Does anyone still use 32bit?

If you have less than 4GB of RAM, then 64bit is quite useless, because it won't run any faster than 32bit. Anyway, not all Intel due core's CPU's do support the 64bit OS.
 
I don't understand why people are still using XP, it's clunky, ugly, old, incompatible with new games/software/hardware, and riddled with security holes. Windows 7 is far far better. Hell even Vista is better if you have the service packs.
 
Glaucus said:
Very useless.

It's also 4GB total address memory. So say GfX card has 1GB ram, system could use just under 3GB off the 8
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This is not true, the graphics card memory is unrelated.

The limit is 4GB in total, this includes RAM and certain parts of the page file.

The limit per process is then 2GB, so no single program can use more than 2GB.

DirectX may then reserve some for texture caches, however this is again nothing to do with graphics card memory.
 
Been on 64bit Windows 7 for ages. Having 16GB of RAM kind of makes it a requirement.

The farce of how Microsoft handled the transition (desperate program files folders and don't get me started in running 32bit control panel items) and this bigger farce over device drivers left a foul taste in many peoples mouths, mine included.

The transition to fully 64bit on OSX meanwhile was painless.
 
Moredhel said:
This is not true, the graphics card memory is unrelated.

The limit is 4GB in total, this includes RAM and certain parts of the page file.

The limit per process is then 2GB, so no single program can use more than 2GB.

DirectX may then reserve some for texture caches, however this is again nothing to do with graphics card memory.
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4GB total very much includes gfx card ram.
 
Glaucus said:
4GB total very much includes gfx card ram.
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The entire VRAM address space is not mapped by the CPU, instead part of the 2GB virtual address space is mapped (up to a limit of 256MB) plus in XP (but not in a patched up Vista) the dynamic PCI-E aperture (or fixed 64mb, 128mb or 256mb aperture on AGP).

DirectX then does a load of giggery pokery to map the rest of the video RAM into this limited address space, but it's a massive struggle in later games, even with patches like KB940105 trying to reduce the virtual address space usage.

So while some of the address space is directly mapped to VRAM, the VRAM itself has no bearing on the 4GB limit, if you have 4GB of RAM and a 3GB graphics card on a 32-bit system, your computer wont try and map all of the video RAM.

Really this is a moot point about ancient technology though, no one should be using a 32bit operating system in this day and age, even my dad's £200 craptop runs a 64bit operating system.
 
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Ascendancy said:
I know somebody who still uses 32-bit. My mate has a PC with 8GB RAM in it and refuses to move off of XP because "It's better".
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Reminds me of the time when everyone was just switching over to 64-bit (Vista 64-bit at the time) and people with high end hardware wanted to stick to XP so they didn't lose that little bit of performance :D
 
Glaucus said:
People with pre-installed computers will almost certainly be 32bit.
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Actually you have to try pretty hard for that these days. If you visited the big purple place in the past 9 months then you were getting x64 on everything but the oldest lappy or basic netbook - nothing more :p
 
LordSplodge said:
Been on 64bit Windows 7 for ages. Having 16GB of RAM kind of makes it a requirement.

The farce of how Microsoft handled the transition (desperate program files folders and don't get me started in running 32bit control panel items) and this bigger farce over device drivers left a foul taste in many peoples mouths, mine included.

The transition to fully 64bit on OSX meanwhile was painless.
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No sorry, my recollection of Apple's handling of the transition to 64 bit was a farce. Ask developers about the sudden dropping of Carbon when they had put considerable effort into developing 64 bit apps.

Apple's web site at the time made bold claims about 64 bits but they were up to their usual games - I am fairly sure there was a point when the kernel was 64 bit but the GUI was 32 - Complete mess.

It may have seemed painless to a certain class of OSX user but not to all.

Most of the graphics apps I have used/use only appeared in 64 bit versions on OSX years after they were available for Windows 64.

And I don't recall driver issues all the way back to XP64 despite what many people repeatedly claim. I haven't used Win 32 since then.

Note: Not an OSX vs WIn bash here !!! I use both :-)

My experience was obviously different to yours...
 
powlesY said:
Some games are a ******* to get to work on 64bit when compatibility mode doesn't work.
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Got to be old games. I've not run across any issues with games on 64bit going as far back as Deux Ex.

Older stuff may be an issue but GoG takes care of that so they run on 64bit fine. Ahh Planescape: Torment for the win.

You can dual boot a 32bit and 64bit version of the same OS. You could even have two hot-swap boot drives if you want to go that way instead.
 
philhoole said:
No sorry, my recollection of Apple's handling of the transition to 64 bit was a farce. Ask developers about the sudden dropping of Carbon when they had put considerable effort into developing 64 bit apps.

It may have seemed painless to a certain class of OSX user but not to all.

Most of the graphics apps I have used/use only appeared in 64 bit versions on OSX years after they were available for Windows 64.

My experience was obviously different to yours...
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Some developers, notably Adobe, continued to write in Carbon even after Apple informed the developer community that support for that was being dropped.

You are right though, quite a few multiple-platform Apps took their time to become 64bit but the story for native OSX only Cocoa apps was a much better picture. As for the brief period where the Kernel was 64bit and Finder was 32bit well that was before the kernel defaulted to 64bit. To had to chose to launch it in 64bit and most Apple users didnt do that!

Ive been bitten by the lack of 64bit drivers in Windows. Not so much in Windows 7 but XP and Vista was horrible. It depends on the hardware you use I suppose, just like some people may had had a less than smooth transition from 32bit to 64bit OSX. :)
 
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