32 bit or 64?

[Guest]

My sys. Intel core 2 quad q8400. Ram 2gb. 1gb pci express.ati 4650. which os run well? 7 32 bit or 64? Or xp 64? I like to play games.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I would upgrade to 4GB and go for 7 64. Its much more stable than 32bit as well as more secure since the kernal is more complex.

I have 7 64 and it runs amazingly. And from what I have read from other people and some reviews it also gives better performance than 32bit does.

 

[gamerk316]

Theres no reason to stick with 32-bit windows anymore, since 16-bit support was dropped post XP for ALL Windows OS's. Go with the 64-bit version.

 

[sagebrushfire]

^Yes. Win 7 x64 uses a bit more RAM than x32 does.

But don't bother with 32-bit. More and more programs are being developed with 64-bit in mind. In the professional media level already there are programs that only exist for 64-bit (After Effects, Premiere) and eventually that list will get bigger and bigger while the list of 32-bit applications shrink.

If you like to game be sure and have 4GB of RAM; that's pretty much the magic number for most cases.

 

[55Range]

+ 1 64 bit

 

[RetiredChief]

GamerK316
You sure about win 7 32 bit not supporting 16 bit code, As my quick basic Proffessional runs fine on win 7. And so far all the win 95 and win 98 programs that I've installed run fine in compatability mode. BUT not so for Win 7 64 bit (except high end version runing a virtual win XP 32 bit).

Added - were talking 20+ year old programs work under win 7 32 bit.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Personally, I see no reason at all to get Windows 7 32-bit. On my older machines in my network that are running 32-bit OS's, I just stick with XP Pro.

 

[gamerk316]

GamerK316
You sure about win 7 32 bit not supporting 16 bit code, As my quick basic Proffessional runs fine on win 7. And so far all the win 95 and win 98 programs that I've installed run fine in compatability mode. BUT not so for Win 7 64 bit (except high end version runing a virtual win XP 32 bit).

Added - were talking 20+ year old programs work under win 7 32 bit.

Clarification: the 16-bit WINDOWS support was officially dropped, even for Win32, starting with Vista. DOS stuff still goes through the same compatability layer it always did, as of NT/XP.