VISTA 32 or 64 Bit?

Dodge

Dodge

Dodge

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Upgrading my sons PC which is currently running XP Pro 32bit. He wants to go for Vista to get the best from his new Readeon 3870 x2, as he is running a AMD 4800 x2 processor (939) he insists that he should go for the 64 bit version, what do you think? Are there any known issues, I have checked drivers and they all seem Ok. My son is an avid gamer!! What are the advantages of 64 v 32bit?

Dodge
 
Advantages vs 32-bit - Can use more RAM (more than 4GB).

Disadvantages vs 32-bit - Everything else.

32-bit is a lot more stable and less prone to niggly driver/software issues from what i've read form numerous user on numerous forums... but YMMV I guess, some people run it without issues! Personally as a gamer I would only install 32-bit for the moment.
 
I am running Vista x64 with no problems at all. Go for it. I have the following games installed with no issues also:
Pro Evolution 8
Assassin's Creed
Crysis
Doom 3
Bioshock
Call of Duty 4
Half Life 2
Portal
Unreal Tournament 3

Vista x64 is very stable and I say try it :)
 
I actually disagree with Rich, my vista 64 is running perfectly.

A few pieces of software don't work, but overall, remember Vista 64 isn't just about "ohhh extra ram it can see!" its also more secure, as well as tons more little features.

I will link to another post that asked the same thing: here

And look at Firegods reply, where he links to 2 interesting articles.

bittech

And a post by NathanE Here Also, I would recommend in particular reading
 
I also agree, since installing Vista x64 my system seem an awful lot more stable, driver signing is a good thing in the long term as it means that drivers are less likely to cause problems. I didn't have a single problem with drivers, Vista even found a driver for some obscure Intel device that wasn't installed in XP and it also searches Windows Update for you to see if it can find any new drivers. Compared to XP 32 this thing flies and is much speedier because it actually uses the RAM it has rather than leaving it empty doing bugger all. Also UAC hasn't got in my way at all, it seems less aggresive compared to when I used Vista x86, I don't know if it's SP1 or the fact I'm using x64. I don't think anyone can comment on Vista x64 until they have tried it themself.
 
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There is nothign wrong with Vista64 at all... 64Bit is the one to go for, no matter what you do with your PC, not just gaming.
 
install 64 bit just about everything has drivers that work and you have the advantage of adding more ram if you say son is a keen gamer without having to upgrade from 32 bit to 64
 
Richdog said:
Advantages vs 32-bit - Can use more RAM (more than 4GB).

Disadvantages vs 32-bit - Everything else.

32-bit is a lot more stable and less prone to niggly driver/software issues from what i've read form numerous user on numerous forums... but YMMV I guess, some people run it without issues! Personally as a gamer I would only install 32-bit for the moment.
Click to expand...

I feel your statement is false since I have both 32 bit version and 64 bit version of Vista on my PCs so feel I can answer this question,personally no difference in stability if anything Vista x64 feels slightly nippier to me,drivers are stable and I have them all.

Software and gaming wise,well I have over 70 games installed in Vista x64 and still have no issues even with Starforce drivers.

Only pro for Vista x86 IMHO is if you really need to run very old 16 bit software or 16 bit games.

Btw do remember there is no legacy 16 bit software in Vista x64 ,some even say that makes the OS leaner/ less bloated and more stable then its 32 bit brother.

I prefer Vista x64 over Vista x86.
 
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just go 64 bit, 32 bit is pointless nowadays

ms shouldn't have released vista in both flavours, they wouldn't have people with crap machines complaining that vista is slow after they've bought it then (they'd just complain that they can't even install it :p )

tv cards & webcams are the only things now that may not have drivers (just look around for them)
 
Absolutely nothing wrong with 64bit; I've used it since release and so long as you don't use old hardware, there is zero problems with it.
 
I too would go 64bit however I disagree with the comments that it's perfect against x32 because it isn't yet. It still has it's issues with device drivers but it is gaining ground fast.

x32 to me feels quite slow now, and my recent move to x64 wasn't without its problems, these were rather unexplainable though. So far this x64 install is going strong a month on.
 
me neither - no problems with Vista 64 into games included very old software that work prefect - none hiccup. I would go for 64 rather than 32 for large RAM.
 
I think a lot of the stigma around Vista X64 comes from MS' crap support of XP X64, they simply weren't ready for it, and neither were software developers.

Now though with 64bit being a lot more mature i don't think it's an issue anymore, i had Vista X86 but it went belly up and moved to X64, so based on that experience i'd say more stable, but obviously that's just my case.

the only driver issues i can think of are stupid developers who put checks into it before it will install (like logitech, most of their drivers crap out on server 2003 (nice and lightweight for games), hwne infact they would run fine).
 
Yeah, a lot of stuff you read on the Internet is also out of date and no longer true, especially with the updated support that comes with SP1. I remember reading about my Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 not working with Vista x64, as soon as I plugged it in Microsoft solution center gave me a URL of where to download the driver, not had a single problem with it and I even remapped the hard-coded MSN button to Skype. Unless you have obscure hardware then your not likely to have any issues, TV cards may be one exception but most things will work out of the box.
 
I have been using XP64 or almost 3 years and in that time, sure I have had some issues, but then, the modem was replaced with a router ( As almost everyone would do these days anyway if they had any sense ) the TV Card was replaced, but then the TV Card I had was not compatible with XP 32 either... ( People are also blind to the fact that there are still many more TV cards out there that are NOT compatible with XP than they would admit ) and my WebCam was also replaced as this also didnt work in Vista32 or 64.

The support for 64Bit was a litle slow on the uptake at first, just like it was for everything else. The problem was that ignorance from both the population and the media didnt seem to care for the fact that 64Bit Drivers had actually overtaken 32Bit ones in quality, and for the last couple of years, 32Bit users have had second rate drivers to run their second rate systems with, while the 64Bit drivers have just gone from strength to strength.

I would never waste my time and go back to 32Bit again, unless its Windows 2000, I find it fairly ludicrous, that there are people out there saying that 32Bit is better than 64Bit when they really should know better.
 
only problems I've ever had with vista 64 were with an old wireless card that wasn't compatible and the infrared fingerprint reader in my keyboard doesn't work anymore because some one cant be arsed to get of there backside and make some new drivers.
 
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