Vista 64 vs 32

[Jake K]

Asus A8N SLI Delux (SLI not used).
AMD Athlon 64 3200 processor
2 GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 6600 GT video
SATA 250 GB drive

64 bit drivers for all additional hardware I have are avaiable.

Will I notice a significant performance and/or stability difference between
32 and 64 bit Vista Ultimate?

I currently run 32, however, now that all 64 drivers are available I'm
considering formatting and installing 64. Is it worth going through this
hassle? Any thoughts, comments, recommendations?

Thanks.

 

[Hakan GOKCOL]

64 bit more fast and more stability...

Hakan GOKCOL

 

[John Barnes]

You probably will not experience much if any difference with 2gig ram unless
you are running true 64-bit programs.
One thing to watch out for is imbedded drivers in software. Roxio EMC8
being installed on 64-bit caused me to have to reinstall Vista when the
drivers failed. Programs with imbedded PDF printer drivers are another
situation to watch out for.

 

[Jake K]

Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I'll wait a while till a service pack is
released or a lot of new updates.

 

[Erik Funkenbusch]

Will I notice a significant performance and/or stability difference between
32 and 64 bit Vista Ultimate?

Not unless you have 64 bit applications. 32 bit applications run only
slightly (if any) faster, and a few cases they can run slower.

If you have no compelling reason to use 64 bit, don't. There are still a
lot of compatibility issues with certain 32 bit applications (and there is
no 16 bit support at all), so the trouble just isn't worth any minor
benefit you may get out of it.

I currently run 32, however, now that all 64 drivers are available I'm
considering formatting and installing 64. Is it worth going through this
hassle? Any thoughts, comments, recommendations?

No, it's not worth it, and likely won't be worth it for a few years until
64 bit apps start becoming the default.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The issues usually aren't Vista. They are usually drivers from the
manufacturers for Vista. You have to determine if Vista drivers are
available before making a judgement. Driver issues are not resolved by a
service pack. They are supplied by the manufacturers.

 

[Jake K]

Thanks. As I mentioned in my original post, "64 bit drivers for all
additional hardware I have are avaiable". What I'm wondering is if it's
worth the trouble of upgrading (by means of formatting/installing) from 32
to 64 bit Vista Ultimate.

 

[Xenomorph]

that's funny, because from what i've read, the 64-bit versions of Windows
has NOTHING to do with "more fast" or stability.

being 64-bit allows it to work with more RAM.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

64bit is stabler because the 64bit cpu's have advances in architecture that
support that when a 64bit OS is running. Also, the enforcement of 64bit
signed drivers by itself cuts out about 90% of the 32bit blue screens.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

If you don't have good reasons jumping out at you and screaming "SWITH TO
64BIT, YOU'RE LIFE IS IN DANGER!!" I would stick with 32bit. Having said
that, 64bits is here to stay and is the future. Stay within your comfort
zone. If you don't have an answer to the question, "What's broken that I
need to fix?" then I would rather see you use 32bit than have a bad
experience and give 64bit a bad name. If you are a technology enthusiast
then you won't be able to resist so go for it.

 

[John Barnes]

Or makes the system totally unusable as when Roxio EMC8 failed when it got
to the driver install portion. Installed a driver that had to be manually
removed and left the system running poorly after getting it restarted.
I find installing programs that may have drivers problematic. Since most
programs still don't have the ready for Vista you can only guess. I have
had 3 reinstalls due to these problems. I now only install any programs on
a test system first. All of these programs installed without problems on
X64, so it is not a 64-bit problem, but a Vista64 bit problem.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I have only used EMC 8.5 with XP Pro x64 and 9 with Vista x64, so I haven't
had any issues at all with Roxio. Lucky, I guess.

 

[John Barnes]

Since 8 had installed on X64 I knew it had 64 bit drivers, but when
installing on Vista64 it turned out they weren't signed and crashed the
system.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I wonder why drivers which shouldn't install on Vista x64 (unsigned drivers
shouldn't even install) can crash it? Since you are using x64 I know it
wasn't dragged over on an upgrade. What messages did you see concerning
drivers when you installed EMC 8?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Or did you use F8 at boot to force it?

I wonder why drivers which shouldn't install on Vista x64 (unsigned drivers
shouldn't even install) can crash it? Since you are using x64 I know it
wasn't dragged over on an upgrade. What messages did you see concerning
drivers when you installed EMC 8?

 

[John Barnes]

No forced boot. The message was something about unsigned driver. Elected
to cancel the install and it seemed to reverse the install and said so at
the end. Reboot wouldn't start because of a new driver. Went into dual
boot and renamed the offending driver, it was a Roxio driver when properties
viewed. On reboot there were numerous problems with the system, which made
it unusable. I reloaded my last Ghost image. It has been a while so some
details I don't remember. I was surprised that one of the unsigned drivers
would have gotten installed and didn't remember how to force boot with an
unsigned driver so I didn't try that on the failed boot.

 

[David Hearn]

Asus A8N SLI Delux (SLI not used).
AMD Athlon 64 3200 processor
2 GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 6600 GT video
SATA 250 GB drive

64 bit drivers for all additional hardware I have are avaiable.

Will I notice a significant performance and/or stability difference
between 32 and 64 bit Vista Ultimate?

I currently run 32, however, now that all 64 drivers are available I'm
considering formatting and installing 64. Is it worth going through
this hassle? Any thoughts, comments, recommendations?

Thanks.

Do you play Half Life 2? I understand that Valve have no plans to
update their Source engine to work under x64.

D

 

[Mark-Allen [160825]]

I like the 64-bit version. If you can install it, I'd suggest it's the way
to go.

Of course, like any professional, you have checked that all your
applications will run on Vista 64-bit, right?

Yep, thought so. So boot it.



--
Mark-Allen Perry
160825 / 1112165
Windows Vista X64 Ultimate
RTM Build 6000.16386
ALPHA Systems
Marly, Switzerland
mark-allen @ mvps . org