Is Vista 64-bit good?

[Travkin]

Hey all,

I'm curious on whether 64 bit vista is better than 32bit and how. I know that 64 bit windows will allow the computer to use full memory of 4GB+ but need more reasons if 64 is better in terms of gaming/music/movies. Will I gain more FPS will the games/programs work better in 64bit environment.

Thanks

 

[notherdude]

32 and 64 are essentially the same, though you will get some arguments that one or the other is slightly better

you'll need 64 bit apps to see a performance advantage and there are not very many of those

of course having 4 or more gig of RAM can make a difference, so if you are going 64 bit do yourself a favor and get 6 or 8 gig of RAM. A big reason gamers are going to 64 is that modern gaming cards with lots of Vram will drop your usable RAM to as low as 2 gig and usually leave you with no more than 3.

64 has arrived, the driver and app compatibility is close to 100% and it's getting more mainstream everyday

 

[Travkin]

Alrite, thx

 

[Zenthar]

IMO, nobody should bother with 32 bits Vista, either use 32 bits XP or 64 bits Vista, end of story. Vista uses and can take advantage of lots of memory and to be able to give it that much you need 64 bits.

 

[Travkin]

Another question....64bit XP or Vista? and why?

 

[Zenthar]

Little recap of my opinions:
■Windows XP 32 bits: XP is a much older and lighter OS so 32 bits is just fine unless you use memory heavy applications like CAD. It is also fine for gaming if you don't want/need DirectX 10.
■Windows XP 64 bits: I truly believe that all the "64 bits incompatibility horror stories" spawn for XP 64 bits. Unless you really need to use XP 64 bits for some cruel twist of faith, stay away. Not that much support for it.
■Windows Vista 32 bits: it will work, if you have it don't feel bad, you are in a much nicer situation than people with 64 bits XP. More than enough for the basic office worker, net surfers, ...
■Windows Vista 64 bits: Vista will be faster with more memory and the only way to use more than ~3.5GB or RAM is to go 64 bits so ... it is also necessary if you want/need DirectX 10.