64-Bit Windows in Boot Camp for Mac Pro

[spiffyfitz]

Well, my 8800GT-equipped has left the iFactory and is now headed my way on a fedex truck...

Which means, in addition to having one hell of a render tower, I'll finally be able to play all these shiny new PC games!

Now my school gives out free copies of Windows... so I'm wondering whether I should install 64-bit XP (which, according to some searches, will not install properly on boot camp), or 64-bit Vista Ultimate (which boot camp apparently has full support for).

I'm only going to use Windows for games, maybe Zbrush, and I want to take full advantage of my machine. I prefer XP over Vista, but I heard that the Mac Pro boot camp drivers don't allow access to all of the RAM in the machine if you have over 2 GB, in XP.

Will the Direct X 9/8/7 performance suffer in Vista? Or should I not even worry about that, since the machine is already very capable?

Thanks for your input, macrumors forum members

 

[Banacek]

Well, my 8800GT-equipped has left the iFactory and is now headed my way on a fedex truck...

Which means, in addition to having one hell of a render tower, I'll finally be able to play all these shiny new PC games!

Now my school gives out free copies of Windows... so I'm wondering whether I should install 64-bit XP (which, according to some searches, will not install properly on boot camp), or 64-bit Vista Ultimate (which boot camp apparently has full support for).

I'm only going to use Windows for games, maybe Zbrush, and I want to take full advantage of my machine. I prefer XP over Vista, but I heard that the Mac Pro boot camp drivers don't allow access to all of the RAM in the machine if you have over 2 GB, in XP.

Will the Direct X 9/8/7 performance suffer in Vista? Or should I not even worry about that, since the machine is already very capable?

Thanks for your input, macrumors forum members

I think that you need to use Vista 64-bit for the OS to see more than 4GBs of memory.

 

[XianPalin]

I think in XP 32-bit you will only see something like 3.25GB, the rest of it is allocated to VM or something like that. I had a friend that just setup a machine with 4GB and it only shows 3.25 I think he said. Other places say it varies a little bit, but it looks to be the low 3Gbs.

I'm going with XP because I still play an older game or two (like Tribes Vengeance), and it won't work under Vista. I tried out Vista 64-bit on a Core 2 Duo machine I had and ended up going back to XP. If you have no problems with Vista and only play new games, then go with Vista.

If you hate Vista and / or play old games, go with XP. From what I've read you generally take a small performance hit going to Vista no matter what the game, but with the Mac Pro it probably won't matter that much.

 

[spiffyfitz]

I think in XP 32-bit you will only see something like 3.25GB, the rest of it is allocated to VM or something like that. I had a friend that just setup a machine with 4GB and it only shows 3.25 I think he said. Other places say it varies a little bit, but it looks to be the low 3Gbs.

I'm going with XP because I still play an older game or two (like Tribes Vengeance), and it won't work under Vista. I tried out Vista 64-bit on a Core 2 Duo machine I had and ended up going back to XP. If you have no problems with Vista and only play new games, then go with Vista.

If you hate Vista and / or play old games, go with XP. From what I've read you generally take a small performance hit going to Vista no matter what the game, but with the Mac Pro it probably won't matter that much.

Looks like I'll be using Vista 64bit, for the newer games. (Especially looking forward to Team Fortress 2, UT3, and Crysis!)

Thanks for the help, guys.

 

[rds]

I've just spent some time using Vista 64bit and it pretty well flies unlike anything you've ever known.

I tested BF2, COD4 and a few Source games for a few hours.

 

[Masher500]

I've just spent some time using Vista 64bit and it pretty well flies unlike anything you've ever known.

I tested BF2, COD4 and a few Source games for a few hours.

i cant seem to get my bf2 working smooth, i get kick for no heartbeat. Did you have that problem? just curious. i have vista enterprise.

thx

 

[rds]

i cant seem to get my bf2 working smooth, i get kick for no heartbeat. Did you have that problem? just curious. i have vista enterprise.

thx

Make sure you have the latest version of Punkbuster.

 

[BarneysPosse]

I have XP 64 installed on mine and it works beautifully. I don't have the link handy but I know you can download a 120 day free trial of the OS from Microsoft's website.