Vista 32-bit or 64-bit?

[Admiral Huddy]

What are the advantages/disadvantages of going with the 64-bit version over the 32-bit version?

I'm planning on an upgrade next month and was considering buying 4GB of PC8500. However, if it means that I won't be able to run most of my older applications and games, it's not worth it. Of course, the 32-bit OS only sees 3.2GB of RAM, although I have heard it still uses the full quota ???

What do you guys reckon?

[Mark]

Vista 32-bit will 'see' about 3.8GB less the amount of Video card RAM you have, so if you have a 512MB card, it'll be about 3.3GB.

On 2GB RAM and above, it seems 64-bit can give a noticeable performance gain. The reverse is true if you have only 1GB RAM. Most apps written for Windows XP and above should run, though in a few cases Windows will turn off the Aero interface first. Software older than that might struggle. Driver support depends on the manufacturer, and some of them are still dragging their feet (or have left people completely out in the cold), so worth checking if you have anything old or unusual.

[Dymetrie]

On 2GB RAM and above, it seems 64-bit can give a noticeable performance gain. The reverse is true if you have only 1GB RAM.

I found this to be very true. When I was running on 1GB RAM (and while the disk indexing service was spamming my HDD) the entire system chugged. It worked, but there were noticable hangs and nastiness.

As soon as I put the 2GB in then performance increased a helluva lot and the system pretty much flies now :D

Most apps written for Windows XP and above should run, though in a few cases Windows will turn off the Aero interface first. Software older than that might struggle. Driver support depends on the manufacturer, and some of them are still dragging their feet (or have left people completely out in the cold), so worth checking if you have anything old or unusual.

The only compatability problem I've had so far is with Nero. But all you need to do is make sure you have the latest version and there's no problem at all.

[Daz]

Software wise, unless the application is very old or very poorly written it should work (software that talks to hardware at a low level aside anyway). Just be sure any drivers you need exist and work well.

I'm running 32-bit Vista on my main rig, just because at 2GB of RAM the performance difference is negligible and I have more flexibility in my hardware. At 4GB you definitely want 64bit if you have the hardware to support it.

[Wellington]

I got 64-bit vista, works like a dream with 4GB Ram, not compatibility issues so far with the exception of running Planetside which whilst it runs it chugs along quite slowly.

In fact I was really surprised with it's compatibility, it had drivers for everything on my PC including my wireless card!