For gaming purposes only - Vista 32 or 64?

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forsberg78

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Deciding on what OS for my pure gaming build.

I've been reading reviews that there's not much difference in gaming between 32 or 64 bit versions. If this is the case, is it better that I stick to 32 bit Vista, so that I can be sure everything will work fine?
 
personally use 64bit Business with zero issues atm. If you have 4GB of ram, might as well get 64bit.
 
Well, the amount of RAM I will buy is determined by my choice of OS.

Do games run faster on 4GB than 2GB?
 
Get Home Premium 64bit. 4 gigs or even 8 gigs of memory significantly deacreses the number of minimum FPS spikes. This was true of every single ram transition I've cared enough to take an interest in.
 
I am still running 32 on my gaming rig just because that is what I originally downloaded and installed when it poped up on MSDN for the pre-release and I am entirely too busy/lazy to mess with it atm. I plan on going to 64 and dropping in the other 2gigs of RAM I have sitting around at some point.

Out of the 3 most recent systems I have built for people two were Vista 64. Neither have had any issues, though only one is a gamer. Either way you should be fine with most any newer game.

As for the 2GB vs 4GB, depends on the game and what else you do while gaming. I can come close to peaking my RAM by running wow, streaming some pandora, vent, a few tabs in firefox, and burning a backup or something, but not much else. I think Supcom can come close too, but I haven't played that in long enough to say for sure. Even Crysis by itself won't do it (at least not at any settings my 8800GTS can keep up with ;) I am still limited to High in that game at 1920x1200 if I want decent FPS). I notice RAM past 2GB in apps/heavy multitasking wayyyy more than in gaming. That said, if you are doing an upgrade to 64 go for it. RAM is super cheap atm and it certainly won't hurt.
 
For gaming purposes only? It really doesn't matter. I have tried 32 and 64 bit on my machine. Most games run about the same on either. 2GB vs 4GB? Couldn't tell any real difference on games (Quake 4, UT3, anything on Steam). And 4GB of RAM on 32 vs 64 bit, again, no real noticeable difference. Run whichever you like, at 4GB or less it really doesn't matter. Now if you want to go more than 4GB, you have no choice. I run 32 bit with 4GB of RAM for compatibility issues unrelated to games, but where games are concerned, I really don't think you can make a wrong choice.
 
8GB is awesome for gaming with Vista x64. All of the games that I had FPS issues with 4GB now fly like cats after catnip.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
8GB is awesome for gaming with Vista x64. All of the games that I had FPS issues with 4GB now fly like cats after catnip.
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Dam! That's fast! :p

I like Vista 64. Gaming performance is identical to XP 32 (IMHO). I also think Vista 64 is more robust & secure than it's 32 bit counterpart.
 
I went with vista 64 bit and 4gigs of ram after trying vista 32bitr and 2gigs and what a diff.

wiht the low ram prices its a very worthy upgrade, game sload alot faster, alt+tabbing is a instant thing to do everytime. Windows starts up way quicker and everything is more responsive, and no more FPS drops in intense games compared to 2gigs/32bit


Definatly go with vista 64 and 4+gigs
 
For gaming, Vista x64 +4gb of ram. Use compatibility mode to get games to work that don't, but I doubt it will happen. I haven't had a game yet, not work. Keep in mind you'll probably have to download DX9 though.
 
I have Vista 64 Bit, No issues with older games (COD1,COD2,BF2) I had 2 gigs of ram on my box just recently upgraded (yesterday) to 4 gigs of ram And Whoa, I notice the difference in start up time, Especially in COD4 The maps load up much faster now, Infact I'm on of the very first one's to load up map.
Go with 64 Bit W/ 4 Gigs of ram even better If you got the $ go with 8 gigs.
 
There's really no reason not to go 64-bit.

You lose native 16-bit application support, but you can still use DOSBox to emulate old games and such.
 
Thought I'd piggyback this thread...

If you are going Vista-64 for a gaming rig, do you need one of the fancier versions or does that just give me more shiney desktop jazz and bundled software I dont want or need. Seems like a Home Basic OEM for $90 would be the way to go?
 
Hell if you play AoC there is a huge difference between 2GB and anywhere 4GB and up not necessarily in performance but in stability their latest screw up is an out of memory crash that happens all the damn time if you have 3GB and under

64bit all the way
 
Hoax415 said:
Thought I'd piggyback this thread...

If you are going Vista-64 for a gaming rig, do you need one of the fancier versions or does that just give me more shiney desktop jazz and bundled software I dont want or need. Seems like a Home Basic OEM for $90 would be the way to go?
Click to expand...

For $10 more you can get Vista HP OEM... Do you need it? no. But for $10 more why not?
 
Hoax415 said:
Thought I'd piggyback this thread...

If you are going Vista-64 for a gaming rig, do you need one of the fancier versions or does that just give me more shiney desktop jazz and bundled software I dont want or need. Seems like a Home Basic OEM for $90 would be the way to go?
Click to expand...

I would stick with Home Premium or Ultimate for a a home computer/media center/gaming machine. Basic doesn't have aero/transparency, media center, DVD maker, movie maker, and has lower RAM and processor limits among other things.

My understanding is that Vista Home Basic only exists in western markets because Intel complained that some of their older graphics chips wouldn't be Vista compatible if aero glass was in every version of Vista.
 
Ultimate is useless. Go with Home Premium.

With Ultimate you just get like a few new programs that you'll never use. Plus you get two new sound schemes... big whoop.
 
forsberg78 said:
Ultimate is useless. Go with Home Premium.

With Ultimate you just get like a few new programs that you'll never use. Plus you get two new sound schemes... big whoop.
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Well, you get dreamscene, an interface for bitlocker and a few other things. It's like buying the old Microsoft Plus Packs.

If you need the features of both Business (like the ability to use domains) and Home Premium (like media center) then Ultimate is for you.
 
forsberg78 said:
Ultimate is useless. Go with Home Premium.

With Ultimate you just get like a few new programs that you'll never use. Plus you get two new sound schemes... big whoop.
Click to expand...


Wrong. Learn a bit more about Ultimate before you open the flapper :p
 
Get Vista x64 (Business or Ultimate). There is no real performance difference between the two, but there's no reason NOT to go 64-bit. Even with only 2 GB of system memory, it still gives you more adress space in general, so you can (say) stick in 2x 4870 X2s and not worry ;) Plus, I've always found 64-bit versions of Windows more stable than their 32-bit counterparts (both XP and Vista).
 
forsberg78 said:
Ultimate is useless. Go with Home Premium.

With Ultimate you just get like a few new programs that you'll never use. Plus you get two new sound schemes... big whoop.
Click to expand...

The Pearl scheme *is* pretty nice, and the sounds match Aero much better than the default scheme. The soundschemes from Ultimate are available as a separate download with some creative Googling and they even sorta work with XP.

The rest of Ultimate is really up to the user as far as usefulness. I'm not much into Media Center, and I hated how just running it one time installed all kinds of tasks and services for useless media junk. This is why my gaming rig runs Vista Business. It's a little less feature-packed, but for a gaming rig it has everything I really need.
 
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