*Waiting for the break of day
Searching for a game to play
Out of mem’ry, program dies
Giving up I close my eyes
Will it crash or run some more?
32 or 64?
Figure pi to the millionth place
Will the CPU keep pace?
Render graphics in real time
But three gig’s an uphill climb
Should I go and buy some more?
32 or 64?
Thinking that I need six gig
To get the most bang from my rig
But will my hardware drivers work?
Will my friends think I’m a jerk?
32 or 64?
32 or 64?*
Keep in mind I don’t believe that ost photo editing software have 64 bit versions, not that they won’t work with the OS, just that you won’t notice any improvement from being 100% 64 bit on OS and Application. I have found in my experience that with the full usage of RAM my photo editing with Photoshop elements is a better experience (less delays, more open windows, etc).
Basically it comes down to what you feel the urge to use. Keep in mind that:
In most cases you are not buying a new version of Windows it whould come with the 64bit disc when you buy the 32 bit
Do you already have the hardware capable of running it?
Are your applications compatible?
If your hardware and software are capable, you get to use all your RAM and you already own the SW, who not upgrade.
The Cisco VPN software I use for work didn’t run on 64 bit Vista, which is the subject of about half the messages in our internal VPN alias. I think they may finally have a 64 bit version out now. I haven’t had any compatibility problems at all with the 32 bit version, but I might have gotten the 64 bit one if it wasn’t for the VPN issue.
To be fair, a VPN application includes a virtual driver for a virtual VPN interface. So it falls in both category of driver and software. Anything real or virtual that adds devices in hardware manager will need to be native 64 bit.
If it comes to that, for an existing computer already running XP or Vista, I don’t think it’s worth upgrading to Win7 of any flavor.
On the other hand, if you’re going to upgrade to Win7 anyway (which the OP states), it seems there’s little reason not to choose the 64-bit version. Assuming you have relatively new hardware (including all peripherals) for which 64-bit device drivers are available.
I will upgrade to a 64-bit O/S when the standard applications I normally use are already available as stable 64-bit apps. I don’t see that occurring until there is a major government and business investment in 64-bit O/Ss and apps, probably three to five years away, at minimum.
My uncool XP laptops and desktops work quite well. I even downgraded the laptops from Vista.
We’ve gotten stymied with our Palm Pilot PDAs (Tungsten E and E2), which don’t sync to our new 64-bit machine via USB. So there are definitely conflicts.
Palm will not be delivering a USB sync for our machines either. We wound up having to buy a cheap IR dongle to sync (which works, but is s…l…o…w…).
I’m running Vista 64-bit right now and I haven’t had any driver issues.
I did have an issue where a game (Atari’s Act of War) actually refused to run because I had too much memory. But I just put it in compatibility mode for WinXP and it ran fine.
Don’t be afraid of 64-bit. It really is the wave of the future and most software developers are aware of this by now.
You don’t have to pay extra for 64 bit so why not try it? I run XP 64 bit and apart from device drivers you wouldn’t know it’s not “normal”. I have no problems running any apps, games, anti virus etc.
As someone else has said, according to Microsoft, both versions are supplied, so yes, I’ll give the 64 bit version a go, and if I don’t like it, I can revert to the 32 bit one. It is this ‘apart from device drivers’ bit that worries me though. :dubious:
You load Windows 64 bit, then load the device drivers: chipset, display adapter, sound card, network card, printer, etc then it works as normal. Before you format / reload your PC take a look through the Device Manager and note down any 3rd party device - then check the website for the manufacturer of that device and download the 64 bit driver ahead of the reload.
Honestly it’s easy, the only problem I’ve had was a Trust graphics tablet where they have 64 bit Vista drivers but not 64 bit XP ones. I have 8 GB RAM just because I can and it’s great!
