WinXP-64Bit V.S. Vista-64Bit

NTJedi

Limp Gawd
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So I searched the memory forum yet no luck tracking down any thread comparing the 64Bit operating systems. I will soon(a few months) be beta testing a game which is designed to use the extra memory provided by 64-Bit systems thus want to be ready.
WinXP-64Bit V.S. Vista-64Bit

What's the following facts I should know about each system when they are compared on identical hardware:

1) Benchmarks? (Graphics, CPU, etc,)

2) Overall Stability? (BlueScreens, Unwanted Reboots, Crashes, Hangs)

3) Pain Points? (Disabling Unwanted Services, Older games not working, Driver issues, etc.,)

4) Do any of these have known memory issues? (limitations, spikes, bugs, etc.,)
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1381631

and...

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1383898

Lots of good info in those (and they didn't get locked amazingly!!!), so go read through 'em and come on back.

As for your facts, well... those threads should cover a lot of the stuff you're asking about.

In the end, it'll become a personal choice to use one over the other more than anything else. Personally I would strongly recommend you skip Vista at this point and get started on Windows 7. Grab the beta ISO from someplace and get to learning it, it'll leave Vista in the dust when it's done, so you should be doing your comparisons against Windows 7 if you have to choose between the two, XP Pro x64 or Windows 7.

Good luck...
 
Thanks for finding those threads... I'll be reading them.
I do have legit access for Windows_7 64-Bit as well, perhaps I'll setup my system to triple-boot between Windows2000, WinXP-64Bit and Windows_7-64Bit... hopefully it pushes performance to new levels.
 
Just curious, why are they validating a modern game on XP-64? Poor driver support, no DX-10, EOL, etc.
 
Just curious, why are they validating a modern game on XP-64? Poor driver support, no DX-10, EOL, etc.

There's a large customer base using WindowsXP and WindowsXP_64Bit.
Reading the signatures in these forums seem to indicate the same.
 
There's a large customer base using WindowsXP and WindowsXP_64Bit.
Reading the signatures in these forums seem to indicate the same.
:confused:

Are you kidding....XP 64?

And, not to be a smarta55 but, is a game company really basing this decision on reading sigs at [H]?

It just sounds........odd to me.I'm not busting your chops, I'm just curious.
 
:confused:

Are you kidding....XP 64?
No... go check the stores and you'll see most PC games show compatibility with XP.

And, not to be a smarta55 but, is a game company really basing this decision on reading sigs at [H]?

It just sounds........odd to me.I'm not busting your chops, I'm just curious.

I never said they were basing this decision on reading sigs at [H].
I will probably be testing 64-Bit XP and 64-Bit Windows_7 since I'm more likely to discover bugs from OS's which are further apart on the development chain compared with the middle fella.

EDIT: FYI... I'm sure there will be other individuals beta testing the Vista version.
 
XP and XP x64 are not the same OS. XP x64 is really Server 2003 using the XP theme.

Yup. In fact there's two 64bit versions of XP: Windows XP 64bit Edition (XP x64) and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

I think Mike Clements was thinking of the XP x64 since that's the one that usually come to people's minds when a 64bit version of XP is mentioned.
 
Yup. In fact there's two 64bit versions of XP: Windows XP 64bit Edition (XP x64) and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
Windows XP 64-bit Edition (which is not XP x64) is the version designed for the IA-64 architecture, so it's incompatible with modern hardware. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is the version that is compatible with x86-64 CPUs. When talking about XP x64, the version being referred to is the second one above. It's easy to get confused between them, so an easy way to remember is that the term x64 specifically refers to the 64-bit extension of the x86 architecture.
 
XP and XP x64 are not the same OS. XP x64 is really Server 2003 using the XP theme.
Yes, I know all these details as I have been building my own systems since Win95 and long ago provided support for Windows NT Server via Microsoft. Since then I've moved onto other companies... the beta game testing is a hobby.

As I wrote earlier the game is planned to be compatible with XP x64 since it will obviously make more game sales to be compatible with XP x64 and Vista x64.... as opposed to being compatible with only Vista x64.
 
Yes, I know all these details as I have been building my own systems since Win95 and long ago provided support for Windows NT Server via Microsoft. Since then I've moved onto other companies... the beta game testing is a hobby.

As I wrote earlier the game is planned to be compatible with XP x64 since it will obviously make more game sales to be compatible with XP x64 and Vista x64.... as opposed to being compatible with only Vista x64.
What I meant by that post is that if a game shows compatibility with XP, that does not mean that it is guaranteed to be compatible with XP x64, since they are not the same OS. Mike was expressing a bit of surprise at the fact that testing is actually done on XP x64, since it is not a very popular OS and has been supplanted for all intents and purposes by Vista x64.

Now, regarding the actual debate as to whether or not it's worth testing on XP x64, I don't really have a position.
 
My personal experience with WinXP 64 was not great....crap driver support. There were drivers..but they never seemed as stable. I may give it another go as I am upgrading my rig to 8 gigs. :)
 
I'll do the same. It sucked a few years back, but now that everything is 64bit, I think it should be much more stable ;)
 
I've had stability issues with Windows XP x64 or just odd, glitchy behavior so I don't use it. Same with the Windows 7 public beta being just glitchy. No such problems with Vista after the service pack though..
 
Honestly, I've never had a single issue on either XP x64 or Vista x64, but I'm typically a late adopter and thus, I never experience the OS before the first service pack. I'd think these days either choice should work perfectly well.
 
Why do we really need to start another thread on this topic...

Its crazy enough as it is that the first two weren't locked.
 
Just curious, why are they validating a modern game on XP-64? Poor driver support, no DX-10, EOL, etc.

Why not? People were saying that 64-bit XP was the best thing since sliced bread and claiming it was faster than Vista at just about everything. I decided to find out if it was true. Gaming benchmarks were only one portion of the tests.

As you can see in my benchmark threads I don't know why anyone would buy a copy of 64-bit XP at this point. It was a good OS in its day and I wish I had tried it out back then, but Vista is the bomb.

Personally, if I were putting together a new machine today I would get Vista. The Windows 7 release could still be a long ways off.

3) Pain Points? (Disabling Unwanted Services, Older games not working, Driver issues, etc.,)

Vista driver support is excellent. Don't disable any services, it performs best when left alone.

You lose support for 16-bit applications on both 64-bit XP and Vista, although you can still use a virtual machine and emulate really old DOS applications in DOS Box. I have a large game collection and haven't run into any issues other than having to enable administrative priviliges and XP compatibility mode on a couple games from 98-99 (The Thief series of games comes to mind).
 
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