If money is not an issue, which version of WinXP am I better off getting and installing, the 32-bit version, or the 64-bit version? Probably all commercial games are still compiled in 32-bit, but I don't know exactly how Windows handles these things. Would they run slower on 64-bit version of WinXP? And if so, would that be only a theoretical difference? If the difference isnt' going to be noticeable, I'd rather get the 64-bit version, for programs that do make use of it. So, what's the verdict?
If you're going with XP... don't bother with XP 64-bit. The support just isn't there... lack of drivers and lack of support from software vendors. If you have your heart set on 64-bit, you'll be better off with Vista, as it's 64-bit support keeps on growing.
I've tried XP 64-bit in the past, with the same components as in my current PC, and the driver support was OK. I didn't measure framerates, though. How much lower should I expect them to be, assuming that the drivers are all OK? After all, some sort of emulation needs to take place to translate 32-bit instructions/memory to 64-bit, no?
I find it odd that a bigger discussion isn't developing over this theoretical question - the kind of performance penalty which is incurred when running 32-bit code on a 64-bit OS.
There's no real penalty... some 32-bit code will run slightly slower... but not enough to be greatly noticable. The only real advantage comes when you use 64-bit software and then all the software has the ability to access 4GB+ of RAM.
Again though, 64-bit support for XP is waning... while 64-bit support for Vista is gaining ground.
