience using 64 bit -

* Will most properly written 32 bit apps run on a 64 bit OS?

* Can I expect better performance with 32 bit apps by installing 64
bit Vista?

* Is 64 bit considered better for gaming?

Primary purpose of computer is gaming
Secondary use - internet browsing, playing music

AMD 64 X2 3800+
Abit SLI mb w/ nVidia nforce4 chipset , 2 gigs RAM
2 GeForce 7800gt cards SLI

Would just like to know if I should install the 64 bit version. I
have installed Vista 32 bit, and networking, sound, video -
everything is working fine. I am really looking forward to being
able to use both of my video cards, though -- Hopefully nVidia will
release better drivers soon.

Game software is traditionally very slow to migrate to a new OS. You will
have problems with buggy drivers for a quite a while which will cause
problems with games. The 64 bit version is likely to take longer to get
stable drivers. One big advantage of 64 bit for games is support for more
than 4 GB of ram. Eventually 64 bit will take over because of this. How fast
that happens is anybodies guess but my guess is for the near future stick
with 32 bit XP for games if you want the best chance of any given game
running reliably on your system.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Remember that this is a beta test program and so your choice of what to test
now in order to help MS and what to run for your own enjoyment after Vista
hits the shelves next year should be different.

x64 will run most 32-bit apps under the WOW64 emulation.

64-bit processors are more efficent than 32-bit and some aspects of that
improve 32-bit perf slightly, although this may be offset by the slight perf
hit from WOW64. In my opinion it is an overall wash.

If your app is really memory intensive and you have enough ram, you will
benefit from x64 because x64 will give your 32-bit app a full 2GB of ram.

64-bit is not any better for gaming because the vast majority of games are
not compiled for 64-bit targets. If you have special game controllers they
may or may not have 64-bit device drivers.

Since you list gaming and browsing as important to you I see no need to use
x64. I don't see any advantage for playing music either and you may have
trouble finding 64-bit device drivers for some of your favorite cards. If
you rip and burn a lot of music then x64 may be the better choice. If you
get into movie-making, x64 becomes a very attractive choice.

Having said all that, if you are in a position to test x64 I suggest that
you do so since it will benefit MS more than your testing x86. 95% of the
Vista beta installations are x86, so more x64 testers is helpful.

Of course, if you have two available partitions, why not install both?

 

[Mark Dietz]

Most 32-bit apps will run fine and you probably won't notice a difference

Supposedly, running a 32-bit app in vista decreases performance as it has to run
it in an emulation layer, but i have never noticed a difference

About the same for gaming. The big issue i've found is that since all windows
64bit OSes are based on Server, some of them will not work as they see it as
Server instead of what it may be and then either won't install or won't work
unfortunately. I don't really know of a way of testing this without installing
the game and trying.

 

[Zack Uribe]

Actually Colin, Even though this is called a "beta test" by Microsoft, you
must know that it is not. We happen to be running the Beta2 build, but we
are really the in the CTP(Customer Technology Preview).

I am reporting most of the errors/issues that I run into as if it were a
beta test but...

1) If this was a real beta test, and not the "viral marketing" excercise, we
would have access to interim builds to see if our reported bugs were
actually fixed. Since I am not going to get a new build until RC1, they are
not treating me as a trusted beta tester, so I am not going to jump through
hoops to test every piece of software/hardware that I have sitting around
the house.

2) You have to realise that by allowing 2 Million downloads, with up to 10
machines each, there is NO WAY that they could handle the bugs if every
person even just reported 1. I am not sure, but I doubt that our bug
reporting reports go along the same path with the internal/private beta
testers. If it does, I am afraid that we will slow down the release of
Vista, instead of help get it out the door. Can you imagine how many "bug
reports" they have recieved that (Creative,ATI,SLI,Raid, external USB, etc)
hardware does not work? How about how many "bugs" due to the UAC and
permissions(even when it is functioning exactly as design/implemented)


I am just trying to say, yes we should report errors we run into, but don't
think we are actually the Beta team for Vista.

These forums can definately get on your nerves......

 

[Conor]

Actually Colin, Even though this is called a "beta test" by Microsoft, you
must know that it is not.

Strange. Appears to be a BETA to me.

I am reporting most of the errors/issues that I run into as if it were a
beta test but...

1) If this was a real beta test, and not the "viral marketing" excercise, we
would have access to interim builds to see if our reported bugs were
actually fixed.

There are interim builds...just not released to everyone who downloaded
BETA2 as it'd bring everything to a crawl and would be pointless
because a great many of those who did download it have **** all clue
about testing.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Yes, it is a Customer preview, but it is not a Consumer preview. The three
classes of customers are listed in the red-letter advisory on GetReady/Get
Vista Beta 2.

"Beta 2 is intended for developers, IT professionals and technology experts
to continue or begin their testing of Windows Vista. Before you decide to
use Beta 2, you should feel comfortable with installing operating systems,
updating drivers, and general PC troubleshooting."

At present there are 120,000 bug reports and MS is not behind in triaging
these.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I agree about the perf. The hit from WOW64 is slight enough not to notice
the diff, especially on fast hardware. It can also be that it is offset by
some efficiencies gained from the 64-bit architecture.

However, although the 64-bit OS's share the same codebase between client and
server, it does not mean the clients are servers lumbering along disguised
as clients. It just means that the x64 servers were developed ahead of the
clients and the codebase was available to use as the starting point for the
clients.

As an example, XP Pro x64 was developed with Windows Server 2003 SP1 as its
starting codebase (a rock solid codebase was ready to hand so why not use
it?), but XP Pro x64 shares its feature set with XP Pro SP2, not Server, and
performs no differently than XP Pro SP2. There was benefit to XP Pro x64
from Windows Server being a rock solid system with the result that XP Pro
x64 is the stablest Windows client so far.