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Vista 64bit vs XP 32bit

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:11 pm
by Jasno
Hey all,

I was wondering if I could get a bit of advice. I just put together a new gaming rig, and without realising it I bought more ram for it than XP 32bit can handle. Here's the stats of the system

2.40 ghz Intel core 2 quad
4 Gig SLI ready ram
GeForce 8800 GTS Card SLI (640 mb ram)

I've read online that vista is a bit slower than xp, but on the same token, like it or not it will be the OS most games will be released on.

Should I upgrade to Vista 64? XP 64? or just keep what I have?

Thanks in advance for any imput
Jasno/Ghola

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:00 pm
by A'Ton Sands
I have an x64 system an I mostly run xp x32

XP x64 is to unstable and lacks drivers

Vista x32 is slower than xp
Vista x64 is a bit faster than x32 but still slower than xp.

The problem with x64, is to take advantage of it the application (game) needs to be compiled for 64bits there are very few games out there for x64.

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:33 am
by Anach
To put it short. Yes you will fix your RAM limitation, but you may find it difficult to find drivers for older peripherals, which will happen in Vista regardless, but possibly compounded with 64bit. You wont notice any difference in gaming, as what A'ton says, there arent any that take advantage of the 64bit platform.

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:43 am
by Jasno
Thats a good point. I think I'll stick with xp32 until games DO start taking advantage of 64bit thanks

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 8:45 am
by Iakimo
I'm running Vista-64 on my new AMD-3800 dual-core-based gaming rig, and it seems to be working fine. It runs 32-bit software in an emulated mode, and seems to be working fine. It's currently set up with 2 gigs of DDR-2 RAM, and an X1350 Radeon video card. I haven't tried to install XP-32 on it as yet, so I can't do an apples-to-apples performance comparison of XP vs. Vista, but it works, it runs all my current software, and I'm happy with it. I can dial up the detail and viewing distance on LOTRO to the maximums with no loss of framerate, and the only technical problem I've had with any software at all so far is that the installer for LOTRO failed to install a shortcut onto my desktop, forcing me to manually set one up. So, it will do for now, until 64-bit versions of games emerge and it can take full advantage of its native mode.

It does seem to chug a bit on high-res settings for Total Annihilation-II, but then, I hear the system that is capable of running that hog in high-rez without chugging hasn't been built yet.

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:08 am
by Anach
Hehe most strategy games become a system hog once you get far enough into the campaign to build many types of units.

The other issue with Vista 64bit and drivers is that it wont install unsigned drivers, unlike its 32bit counter-part.

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 12:17 am
by Jasno
Ooo Thanks for that bit, cause tunebite uses un signed drivers. Definatly won't install it now. You just saved me a lot of heartache thank you.