Upgrading from Vista 32 bit to Vista 64 bit?

[dbaliko]

I recently did a clean install of Vista Home Premium on my new CPU that I just put together. I have a qx6700 quad core processor, EVGA 680i SLI MB, 4GB of PC6400 Corsair ram, and a Nvidia 8800GTX video card. Because of the 32 bit memory restriction, Vista is only seeing 2.8 GB of my ram along with the video ram. I understand that the 64 bit version will see all of the ram. Is it worthwhile going with the 64 bit version for this reason? Are there other reasons that the 64 bit version is better than the 32bit version? How difficult is it to convert from 32 bit to 64 bit? Except for needing the 64 bit drivers for the hardware, are there any other roadblocks?

I know it's a lot of questions. Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Doug

[noell]

This may help answer some of your questions:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...sta_ff_x64.asp



....Noell

[ecotec]

I read the article that was linked in the above post. Kind of interesting, but I thought I would chime in with my personal experience with vista 64 bit. I have been able to find a driver for every device on my system with exception to one of my printers...howerver that driver is due out in April. So my advice is if you have to means go ahead and upgrade to vista 64bit. Things to check before hand would be driver support for every device you want connected to your system. Also antivirus support...McAfee does not have supported software with vista 64 however norton does. Lastly that note that you cannot upgrade from windows XP 32 to vista 64 is incorrect. If you do it the way microsoft wants you to, meaning loading the exe. file off of the vista 64 bit DVD from windows XP desktop it will not work...but if you boot from the windows 64 bit dvd...you will be able to load and activate vista 64 bit. I cannot stress enough how impressed I am with the 64 bit version, especially how well the OS utilizes my memory. Hope all this helps.

[Stealth JAG]

Good Feedback Ecotec. I know the customer comments on NewEgg may not be the most statistically accurate barometer around, but it did seem that people were having better experiences with Vista 64 bit over the 32 bit version. That kind of surprised me based on my own experiences with XP64. Anyway, based on some of the comments I've been reading, I went ahead and purchased Vista Ultimate 64 bit OEM for my new build. Can't wait to get the last final parts.

Rob

[Adrian Wainer]

I do not have experience of Vista full stop, but I have Windows XP [ 32 bit ] and Windows XP Professional x64, so all comments are in relation to Windows XP Professional x64 With regard to seeing RAM, whilst if I remember right Windows XP x64 can utilize just over a 120 Gigabytes of motherboard RAM, even if the motherboard allows your operating system to see four gigabytes of motherboard RAM, Both FS9 and FSX are 32 bit application programmes and actually run in XP x64 under a 32 bit emulation system, so they are restricted to 32 bit charactoristics, which I think is a max of 2 gigs to a programme or 3 gigs when the system has been specially configured by the user. All that said, if Vista 64 is similar in charactoristics to Windows XP Professional x64, I would recommend the Vista 64, since Windows XP Professional x64 runs most 32 software and will be able to take advantage of future 64 bit software when it becomes available.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/default.mspx

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/...4_preview2.asp

re Anti-Virus applications, since these applications access the kernel, Windows XP x64 profesional will not operate 32 bit anti-virus applications but there are 64 bit anti-virus applications

http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.ph...e_x64_Software

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

[alfredodedarc]

I have XP Pro64 and Vista Ultimate 64- neither of which allows me to install FSX onto my hardware. I run an AMD 6000+ dual processor, 4GB DDR2 800mhz Ram, 320GB HDD, DVD-RW, Nvidia Nforce 510 chipset, NVidia 512 MB 8400 series video.
Whenever I attempt to install on a 64Bit OS, it says my media is damaged [it is not, since it installs flawlessly on 32Bit OSes].
So I settle for 32bit Windows until someone finds a solution. There are others having the same problem.

[djt]

Except for needing the 64 bit drivers for the hardware, are there any other roadblocks?
Doug

If there are any “roadblocks” I haven’t found any yet and yes, all 4 GB of RAM are recognized with Vista 64. Over the last year 64 Bit drivers have become very mature and availability at least with my hardware has not been an issue.

I’ve been using Vista Ultimate 64 on a dual boot machine for the six months without any problems. The SP1/RC from December and now the SP1 “refresh” have made a noticeable difference in performance. I’m now finding that there is no performance hit when using Vista and I have noticed applications loading faster.

[xxmikexx]

alfredodedarc,

Upon reading what djt wrote, it sounds as if your problem may be a 64-bit media (DVD?) driver problem. Have you tried a driver update? If so, what was the result?