32 and 64 bit OS?

[Cloughy12]

I was looking on google for this answer and they started talking about the processor and junk and I got kinda confused. Could some 1 explain the diffrence between a 64 bit OS and a 32 bit OS? Also which would be better for gameing? I ask this because i'm going to buy Vista once it comes out, and was curiouse about what version i should get, thanks!

[iusenos45]

64 bit if you have a 64 bit processor


its how many pipelines are in the processor.


64 bit preforms better only if the applications are 64 bit as well

[niranjan162]

You need a 64 bit processor to run a 64bit OS. So an A64 I dont know which intels are 64 bit . It'll run faster in the operating system, but not many games are designed for 64bit OS, so they run in a 32 bit mode, which, im not sure, might run slower than just running a 32 bit OS. I wouldnt bother with vista yet.

[iusenos45]

the only ones i can think of off of the top of my head are cod2 and farcry

and im not really shure on cod2

[Rembrandt]

Game manufactures write games for X32 OS and X64 processors. I think you will find that you do not have a single program that was written for a X64 OS. I don’t and I have a bunch of them. Stick with the X32 version of Vista and you will be happy.

[djnes]

Even in comparing the two XP versions, 32 bit is still the winner. XP64 is plagued by some driver problems, and there are only a few apps or games written to take advantage of it. Hopefully Vista64 will get more attention from driver makers. If this is the case, I'd probably use Vista64....assuming it didn't have any new issues. On a typical desktop computer right now, there isn't very much of a reason to consider a 64 bit OS, unless you use one of the few apps written for it. Once memory requirements start going up, you'll need to go 64 bit to keep up.

[Seanmounce]

I didn't know there was going to be 32x and 64x Windows Vista I was under the impression it would have been one OS that either had two modes or just made use of what you had.

[CubicleGeek]

I was looking on google for this answer and they started talking about the processor and junk and I got kinda confused. Could some 1 explain the diffrence between a 64 bit OS and a 32 bit OS? Also which would be better for gameing? I ask this because i'm going to buy Vista once it comes out, and was curiouse about what version i should get, thanks!

Advantages of 64-bit:

- 16 Exabytes vs. 4 Gigabytes of addressable memory.
- Largest representable integer of 16 quintillion + change vs. 4 billion + change.
- Allows double the floating point precision of 32-bit.
- Through certain instruction set enhancements, in some cases 2 32-bit operations can be done in parallel, improving performance.

The biggest disadvantage at this stage is application and driver support.

You likely won't notice a difference in gaming, unless some game in the future requires 4+ GB to run smoothly or is written specifically for 64-bit. 64-bit definitely is the future. The question is, will Vista still be around when that future is realized (i.e. 64-bits become the norm and 32-bit is phased out)? Or will we be graced with a new OS from MS?

[eeyrjmr]

fyi, Linux has support x64 pretty much since it was released
Programs (even game... UT2004_64), drivers and the entire OS can be 64bit

the only stopper is flash, but a 64bit version due sometime early next year and there is a wrapper anyway to use 32bit flash in a 64bit browser

[loxety]

I was looking on google for this answer and they started talking about the processor and junk and I got kinda confused. Could some 1 explain the diffrence between a 64 bit OS and a 32 bit OS? Also which would be better for gameing? I ask this because i'm going to buy Vista once it comes out, and was curiouse about what version i should get, thanks!

It really comes down to the max amount of memory the OS can use (or see). Windows XP can only see max of 4GB but only use 2GB per process (per program).