Vista 32 bit or 64bit

[Ted]

Which is the best version to install? ill be using the pc mostly for gaming, and some video editing.

[shadowpr]

The biggest reason to go for 64 bit is if you have a specific program that runs in 64 bit, or if you want to fully use 4gb or more of ram.

If not, then 32 bit will do you fine.

Some also say that 64 bit is slightly slower when running 32 bit games. I'm not sure about that.

[Dave21]

What are your system specs? If you done a search on the forums, you would have found the answer.

There are pros and cons of each.

I suggest going with the 32 bit as you may run into some driver issues with the 64 bit if you have older hardware.

64 bit is slightly faster than 32 bit but the difference is so small it is hardly noticeable.

Go with 32 bit and upgrade later to 64 bit because a lot of developers don't use 64 bit yet.

[Ted]

Thanks for helping guys.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by Dave21 What are your system specs? If you done a search on the forums, you would have found the answer. There are pros and cons of each. I suggest going with the 32 bit as you may run into some driver issues with the 64 bit if you have older hardware. 64 bit is slightly faster than 32 bit but the difference is so small it is hardly noticeable. Go with 32 bit and upgrade later to 64 bit because a lot of developers don't use 64 bit yet.

64-bit is NOT faster than 32-bit, if you had a the same program made for both 32-bit and 64-bit (natively), only then would you see 64-bit being faster. Since almost all applications and games (especially games) are made for 32-bit, it will run slower on 64-bit because the operating system needs to translate the 32-bit code into 64-bit code, therefore taking up additional resources. When it comes to gaming, 64-bit is among the buggiest operating systems, so if you are going to install 64-bit and do gaming on it, make sure you have the latest drivers and patches/updates for the game(s).

[shadowpr]

Masaki, do you have any sources that show the actual difference in 32 vs 64 bit speed? I imagine that it can't be too big of a difference, or even noticable to anyone except in benchmarking.

[Masaki 7-11]

Aside from benchmarks, I've tried both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of vista premium on my core 2 duo laptop. After installing drivers and updates for the 64-bit, I tried multitasking (multitasking was great in 32-bit), not only did it take my laptop 5-10 seconds to start up a program (32-bit took at most 1 or 2 seconds), it wouldn't let me run winamp and and internet explorer at the same time without giving me choppy sound. During this time my CPU utilization was around 50-70% (Using 32-bit, CPU utilization was around 5%). I checked to make sure winamp and internet explorer was updated to the latest version, and that both programs were 64-bit compatible. I tried using other programs such as AVG, Spybot, firefox and windows media player, but CPU utilization remained high, and multitasking was horrible. Viruses/Spyware couldn't be the problem since this was a fresh install, and I had AVG/Spybot(both of these are 64-bit compatible) installed as soon as Vista was installed. I terminated my internet connection, disabled both AVG and Spybot, and multitasking was still horrible. You'll notice the difference between a 1-2 second(s) start-up time and a 5-10 seconds start up time for applications. Since all my hardware and software was 64-bit compatible, and others have been having the same problem as myself, I see no reason to recommend 64-bit over 32-bit (especially since price/tech support is the same).

[shadowpr]

Wow. I wonder if there was something else going on though. Especially since you mentioned that you were having choppy sound. I've never personally experienced that before.

Interesting. I'll have to try and see how long it takes to load up my programs and post back.

[Masaki 7-11]

I was having choppy only when multitasking, if only winamp was running, then the sound was fine (as good as in the 32-bit version). As soon as I was using another program in addition to winamp, the sound became choppy. Until we start getting more programs, applications and games to run on 64-bit natively, I don't think 64-bit is a good choice for an operating system. The internet explorer (64-bit) that came with the system loaded up a lot faster than the 32-bit, and didn't have that much of an impact on winamp performance (sound was choppy during loading of internet explorer 64-bit), so most of the issues stem from translating the 32-bit code into 64-bit code.