Vista 64 and performance

[Mark Maylon]

Fellow Gamers!!!

Currently running home premium 32 bit. I ordered the 64 bit upgrade disk.
My question is how is the 64 bit version. I can play most of my games now
under 32 bit version, cod series, HL2, BF2142, Ect....no problem.I am
curious if you see and performance increases' or decreases from 32 to 64?
Technically speaking the 64 bit should outrun the 32 bit. I also ordered a
second sata drive should I dual boot the 32 and 64 for stability? I guess my
last concern is SLI in 64 bit.Currently running 2 7900GS 256 gdr's in SLI
mode under vista 32 with the 101.41 beta driver.Can i expect to run SLI mode
in 64 bit?
thanks all

 

[Dale M. White]

I currently multiple boot between, XP, V32 and V64. I don't see to spend
much time playing any games these days, I seem to spend all my time
benchmarking, reloading and re-benchmarking. Guess it's because there is a
slow period in gaming, so I have alot of free time.

I don't know all the technical specs, but from what I have read, there seems
to be a little debate on whether 64bit computing is going to be faster or
slower. In some regards the 64bit code takes up more of the processors L1
and L2 cache, meaning less code gets cached and that's a hit to performance.
On the other side, there is the larger addressable memory spaces. But Since
I'm running with only 2GB, doesn't serve me much good.

Adding to the mix is Vista, which is new and doesn't have the mature level
drivers and optimizations that XP does and the slower or equal to
performance is hard to pinpoint why. I guess if I was really interested I
would create a 4 boot for XP64 to see how it works.

I loaded Far Cry 64 and made my only little benchmarks demo to run on the 3
OS and I didn't see any real performance gain or loss. SP was still about 10
fps faster, but it's 10 fps faster than Vista32.

HL2 is a totally different story. Under XP is benchmarks at 141fps, Under
Vista 32 it scores 130, and Vista64 it scores a 95. The problem (if it can
be called one) is that steam loads a 64bit client when it detects Vista64.
I haven't figured out how to tell Steam\HL2 not to switch to a 64bit client,
and stay at 32 to see what the numbers are. I'm sure there is a way
(probably turn off my internet connection, and tells steam not to update)
but it seems like it always know it needs an update and won't let me run it
until I get it.

Can't answer the SLI stuff, I would assume you would get it just the same as
the 32bit, if nVidia is offering it out.

So if the game works, I don't think you're see a noticeable performance loss
running V64. But I don't think you see much if any performance gains. Maybe
if I had 4Gb of ram, I could offer a better answer. But I don't think that
would help in terms of the benchmarks anyway

 

[Tyler Cobb]

Due to various issues that come with virtualization, you will find mixed
performance amongst your games. Some will perform a little faster and some
will perform a little slower. Every once in a while, you might even run
across one that doesn't perform at all. I haven't, yet, though. I have seen
requests for help that imply certain games aren't playable under Windows
Vista x64, but since I own those games, I can see that the problem is with
their system settings, not the operating system.

Tyler Cobb, MCP

 

[Charlie Tame]

64 bit will be slower than 32 probably and a lot slower than XP in my
experience, SLI doesn't work at all well for me because I can't get all 4
monitor outputs to work in the same setup for both 64 bit and XP... no idea
why but the monitors need to be swapped to get the resolutions available
matching the outputs I'm plugged into That is likely a driver problem
with 64 I think so should get fixed.

There is an extra layer (Like a second hardware abstraction layer) between
the hardware and video drivers to reduce the risk of a bad driver screwing
up the system if it crashes, and one more layer = slower FPS.

I think the performance is quite disappointing but oh well

Charlie

(Please note this is not meant to be a hi tech definitive article, just an
opinion