The topic says it all. I have a dual-core AMD64 and I can’t decide. On the one hand, 64-bit holds the promise for potential performance improvements and, I suppose, better support for large quantities of ram (>4 gb). On the other hand, I am worried about incompatibility issues with older software and drivers for semi-obscure devices.
It’s been a little while since AMD and Intel processors have supported 64-bits so this must be a question many people will ask themselves when/if they decide to upgrade. Some expert opinions would be welcome.
Don’t even worry about it, wait for service pack 2 to come out, by then a lot of others will have been doing most of the bleeding and there will be much more information available so you can make an informed choice.
You’ve pretty much hit the issues. On the plus side, you’ll be able to support more memory, and you’ll get a minor speed improvement from 64-bit apps. There’s a better security model, too, but I’m not sure how big a deal that is, since even the 32-bit side is considerably improved.
On the minus side, you’ll wait longer for drivers (it’s harder to port to 64-bit than 32), CANNOT use an unsigned driver (which means a lot of free/open source projects will never support it, because they can’t affort the signing/testing), and frankly for a while there aren’t going to BE any 64-bit apps to speak of. Some older (16-bit) applications won’t work, because 64-bit Vista doesn’t support them.
The decision was easy for me; I need more memory. For most folks, I think it’s going to be a lot harder.
the question is: how many obscure drivers do YOU actually need/use? Take a look at your own suite of peripherals and apps and see which are ready for 64. If something that you just must have is still not ready, then wait.