Probably annoying but: Vista32 vs Vista64 for gaming

[styroe]

This may or may not be the right forum, but I am most interested in gaming in this decision so here I am.

I want to get the 64 bit edition of Vista Ultimate for gaming on a new rig I am building for my brother. Probably going nvidia 9xxx with some asus board and 4+ ram and a core 2 quad in the 2.66ghz area, but I am wondering what drawbacks have any of you had with 64bit windows when playing games. Interested in older games but my brother likes all the new stuff (your crysis, your WoW (go figure), your diablo 3 when it comes out, etc). Any information will help.

If you don't have anything productive to say than please at least make fun of me until someone more knowledge comes along.

Thanks guys

 

[Sylvanas]

Theres no difference, Vista 64 is the way to go now- even for older games they have worked perfectly for me.

 

[Piuc2020]

And if the Gamecube emulator is anything to go by, 64-bit can offer MASSIVE performance gains (it's the only app so far I've seen that really takes it home on a 64-bit system).

Also, Vista 64-bit + XP 32-bit dualboot is the way to go and is very easy to set up.

 

[jwcooper]

I'm trying to decide on this as well.

Any issues with overclocking on Vista 64 (with their signed drivers, etc)?

 

[styroe]

Thanks Sylvanas and Piuc2020, going with the 64 bit. If my brother complains, I am going to tell him to come troll your threads (j/k)

Appreciate the fast response.

 

[SkuLLyRT]

Originally posted by: jwcooper
I'm trying to decide on this as well.

Any issues with overclocking on Vista 64 (with their signed drivers, etc)?

Nope.

 

[mrblotto]

I've noticed just a couple wee issues w/gaming on Vista64-
-BF2/BF42 sometimes craps out/crashes to desktop right after a map load. Haven't had any issues w/any other games that I can remember
-Setting up a mic to use with Teamspeak of VOIP games can be a maddening ordeal

Other than that, it's been pretty solid for almost a year now for me. Once I disabled/turned off a lot of the 'fluff' and turned off that stupid UAC thing, it ran smooth as glass.

 

[Bateluer]

Get Vista 64. Its more 'futureproof' than Vista 32 or any version of XP. You'll actually be able to use you hardware's capability as you move past the 2GB of RAM stage and begin adding more cores. 99% of games work just fine, and I've nearly 80 games installed and working with negligible issues. Another user has something like 350 games installed and working.

 

[Zenoth]

I've tried Vista x64 just recently for gaming purposes and I can say that there are a few issues here and there, but they are generally negligible (it applies mostly for old games). The one thing that may be required often enough for such games is to make sure that you run them as an Administrator and perhaps apply a Compatibility Mode (such as XP or previous ones). But yes I agree with Bateluer that many games will work for Vista x64.

Personally I believe that the very best thing to do is to get some 400+GB HDD and make two partitions. One of them partition with XP 32-Bit focused on playing older games and even emulators and so on, and the other partition with Vista x64 and all your programs and most of your games in it, just for accommodation's sake. I'm planning to do this very thing myself when I do buy a new HDD later this year. I've just realized that having both OS'es is the way to go to ensure being able to play the totality of your games without issues. Why having to chose only one OS when you can have two?

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: styroe
This may or may not be the right forum, but I am most interested in gaming in this decision so here I am.

I want to get the 64 bit edition of Vista Ultimate for gaming on a new rig I am building for my brother. Probably going nvidia 9xxx with some asus board and 4+ ram and a core 2 quad in the 2.66ghz area, but I am wondering what drawbacks have any of you had with 64bit windows when playing games. Interested in older games but my brother likes all the new stuff (your crysis, your WoW (go figure), your diablo 3 when it comes out, etc). Any information will help.

If you don't have anything productive to say than please at least make fun of me until someone more knowledge comes along.

Thanks guys

I have dual boot 32 and 64 bit. Orignally I had planned to use the 32bit and just use 64bit to play around in. Within a few days it was the other way around. 64 bit is better in general use, and is just as good for gaming.

 

[Anubis]

64 more ram

i run vista 64 rith 4 gigs, no game has ever givin me an issue, no driver has ever given me an issue, vista HAS NEVER GIVEN ME ANY ISSUES

no reason to dual boot


running a E8400 @ 4GHZ

 

[coreyb]

^^

what he said.

 

[shingletingle]

if you DON'T USE viSTA 64 biT then you're crazy and that's THE BOtTom linE because I SAid so!!!

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Theres no difference, Vista 64 is the way to go now- even for older games they have worked perfectly for me.

Yep, this is true. Vista 64 has been rock solid.

KT

 

[styroe]

How funny would it be if this was one big flame costing me 170 bucks... guess I'd have to reinstall and select 32 bit. You've guys convinced me, spent all my time since OP trying to get a intel 9400 setup under 900... tough. Thanks guys, I'll have to head over to the hardware forums for that one

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: styroe
How funny would it be if this was one big flame costing me 170 bucks... guess I'd have to reinstall and select 32 bit. You've guys convinced me, spent all my time since OP trying to get a intel 9400 setup under 900... tough. Thanks guys, I'll have to head over to the hardware forums for that one

If you buy retail you can order the 32-bit discs from Microsoft if you change your mind. Also if you are going with Ultimate you'll already have both media.

So worst case scenario you just have to reinstall but I don't think you'll have to, Vista 64-bit is pretty rock solid.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

I've had a little bit of issues /w Vista64. Dunno if it has anything to do with 64 bit though.

Steam engine games like TF2 sometimes crash while starting, or it will sort of "flicker" between the game and desktop.

Diablo 2 won't run in the superior (more view space) 2D video mode.

 

[wrangler]

64

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: mrblotto
-Setting up a mic to use with Teamspeak of VOIP games can be a maddening ordeal

I've never had this problem with Teamspeak or Ventrillo... but I should admit that I've never actually set them up. Each time I reinstall Vent or TS, I just copy over my old settings and it works every time. Although, my new ATi card is causing some problems with an error dialog box popping up, but everything still works fine.

 

[IEC]

I'm about to install Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/SP1 from a MS TechNet ISO on my desktop.

Given my experience with 64-bit Vista systems, I imagine it'll be just fine.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: mrblotto

-Setting up a mic to use with Teamspeak of VOIP games can be a maddening ordeal

.

how so?

i installed both vent and TS after i installed Vista 64 and both worked without any issues, just selected where my mice was plugged in, set some settings and BAM was working

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
And if the Gamecube emulator is anything to go by, 64-bit can offer MASSIVE performance gains (it's the only app so far I've seen that really takes it home on a 64-bit system).

Also, Vista 64-bit + XP 32-bit dualboot is the way to go and is very easy to set up.

Not for gaming, you will have multiple installs of each App. I was in the same boat, choosing between dual boot XP, and VISTA 64bit, I chose 64bit.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Anubis
64 more ram

i run vista 64 rith 4 gigs, no game has ever givin me an issue, no driver has ever given me an issue, vista HAS NEVER GIVEN ME ANY ISSUES

no reason to dual boot


running a E8400 @ 4GHZ

I just rebuilt after having a dual boot (WinXP 32bit and Vista 64bit) setup for nearly 1.5 years. I saw no reason to not just have a single OS at the present date basically. My main problem with XP now, is that each time video cards got more RAM, I lost usable system RAM under XP, which at some point in the near future is severely going to limit the usability of XP for games (I was down to 2GB showing up with a 2x512MB Crossfire setup, so 2x1GB video cards would leave me with 1GB usable under XP). WinXP 64bit just doesn't have driver support or DX10, so the choice was simple. Now pre-SP1 for Vista, you couldn't pull WinXP from me unless it was from my cold, dead hands. Post SP1 though is a whole different story and I currently find Vista to be much more stable than XP since most driver development seems to be focused on Vista.

 

[TheVrolok]

64.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: Anubis
64 more ram

i run vista 64 rith 4 gigs, no game has ever givin me an issue, no driver has ever given me an issue, vista HAS NEVER GIVEN ME ANY ISSUES

no reason to dual boot


running a E8400 @ 4GHZ

I just rebuilt after having a dual boot (WinXP 32bit and Vista 64bit) setup for nearly 1.5 years. I saw no reason to not just have a single OS at the present date basically. My main problem with XP now, is that each time video cards got more RAM, I lost usable system RAM under XP, which at some point in the near future is severely going to limit the usability of XP for games (I was down to 2GB showing up with a 2x512MB Crossfire setup, so 2x1GB video cards would leave me with 1GB usable under XP). WinXP 64bit just doesn't have driver support or DX10, so the choice was simple. Now pre-SP1 for Vista, you couldn't pull WinXP from me unless it was from my cold, dead hands. Post SP1 though is a whole different story and I currently find Vista to be much more stable than XP since most driver development seems to be focused on Vista.

what in SP1 made Vista a GO for you?

im curious because i still havent installed it... because i cant, the install errors out every time, ive done everything in the MS help database to try and fix it. i dont really care unless Sp1 gives me BJs while im playing games. then i might get around to installing it