64 bit windows and Gaming?
- Thread starter South59
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NicePants42
Partition Master
I've been running XP Pro 64 for the last ~10 months or so exclusively. I started out dual-booting w/ 32bit in case there were any problems, but for the last 10 months or so I've had no reason to use 32bit. Even iTunes is 64bit now.
I've used nVidia and ATI cards, and play everything from the Fallout Series to FEAR. Oblivion, HL2, CS, Quake, UT2K3-2K4...you know, it'd probably be faster to say that I haven't had a game yet with any problems in 64bit.
There were even a few articles back when XP Pro 64 came out indicating that some 32bit games performed faster under XP 64. With all of the 64bit patches that've been released since then (Far Cry, for example) - I seriously doubt that you'd be able to find a clear case where a game performs better under 32bit.
I've used nVidia and ATI cards, and play everything from the Fallout Series to FEAR. Oblivion, HL2, CS, Quake, UT2K3-2K4...you know, it'd probably be faster to say that I haven't had a game yet with any problems in 64bit.
There were even a few articles back when XP Pro 64 came out indicating that some 32bit games performed faster under XP 64. With all of the 64bit patches that've been released since then (Far Cry, for example) - I seriously doubt that you'd be able to find a clear case where a game performs better under 32bit.
madstork91
The One, The Only...
Unless it refused to run.
I wrote an article about this a while ago, but things may have improved quite a bit since then. I'd like to follow-up, actually. My overall conclusions is that moving to 64-Bit will -not- show huge benefits to games at all. In fact, I am having a hard time finding a 64-Bit application that is vastly improved over it's 32-Bit counter-part.
Most of the issues with x64 are no doubt wiped out though, so it's not going to hurt moving to it. Just don't expect monumental gaming changes. You can even see in some instances where performance was lessened. I blame that primarily thanks to the lack of better video drivers at the game though.
I'd like to follow-up to that first article I linked to in the coming months, but probably using Vista (as much as I despise it).
Most of the issues with x64 are no doubt wiped out though, so it's not going to hurt moving to it. Just don't expect monumental gaming changes. You can even see in some instances where performance was lessened. I blame that primarily thanks to the lack of better video drivers at the game though.
I'd like to follow-up to that first article I linked to in the coming months, but probably using Vista (as much as I despise it).
NicePants42
Partition Master
I'll add that I never personally noticed any improvements in games going from 32bit to 64bit. But I also didn't notice any degradations. I'll see if I can't update my 32bit drivers and do a coupla' benches.