Gaming in 64-bit Vista

[JimiP]

I've heard from several people that gaming in 64-bit Vista isn't as good as it can be. I'd like to know all I can about how a 64-bit OS handles 32-bit software. I heard Vista's 64-bit isn't as good as XP's but I'm not sure if that's the case or not. The reason I'm having some doubts is because I've heard some good stories about gaming in Vista 64-bit.

The system I'm building is going to have plenty of power.

Intel C2D E6850
ASUS P5N32-E SLI
OCZ Reaper 2GB DDR2-1066
MSI GeForce 8800Ultra
Seagate 320GB 16MB Cache SATA HDD
PCP&C 750w Silencer PSU
Antec Nine Hundred

I'm just wondering if I'm going to have noticeable slowdown while using 32-bit games in 64-bit Vista Home Premium. Also... aren't all the newest games coming out going to be coded for 64-bit OS's?

Games I plan to play:

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
Unreal Tournament 3
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
World in Conflict
Severity

I would like to be able to upgrade to 4GB of RAM in the future when and if I need to. Since 32-bit OS won't allow full utilization of 4GB, 64-bit is my only option. I just want to know if performance is going to suffer for it.

Thanks in advance,
-JimiP

 

[Noema]

I game in Vista 64 and have no problems. Yes, framerates are lower than XP but the difference is neglegible and hardly anything you'd notice outside synthetic benchmarks. I play the following games at 1680x1050 with max settings and performance is all around excellent:

Bioshock (DX10)
Medieval II
Company of Heroes (The game does take a slight performance hit in DX10 but it's nothing major...and the game looks amazing in DX10)
Half Life 2 and EP.1
Team Fortress II Beta
F.E.A.R.
Oblivion

 

[stevty2889]

As of right now, newer games coming out are not being coded for the 64bit OS. I'm sure they will be eventualy, but not yet. Of the games you listed, World in Conflict has litte performance hit compared to XP. Crysis..horrible framerates in Vista. Every other game I play..anywhere from 15% to 60% performance loss in Vista. Doesn't really matter weather it's the 32bit or 64 bit version. Hopefully SP1 will fix a lot of the performance issues, but latest drivers and all the hotfixes have helped me little to none, so I went back to XP for the moment. It will improve eventually, XP wasn't the best when it first came out either.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: JimiP
I've heard from several people that gaming in 64-bit Vista isn't as good as it can be. I'd like to know all I can about how a 64-bit OS handles 32-bit software. I heard Vista's 64-bit isn't as good as XP's but I'm not sure if that's the case or not. The reason I'm having some doubts is because I've heard some good stories about gaming in Vista 64-bit.

The system I'm building is going to have plenty of power.

Intel C2D E6850
ASUS P5N32-E SLI
OCZ Reaper 2GB DDR2-1066
MSI GeForce 8800Ultra
Seagate 320GB 16MB Cache SATA HDD
PCP&C 750w Silencer PSU
Antec Nine Hundred

I'm just wondering if I'm going to have noticeable slowdown while using 32-bit games in 64-bit Vista Home Premium. Also... aren't all the newest games coming out going to be coded for 64-bit OS's?

Games I plan to play:

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
Unreal Tournament 3
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
World in Conflict
Severity

I would like to be able to upgrade to 4GB of RAM in the future when and if I need to. Since 32-bit OS won't allow full utilization of 4GB, 64-bit is my only option. I just want to know if performance is going to suffer for it.

Thanks in advance,
-JimiP

Pure FUD!!!...Read this for gaming performance with Vista etc... ,I have about 40 + games installed don't have any gaming issues with speed or stability with 32 bit games in my Vista x64 HP,don't know what you are worried about to tell you the truth.

Btw I think last page on that link says it all.

If you were debating between the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows Vista, fortunately it looks like performance is similar with either version. Both AMD and NVIDIA?s drivers for both versions of Vista perform practically identical to one another. And if you were concerned about game compatibility with 64-bit Vista, one of the guidelines Microsoft has required for Games For Windows certification is that games must be compatible with Windows Vista x64. This means if the game has a Games For Windows logo on the box, it?s been tested to run with 64-bit Windows Vista. Upcoming games like Alan Wake, Crysis, Fallout 3, Gears of War PC, and Hellgate: London are all Games For Windows compliant.

.

Bottomline drivers have matured quite a bit over the last 6-9 months.

Every other game I play..anywhere from 15% to 60% performance loss in Vista. Doesn't really matter weather it's the 32bit or 64 bit version. Hopefully SP1 will fix a lot of the performance issues, but latest drivers and all the hotfixes have helped me little to none, so I went back to XP for the moment. It will improve eventually, XP wasn't the best when it first came out either.

stevty2889 you have serious issues elsewhere if that is the case,read the link above,you notice how well Vista does compared to XP.

 

[n7]

I went from XP to Vista RTM x86 to Vista x64.

Haven't really noticed any difference other than meaningless things like 3DMark06 scores being lower.

Games run fine; haven't had any that don't run at all actually 🙂

 

[Nothinman]

I'd like to know all I can about how a 64-bit OS handles 32-bit software

For the AMD64 architecture it just runs it like it would any other process since the hardware supports running both types of code at the same time.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Mem
stevty2889 you have serious issues elsewhere if that is the case,read the link above,you notice how well Vista does compared to XP.

If you know of how to make Vista perfrom as well as XP I'd be glad to hear it..the article showed equal performance, but I have all the hotfixes, the latest Nvidia drivers, and a system with more than enough power. Both me and my roomate experience the same thing in Vista. I have home premium and he has ultimate, both 64bit. Every time a new fix, or new drivers came out we both would go back to Vista and give in another try, only to be disappointed yet again..I would love to get vista performing as well, as I do like the OS, it makes great use of my 6gig of ram, and it's very responsive, it's just lacking in gaming performance.

Q6600 @ 3.1ghz
2x2GB patriot + 2x1gb PQI running at 690mhz
8800GTX
2xWD SATA 2 16mb cache 160gb drives in raid-0
Asus P5W-DH Deluxe

His specs
E6600 @3.4ghz
2x1gb OCZ @ 720mhz
2x400GB Seagate in raid 0
Asus P5N-E
2x8800GTX in SLI

Both of get huge frame rate drops in Vista.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: Mem
stevty2889 you have serious issues elsewhere if that is the case,read the link above,you notice how well Vista does compared to XP.

If you know of how to make Vista perfrom as well as XP I'd be glad to hear it..the article showed equal performance, but I have all the hotfixes, the latest Nvidia drivers, and a system with more than enough power. Both me and my roomate experience the same thing in Vista. I have home premium and he has ultimate, both 64bit. Every time a new fix, or new drivers came out we both would go back to Vista and give in another try, only to be disappointed yet again..I would love to get vista performing as well, as I do like the OS, it makes great use of my 6gig of ram, and it's very responsive, it's just lacking in gaming performance.

Q6600 @ 3.1ghz
2x2GB patriot + 2x1gb PQI running at 690mhz
8800GTX
2xWD SATA 2 16mb cache 160gb drives in raid-0
Asus P5W-DH Deluxe

His specs
E6600 @3.4ghz
2x1gb OCZ @ 720mhz
2x400GB Seagate in raid 0
Asus P5N-E
2x8800GTX in SLI

Both of get huge frame rate drops in Vista.

It's always hard to troubleshoot somebody's PC from the armchair but I'll give it a try,turn off Windows Defender real time scan(I have mine set to scan once a week) ,are you using a good AV with low resources,personally stay away from hotfixes unless you really need to install them, Windows Update ones should be adequate,overclocking can cause weird issues too.

 

[mb]

You couldn't have just searched and gotten the same answers?

Vista x64 is great. Gaming in Vista x64 is great.

Crysis doesn't run well in Vista? It's a piece of garbage beta that behaves more like a pre-alpha test build. What do you expect?

 

[Nothinman]

You couldn't have just searched and gotten the same answers?

Of course not, google and such are so difficult to use...

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: mb
You couldn't have just searched and gotten the same answers?

Vista x64 is great. Gaming in Vista x64 is great.

Crysis doesn't run well in Vista? It's a piece of garbage beta that behaves more like a pre-alpha test build. What do you expect?

No need to be so rude, I HAVE searched, I realize Crysis is in Beta, but Bioshock isn't, Supreme Commander isn't, BF2 isn't. Searches have turned up that other people are having the same issues. Searches are turning up that some people don't have the same issues, but not of them are giving up how they managed to pull it off. So rather than bashing why don' t you try helping instead, since you seem to know so much. I already said I like the OS, that the only issue I'm having is with gaming..and you aren't running the same hardware I am so how the hell do you know what issues I have with my PC?

 

[gizbug]

Great performance with my Vista 64 and SP1 Beta.