Win7 32 or 64 bit?

[DirtRider]

Ok I am running 32 bit but a friend of mine want to move over to Win7 and cannot make up his mind if he should go 32 or 64 bit. He is an avid gamers as what I am. So far I have not found any time that I feel that 64 bit would have been better than my 32 bit.

So what do you all think what are the advantages and disadvantages that he need to know

 

[sygnus21]

Here you go.... http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/86886-32-bit-vs-64-bit-comparison.html. Its in the "Sticky" section of the "General Discussion" forum

 

[windowsapple]

Alright, 32 bit Win7 has generally more software and hardware support than 64 bit. Choose 32-bit if you're an average user.

 

[Lordbob75]

Ok I am running 32 bit but a friend of mine want to move over to Win7 and cannot make up his mind if he should go 32 or 64 bit. He is an avid gamers as what I am. So far I have not found any time that I feel that 64 bit would have been better than my 32 bit.

So what do you all think what are the advantages and disadvantages that he need to know

I strongly suggest x64, but is your choice. Read my thread that sygnus linked.

Here you go.... http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/86886-32-bit-vs-64-bit-comparison.html. Its in the "Sticky" section of the "General Discussion" forum

Sweet! It is good to see this thread getting use.

~Lordbob

 

[DirtRider]

Here you go.... http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/86886-32-bit-vs-64-bit-comparison.html. Its in the "Sticky" section of the "General Discussion" forum

Oh dear missed that Thanks

 

[Night Hawk]

Another thing to look at besides the sticky on making comparisons between the two kernels with the 64bit being a bit more efficient at memory management by less swapping out of data to the drive that is would be the particular system 7 will go on.

One example here is seeing XP drivers for the board, onboard sound, and old 128mb GeForce FX5200 video card all working on the temp 32bit 7 install. Obviously no Vista or 64bit support was ever seen for this oldie! On a much newer system readily having seen Vista 32/64 support as well as for the hardwares installed the 64bit will be seen as chewing about 300mb more of ram due to the reduction of swapping out to the drive by way of the paging file and seeing more data kept in the active ram instead.

MS then recommends 2.5gb as their "recommended minimum" for memory due to seeing this. That however doesn't specify 2.5gb is mandatory however but better suited since most systems now already see 3-4gb for most typical builders at least.

 

[Dzomlija]

Alright, 32 bit Win7 has generally more software and hardware support than 64 bit. Choose 32-bit if you're an average user.

That just depends really on who you are (personal or business user), and what kinds of specialist hardware you are using.

In the almost 5 years that I've been using Vista x64 and Seven x64, the only problem I've encountered with drivers are for a scanner (Canon Lide20, for which only 32-bit is available), and cell phones and 3G modems:

A lot of my clients use their cell phones as a modem, and finding x64 drivers has proven a nightmare, which is repeated with the use of dedicated 3G modems. thus far, all cases have been resolved by moving to 32-bit Windows.

But other than that, the really is no reason to even thnk about which to choose, when clearly x64 is the better choice.

My advice to the TS would be to go x64 now and grow accustomed to it now, and not be left in the cold when Windows 8 is released in only x64...

 

[windowsapple]

... But that would mean that everyone would be forced to use x64 bit architecture. What about us Linux dudes? -_- I can see a 128 bit coming up

 

[Lordbob75]

... But that would mean that everyone would be forced to use x64 bit architecture. What about us Linux dudes? -_- I can see a 128 bit coming up

The best thing about Linux is its adaptability.

If Linux cannot adapt to x64, then it WILL die out.
Which would be unfortunate...

~Lordbob

 

[DeaconFrost]

... But that would mean that everyone would be forced to use x64 bit architecture.

That wouldn't force everyone...just Windows users. Linux has had x64 versions available for quite sometime now as well.

Ok I am running 32 bit but a friend of mine want to move over to Win7 and cannot make up his mind if he should go 32 or 64 bit. He is an avid gamers as what I am. So far I have not found any time that I feel that 64 bit would have been better than my 32 bit.

I skipped the advantages/disadvantages part because that's all been well-documented. However, if someone is a serious enough gamer to base their OS choice on it, then this gamer would likely be using 4 GB or more memory, and should already be using a x64 OS. Someone that serious about gaming wouldn't be using only 2 GB or 3 GB of memory. Some games can chew that much up alone, and would seriously impact the performance of that game.

 

[motc7]

The move to 64 bit is here and now. Companies are making drivers for their software and software for 64 bit machines. I do not see a reason at all to stay on 32 bit.

 

[Night Hawk]

I skipped the advantages/disadvantages part because that's all been well-documented. However, if someone is a serious enough gamer to base their OS choice on it, then this gamer would likely be using 4 GB or more memory, and should already be using a x64 OS. Someone that serious about gaming wouldn't be using only 2 GB or 3 GB of memory. Some games can chew that much up alone, and would seriously impact the performance of that game.

I would like to know which games chew up an actual 2-3gb of ram when just about every was written to run on systems with 2gb or less installed. Going from 4gb upto 8gb hasn't provided any performance boost. It can improve stability however when going to run several apps or multiple instances like having more then one VM running at the same time.

The 64bit 7 generally uses about 300mb of ram more then the 32bit due to seeing less data swapping out to the drive keeping more in the active ram. A good gaming system depends more on the combination of hardwares more then anything.

As for running the 32bit 7 in some cases that will still be necessary in order to use some addon devices where no 64bit drivers are written. In fact it wasn't until last year that I could even get connected online with any 64bit Windows since the ISPs typically fail to provide that type of support using the old stuff as far as modems, network adapters, etc.

Yet when moving away from using a usb port type to having a nic card the 64bit 7 provided what was needed for that. The ISP provided modem saw usb only while a separately purchased modem uses the Cat 5, 6 ethernet cable. This is another item to consider when first going to decide as to how you connect online where you can run into problems running any 64bit Windows.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I would like to know which games chew up an actual 2-3gb of ram when just about every was written to run on systems with 2gb or less installed. Going from 4gb upto 8gb hasn't provided any performance boost. It can improve stability however when going to run several apps or multiple instances like having more then one VM running at the same time.

I'm going to make an assumption (which I hate doing), that you don't play games often on a PC? I'll have to admit I haven't in the last 6 months to a year myself. Anyway, that being said, it isn't hard to get a game to use up that much memory, depending on your hardware, settings, etc. Games are dynamic, and can adjust visual quality, etc based on what you can throw at the game. Back when I played CoD:MW, I could routinely see the main game .exe using 2.5 GB of memory.

As for performance, you're missing the one area that the OS would make a difference. Depending on your gaming video card(s), your system could be running with 3 GB or less available system memory with an x86 OS. Add in your normal background apps, plus the game, and you can easily frun out of physical memory. Swap that with an x64 OS, and you'll be seeing nearly another full GB of available memory.

I upgraded the system in my specs from 4 GB to 8 GB, and while I didn't do so for gaming, the extra overhead does come in handy. I did the upgrade so I could run two VMs at once without gimping them in dedicated memory, and also for video editing/converting. Well, and to be honest, I also upgraded back when DDR2 memory was dirt cheap.

I'm not claiming the OS switch will make a huge difference, but it is 2010 last time I checked. Most gamers will be running high end or nearly high end systems, so why limit them with the x86 OS?

 

[Zepher]

here are a few games that I looked up,

here is Metro 2033's recommended systems,

• Recommended:
  
  • Processor: Any Quad Core or 3.0+ GHz Dual Core CPU
  • Memory: 2GB RAM
  • Graphics: DirectX 10 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 260 and above)
  • DirectX®: DirectX 10 or higher
  Optimum Requirements:
  
  • Processor: Core i7 CPU
  • Memory: 8GB RAM or higher
  • Graphics: NVIDIA DirectX 11 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 480 and 470)
  • DirectX®: DirectX 11

Bioshock 2
Recommended:

• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core 2.60Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core 2.13Ghz
• Memory: 3GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon HD4830 512MB graphics card or better

Just Cause 2

• Recommended:
  
  • OS: Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7
  • Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.6 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 2.4GHz or equivalen
  • Memory: 3GB system Memory
  • Hard Drive:
  • Graphics: DX10 compatible graphics card with 512 MB of memory (Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 series/ ATI Radeon HD 5750 series)
  • Sound: 100% DirectX 10 compatible Dolby Digital 5.1 sound card
  • DirectX®: Microsoft DirectX 10.1

Prince of Persia
Minimum:

• OS: Windows XP (SP3) / Windows Vista (SP2) / Windows 7
• Processor: 2.6 GHz dual-core Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or higher recommended)
• Memory: 1 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista, Windows 7 (2 GB / 4 GB recommended)
• Graphics: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB recommended) (see supported list*)
• DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 8 GB
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
• Peripherals Supported: Windows-compliant keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
• Internet Connection: Broadband Internet connection with 128 kbps or faster

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 100 / 200 / GTX series
ATI RADEON X1600 / HD 2000 / HD 3000 / HD 4000 / HD 5000 series

 

[wdfsinap]

I like 32 bit, my computer oes not support 64 bit. but it works well with 32 bit

 

[Night Hawk]

Most of these companies are looking at the latest new systems now being seen with 3gb installed already when writing those system specs apparently.

As for running multiple VMs or trying to and running into the "out of resources" error when not having the extra above 4gb of memory try reducing the amount of memory allotted to each VM. If you have 4gb and run two VMs both set for 2gb that will try to access all 4gb installed.

Hello wdfsinap Welcome to the Seven Forums!

I was stuck with the 32bit beta for being able to get online until replacing the ISP's provided modem for one bought separately and haven't looked back since that solved the getting online problem. The 64bit is on the main build as the main OS there while I'm presently testing XP driver compatibility on a much older XP build with the 32bit.

All the original XP drivers for chipset, onboard sound, old old FX5200 AGP card, and a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Gamer sound card are working. But it only has 1gb of memory and no plans to boost to the 3gb max presently.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Most of these companies are looking at the latest new systems now being seen with 3gb installed already when writing those system specs apparently.

It's not apparently...it's factual. Game companies were blasted for years for lowering their system reqs to make games more accessible, despite the fact systems that met thos minimums played the game like a slideshow. They've been much more accurate, especially since the Games For Windows initiative. Those games will use those resources...and then some if you can push the settings up to the max.

As for running multiple VMs or trying to and running into the "out of resources" error when not having the extra above 4gb of memory try reducing the amount of memory allotted to each VM. If you have 4gb and run two VMs both set for 2gb that will try to access all 4gb installed.

That's a matter of simple math. I'd hope no one would actually try to do that. However, some of the Windows Server OSes run nicely with 2 GB of memory, and if you are testing out some other server apps, where you need to run two or three of them together, 8 GB makes that much more feasible.

I was stuck with the 32bit beta for being able to get online until replacing the ISP's provided modem for one bought separately

That should only be an issue with the USB connection, but given the low cost and near necessity of consumer level home routers, the OS shouldn't be a question of compatibility. As long as the OS can run TCP/IP, it should be compatible.

 

[pparks1]

There is nothing wrong with 32-bit systems if you have 4GB of RAM or less. You are certain of drivers...so no issues there. Whether or not 32-bit or 64-bit is a better fit, is up to you. I know personally for me at work, my checkpoint VPN does NOT have a 64-bit client without our company upgrading infrastructure...which they aren't interested in doing so a couple of us can run a 64-bit OS. I've got 4GB of RAM on my work laptop and I get about 3.25GB worth of it.

 

[Night Hawk]

The 32bit 7 is still 7 now matter how you look at it there. For those who plan to run a lot especially with programs like CAD and not simply pc games were demands on resources are seen then you invest more for memory as well as other hardwares.

As for the ISP here the usb type modem was replaced by one which uses the ethernet 10/100mb/s type cable for that type of hardwired connection over the flimsy usb type seeing as usual 98/2000/ME/XP driver support only! No one ever updates any of their provided hardwares to accomidate the 64bit Windows XP, Vista, or 7!

Once you have everything covered the obvious preference between the two is for the 64bit there for those things we have mentioned on the thread so far like running multiple VMs is another item where more memory is the consideration. Try running the XP Mode along with three other VMs on Virtual Box like I had going at one point. (XP Mode plus W7 RC x86, W98SE, ubuntu on VBox all at once seeing the out of resources error)

One reason I wanted to be to buy the retail not OEM releases of 7 was due the former ISP problem until that last item was solved. For those who still lack 64bit support presently like tossing a quick 32bit install on an old boat here for a few tests you can still go with the 32bit 7 and have a better Windows then seen with the previous versions. 64bit being optional at this time.