Will games run faster on windows 7 64 bit???

[amir2033]

hi guys how are you?
these are my specs:
intel dual core 3.00 ghz (e5700)
2 gb of rams ddr2
nvidia geforce 9500 gt 1gb
windows 7 ultimate 32 bit
and iam asking will upgrading to windows 7 64 bit increase the performance of games and make it faster
and do i have to install all my games again or it will work fine
thanks

 

[LokalHero]

You will have to clean install the 64-bit version, you cannot upgrade from 32-bit. So you'll have to reinstall all your software too.

You won't notice any improvements in frame rates in your games though.

 

[amir2033]

i have a game called apb which is built for 64bit will a game like become faster or it will stay the same?
and will games work fine or i will encounter some issues

 

[Engima]

I don't believe a 64-bit will make any noticeable changes to your games since it would depend more on the CPU and GPU.

 

[JDFan]

Actually the upgrade will probably slow the performance of games - since there is a bit more overhead for processing in a 64 bit system so it would be using more resources -- so if you are remaining at 2GB of RAM there is no reason to change and it may actually hurt your performance --- However of you also plan on adding more RAM it would be a different story since the limit for a 32 bit system is around 3.25GB (4GB - system reserved and video page files) so switching to 64 bit would allow using more RAM which would improve performance -- figure 2 GB of system RAM is bare minimum for a win 7 machine and does not leave much available for gaming so is currently the main thing hurting your performance.

Also as mentioned going from 32 bit to 64 bit would require a complete wipe of the HDD and reinstall from scratch as 64 bit uses completely different drivers etc. so you would need to reinstall everything from the start and also make sure you have 64 bit drivers for all of your hardware.

 

[amir2033]

then i will have to reinstall all my games again?

 

[classzero]

No, in some cases it may slightly reduce. Toms did a windows 7 32 vs 64 when 7 came out. See if you can find the past article. No game currently is a 64 bit game.

 

[JDFan]

then i will have to reinstall all my games again?

Depends but yes for the most part -- Since it would require formatting the HDD and starting over with a fresh install of windows which would wipe all contents of the HDD partition unless using a separate HDD or partition but even in that case since most games add entries into the system registry you'd need to redo the install in order to update the registry so the games would play correctly -- unless it is a simple game that simply runs a file when you open it and does not add any registry entries and is already installed to a separate HDD or HDD partition that you will not be wiping out.

Moving from a 32 bit OS to a 64 bit OS is more complex than merely running an update it requires starting over and reinstalling everything - so unless there is a real need to do so is best left for after a major overhaul of the system which includes adding more memory since the only time changing is required is if you are going to have more than 4GB of memory in the machine. Also you will need to verify that all of your existing hardware has 64 bit drivers available or those pieces of hardware may no longer function properly so if the rest of the system is fairly old you'd be best off sticking with the 32 bit OS until you change to newer hardware.

 

[pdxalex]

as mentioned going from 32 bit to 64 bit would require a complete wipe of the HDD and reinstall from scratch as 64 bit uses completely different drivers etc. so you would need to reinstall everything

 

[xtreme5]

upgrading to 64bits will only let you to add more than 3gb of ram, it won't boost your frame rates if you want such massive increase in performance then look for the new system like i5 or i3.

 

[Traildriver]

Also keep in mind that some (not many, but some) of your games that run under Win7 32 bit will not run under the 64 bit version no matter what patching or "compatability mode"-ing you attempt.

I had to set up a dual boot system with Win 7 Pro 64 bit with Win XP in order to satifsy the craving for the older software.

AS stated above, your only benefit from the upgrade to the OS is the ability to have WIndows access more memory.

 

[nukemaster]

No, in some cases it may slightly reduce. Toms did a windows 7 32 vs 64 when 7 came out. See if you can find the past article. No game currently is a 64 bit game.

Not quite true, the old Hellgate : London(not that the new hellgate has anything but hellgate 32 bit dx9) had a 32 bit dx9 32 bit dx10 64 bit dx9 and 64 bit dx10 version. Each was its own exe.

A list here( from google. may not even be up to date.)
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/buckybit/list-of-native-64-bit-pc-games/46-57269/

Or this may be of interest
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/22/dice-to-require-64-bit-os-for-some-2013-games/

I am not saying you will gain anything with 64 bit on 32 bit games. for the most part, it should be close(as said above, some games even loose a bit). One downside is NO 16 bit support. so older games that are 16 bit(most are dos games and some older star wars games) will not work. Overall 64-bit operating systems are very stable and works well.

 

[djscribbles]

You absolutely should stay on 32bit Windows with your current system.

A 64 bit game on a 64bit OS will allow that game to use more than 4GB of memory. Since you only have 2GB of memory, you won't see an improvement at all.

In fact, you would likely see a small performance decrease, because all memory reference will consume 64bits instead of 32bits (8bytes instead of 4bytes), so all 64bit applications (and windows itself, and drivers) will use MORE memory to enable addressing above 4GB, despite only having 2GB of memory available.

 

[djscribbles]

Also worth noting:
Despite being compiled for 64bit, the game may not even take advantage of 64bit memory space. Since the game would need to be attempting to provision more than 4GB of memory for itself in order to take advantage of 64bit addressing, which is why many games don't bother (4GB is quite a lot of memory to fill with one program).

 

[amir2033]

i will upgrade to 4 gb of rams will i have install windows 7 64 bit ?
and will games run better?

 

[djscribbles]

Even at 4 gigs of ram it really doesn't give any benefit because your 1GB of video memory (I'm pretty sure) reserves a chunk of your regular system memory even though windows doesn't show it as "in use".

Also, as stated before, pointer sizes double, increasing the memory used by windows and your game for the same functionality, the extra 500MB that windows will address is still not very beneficial. 4GB isn't a bad idea to add, but you don't really need to switch to 64 bit unless you go higher than 4gb.

If your system is just running really slow, the ram at 4GB and a new GPU are where I'd start. A 64 bit OS really won't help until you have 6GB or more. (Arguably, even having 8Gb you may not see much of a benefit vs 4gb, 64bit os or not, because in order to improve things, you have to need that much ram).

edit: If you are a student with access to FREE OS's, you could make a case for switching to 64bit windows IF you have 4GB of RAM, but your benefit will be negligible (or non existant). Other than legacy software (which you CAN emulate for if you really want to via dosbox or virtual machine of winxp i think), there really aren't any drawbacks to 64bit win7 (Antivirus can be a sticking point too, but microsoft security essentials is free and nice and has 64bit support). I wouldn't pay any real $$ were I you to make the switch though.

 

[xtreme5]

enough 4gb for your needs are you plan to run all the games on max then look for i5 system, or if you want low or medium then you are good.