Gaming windows vista 32-bit or 64-bit

[Ahmedz]

today i got my free copy of windows vista ultimate from that windows feedback program thing.
when i unwrapped it i found 2 discs!
one is 32-bit and the other is 64-bit and each has different product keys

now I'm not sure which one to install

here's my pc specs:
Processor: Intel Pentium D 3.4 GHZ
Mobo: Intel D945GCNL (something shit i got for ddr2 ram)
RAM: Kingston 2 GB DDR2 667 Mhz stick
Graphics: Geforce 7300 GS (gonna buy 8800 GTS 512 MB in June)
HDD: 160 GB split into 2 partitions
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy


please let me know asap

 

[porchemasi]

I love Vista Ultimate X64!
Its super fast and has only crashed 2x within 2 years now!

I found all my drivers (incl sb audigy) and driver issues are no longer a problem nowadays with x64

.... overall try x64

if its slow, its because of ULTIMATE i recommend 4gb of ram ....Ultimate alone eats up 500 MB with its useless trash!

 

[Hit]

32-Bit
If I'm right you can't even use 64-Bit, and it sucks bad some programs and drivers won't work with 64-Bit

 

[Ahmedz]

hmm my pc is gonna be mostly for games when i get a new graphic card but now all i play is WoW

 

[kallekall]

Most computer use the 32 bit. I think it will tell you if you are about to install 64bit on a 32 and the other way around.

 

[bluebright]

Your CPU is 64bit so you can try it out. I've never used vista 64 before but i know XP 64 is heaps faster.

 

[Ahmedz]

Your CPU is 64bit so you can try it out. I've never used vista 64 before but i know XP 64 is heaps faster.

well i would like to but i dont want to risk using the product key or having to reformat my pc just to reinstall vista 32 bit

bah screw it im gonna install 32-bit

thnx for the help anyway everyone

 

[coolbho3000]

I have it too. Did you know they give you two licenses, one on each disc, that are both true retail licenses? If you don't believe me try installing the 64 bit key on the 32 bit version... it works. So really they sent us two copies.

 

[science]

If you're not using the 64bit key, I'll take it! ;D

 

[lewjay]

Think you want to go x64 when you have more than 4GB ram. Regardless, I'd stick with XP, vista's too bloated.

 

[Renegade_R]

Vista x64 is awesome as long as you are speced for it. Meaning you probably need a gaming machine to run Vista x64 properly. I'm using it...I love it...aside from the fact Hotspot Shield doesn't work on it.

Oh and mind you, if you have a video card, it'll deduct from your RAM if you have more than 4GB...I got 3GB even though I had 4GB installed on Vista 32-bit because the video card deducted from the 4GB limit.

 

[superrob]

32Bit.
64Bit Sux.

 

[Trolly]

Easy option:
64-bit is very slightly faster (not a huge difference I don't think).
32-bit you won't have as many driver problems (But you'll still have some because it's Vista

)

Of course, the obvious being if you decide to install more RAM (4GB upwards I think) you'll need x64 version.

 

[arctic_flame]

Oh and mind you, if you have a video card, it'll deduct from your RAM if you have more than 4GB...I got 3GB even though I had 4GB installed on Vista 32-bit because the video card deducted from the 4GB limit.

Wrong, 32-bit PCs can't use 4GB of RAM, regardless.

 

[fenthwick]

There is no real reason to use 64-bit...yet.
But if you want to have 64-bit OS then you can have 4GB+ RAM unline 32-bit that can have a max of ~3,2GB. Then some applications are used so you can use the 64-bit arcitecture and it has advantages in speed/loading times etc.

The down side of x64 is that you won't be able to run 16bit apps/games. But this shouldn't affect you if you're not into older games.

I have Vista Ulmtimate x64 on my desktop and I like it but when I bought my laptop I chose to get 32 XP as I that the x64 environment needs a little more time.

 

[Venko]

Neither.

Your copy of Vista is not free. Sure, they're not charging you money for it now but you are selling your freedom. What's more is you're responsible for others feeling the need to pay Microsoft money for their OS.

Do the right thing and use Free Software. Once you've got used to it you'll love the freedom that you have. You can change any part of it to be exactly how you want it to be. What's more is the game you play at the moment, World of Warcraft, runs perfectly in Wine (a Windows API layer for GNU/Linux).

Trust me, free software is the way to go. Take back your freedom

 

[TaMs]

If you'd have like 8gb ram then x64 would be usefull. x64 is not really used yet afaik. I've had my 64 bit processor for years and i tried windows xp x64 and nothing worked on it etc.

 

[fischju]

Vista x64 has much better support than XP x64, I haven't had any problems

 

[Venko]

If you'd have like 8gb ram then x64 would be usefull. x64 is not really used yet afaik. I've had my 64 bit processor for years and i tried windows xp x64 and nothing worked on it etc.

Can you not use something along the lines of chroot inside Windows to run 32 bit applications inside a 64bit OS? That's what people using GNU/Linux tend to use to run applications that are only available in 32bit.

If you can't then I guess it's something that the next version of Windows is bound to include. It would be difficult to persuade people to use a 64bit version otherwise.

 

[Tripp]

If you'd have like 8gb ram then x64 would be usefull. x64 is not really used yet afaik. I've had my 64 bit processor for years and i tried windows xp x64 and nothing worked on it etc.

Can you not use something along the lines of chroot inside Windows to run 32 bit applications inside a 64bit OS? That's what people using GNU/Linux tend to use to run applications that are only available in 32bit.

If you can't then I guess it's something that the next version of Windows is bound to include. It would be difficult to persuade people to use a 64bit version otherwise.

Vista x64 runs 32bit apps with no problems that I have seen it just will not run 16bit apps.