Install Vista 32bit or 64bit for gaming?

[vannibombonato]

Dears,
very easy.

Im about to recieve my MPro w/8800, and plan to have a dedicated HD for Windows in bootcamp. Windows will be used exclusively for gaming (real-time-strategy games mostly, if this matters).
I am keen on going into Vista, trading a bit of XP performance/stability towards full/hassel-free compatibility with Directx10 and future games, but have no clue wether it makes sense or not to go with the 64 bit version.
I understand this version allows to use much more RAM (which i will have installed on the MPro), AND more than a single core used.

What i dont have a clue about is wether the 64bit version is compatible with all (or grand majority) of games, wether they do actually take advantages of the 64 bit possibility (which im not sure at all, as i believe you have to program it to do so), etc.

In a nutshell: do i go vista home premium or ultimate?

Thanks,

Vanni

 

[XianPalin]

If you have to go Vista I'd go Ultimate 64-bit. I'm pretty sure 64-bit Vista is a lot better off than 64-bit XP ever was in terms of compatibility.

The best thing to do is Google the old games that you want to play (I'd imagine most new ones would work ok) and find compatibility with 64-bit vista.

 

[stomer]

Are there any games that take advantage of 64-bit Vista? Are there any 64-bit compiled games? Unless there are 64 bit games out there, there'll be no performance difference, apart from the OS being able to address more mem, but then, which games require such crazy amounts of mem? Is the minor increase in performance worth the potential incompatibility problems?

Ultimate or Premium? Do you need/use IIS? Will you be wanting to join a domain? If the answer is no to both, then there isn't much point in going for Ultimate.

 

[vannibombonato]

Are there any games that take advantage of 64-bit Vista? Are there any 64-bit compiled games? Unless there are 64 bit games out there, there'll be no performance difference, apart from the OS being able to address more mem, but then, which games require such crazy amounts of mem? Is the minor increase in performance worth the potential incompatibility problems?

Ultimate or Premium? Do you need/use IIS? Will you be wanting to join a domain? If the answer is no to both, then there isn't much point in going for Ultimate.

I dont know what IIS is, i dont know what you mean by joining a domain...so i would say i certainly dont need ultimate

I thought that the 64bit OS would have made things quicker via making use of all cores, etc.

Thanks,

Vanni

 

[stomer]

I thought that the 64bit OS would have made things quicker via making use of all cores, etc.

Not quite, it just means the OS can address more memory and move memory about in bigger chunks. Unless software is specifically written to take advantage of 64bits, then the performance increases are negligible.

BTW, I completely forgot that MS hobbles their OS to make more SKUs. Home Premium only supports one physical processor. Ultimate supports up to 2 processors. So you might want to get Ultimate after all. (I believe your Mac Pro has 2 physical process.)

 

[noi375]

Not quite, it just means the OS can address more memory and move memory about in bigger chunks. Unless software is specifically written to take advantage of 64bits, then the performance increases are negligible.

BTW, I completely forgot that MS hobbles their OS to make more SKUs. Home Premium only supports one physical processor. Ultimate supports up to 2 processors. So you might want to get Ultimate after all. (I believe your Mac Pro has 2 physical process.)

You would want 64 bit OS because with Vista, they run 32 bit code pretty efficiently, so you won't lose anything by going there, provided you have the drivers for it (trust me - finding 64 bit drivers for Vista can be a pain), and the applications you use don't cry when installing on 64 bit vista (low level stuff hates it, but newer applications works pretty well).

As long as your hardware/software is supposed, there is no reason not to install the 64 bit version, since you get more processor and RAM support (not restricted to just 3 gigs of RAM). Only reason I move away from Vista was because of the stupid activation thing - I don't want to re-activate twice on the bootcamp install and VMFusion install (they are treated as two separate install).

Of course, finding hardware/software support is a killer, hence so much resistant in moving there.

 

[Mercuric Oxide]

Dears,
very easy.

Im about to recieve my MPro w/8800, and plan to have a dedicated HD for Windows in bootcamp. Windows will be used exclusively for gaming (real-time-strategy games mostly, if this matters).
I am keen on going into Vista, trading a bit of XP performance/stability towards full/hassel-free compatibility with Directx10 and future games, but have no clue wether it makes sense or not to go with the 64 bit version.
I understand this version allows to use much more RAM (which i will have installed on the MPro), AND more than a single core used.

What i dont have a clue about is wether the 64bit version is compatible with all (or grand majority) of games, wether they do actually take advantages of the 64 bit possibility (which im not sure at all, as i believe you have to program it to do so), etc.

In a nutshell: do i go vista home premium or ultimate?

Thanks,

Vanni

Vista Ultimate 32bit can also see all 8 cores, the only flaw is that it can't see all your ram.

 

[Brianna]

I'm wondering if all games are compliant in Vista. I wouldn't know. I've never had windows installed before, but I am about to purchase a copy. I already have Crysis and can't wait to play it.

What is a better choice for gaming in windows - Vista, or XP?

 

[OnePumpChump]

If you purchase Vista ultimate, 64, it also comes with the 32 edition. You could, if I'm correct, install both and see what runs better.

 

[contoursvt]

Just make sure its not OEM becasue the OEM does not include both versions. If you buy OEM Vista64,thats all you get.

If you purchase Vista ultimate, 64, it also comes with the 32 edition. You could, if I'm correct, install both and see what runs better.

 

[Brianna]

Boot Camp does not let you partition 1 drive for two versions of windows unfortunately. You only get one windows partition per drive. If you have another drive you can do it.

I'm still curious which is better for PC gaming as of today. XP Pro, or Vista? Is anyone an experienced PC gamer? I think I'l check some PC sites and see what those guys say.

 

[Brianna]

HardOCP Article

Hard OCP tests image.

Toms Hardware tests / similar results

I think I'm going to get XP Pro SP2. Frame rates are killing Vista, and there is less expensive to use an upgrade path from XP to Vista than it is to just buy Vista alone.

 

[benpatient]

that graph just shows you that nvidia and ati/amd have to do more work on their vista drivers. the fact that some games are faster in vista and others dramatically slower is a good clue.

NFS seems to stick out. Was it running in DX10 mode in vista? If so, that would explain the difference. Does the DX10 version look better? Sometimes they do.

 

[Brianna]

that graph just shows you that nvidia and ati/amd have to do more work on their vista drivers. the fact that some games are faster in vista and others dramatically slower is a good clue.

NFS seems to stick out. Was it running in DX10 mode in vista? If so, that would explain the difference. Does the DX10 version look better? Sometimes they do.

I did post links to the articles. Your answers were, and are, all right there.