Should I upgrade to a 64-bit OS

[DeathWarrior]

My PC recently got bombarded by viruses and trojans to the point that my OS is basicly screwed and I'll have to format. Before I was using Windows XP 32-bit with Service Pack 2. I'm thinking of loading a 64-bit OS, most likely Windows XP 64-bit with Service Pack 3 once I start the format. Is this a good decision? I have 4GB of RAM that would be seen (only 2.8GB were seen on 32-bit) but what I'm most concerned about is how games would run. I play a mix of newer and older games. Does anybody know how any of the following games that were installed before the infection would run on a 64-bit OS:

 

-Guild Wars

-Oblivion

-Morrowind

-Fallout 3

-Warcraft 3

-World of Warcraft

-Half-Life

-Half-Life 2 w/ Episodes 1 and 2

-Portal

-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

-Ultima 7 under Exult

-DosBox running these DOS games:

--Warcraft

--Mortal Kombat

--System Shock

--Arena

--Daggerfall

--Street Fighter 2

 

Anything else I should know about 64-bit OS in general or about Windows XP 64-bit or Windows XP Service Pack 3?

[LHammonds]

Before anything else, you HAVE TO HAVE 64-bit hardware before you can use a 64-bit OS. You will also need to have 64-bit drivers for each piece of hardware you have in your system or attached to it. If you have an old scanner or printer that is no longer supported and never had 64-bit drivers, you can kiss those goodbye unless you plan to spin up a virtual 32-bit OS inside of Microsoft Virtual PC or VMWare....or dual-boot between 32-bit or 64-bit (yuck)

 

I'd recommend downloading and trying out the Windows 7 release candidate first (hurry up and register a product key before they are no longer available!!!). The 64-bit XP system is a bit messy and not what I'd call "well-supported."

 

You can run 64-bit or 32-bit programs on a 64-bit OS but compatibility issues can arise...which is why I recommended the newer OS.

 

LHammonds

[Retribution]

Many people say Oblivion does, but in my experiences, it doesn't. When I had 64-bit Vista Home Premium installed, it crashed all the time, but it wouldn't let me go back to my desktop, I had to turn off the computer each time. These crashes would happen every 1 or 2 minutes. With 32-bit, Oblivion runs just fine.

[DeathWarrior]

After doing some more research and reading everyone's posts I'll probably stick with 32-bit for now. But what about XP Service Pack 3, should I upgrade to SP3 or keep SP2?

[Thor.]

Many people say Oblivion does, but in my experiences, it doesn't. When I had 64-bit Vista Home Premium installed, it crashed all the time, but it wouldn't let me go back to my desktop, I had to turn off the computer each time. These crashes would happen every 1 or 2 minutes. With 32-bit, Oblivion runs just fine.

 

 

Ah yes it does make a big improvement, in oblivion you would notice a huge difference in my opinion and experience. Also any or all "dual cores" cpus support the 64bit os's right now, i have not come across one that doesn't, even some of the AMD single core supports it as well, also from personal experience. Just be carefull some single core processors don't from intel.

 

Its also good if your planning on getting more then 4gb's of ram, the 32bit windows xp only support 3gb's of ram. but i think its ok with Windows 7, it support 4gb's with the 32bit version of the os. Even vista 32bit i think with the latest updates also supports that as well.

 

Its not the hardware that you have to worry about, "most of the time", maybe that odd sound card or printer that only supports the 32bit.

 

Trust me its worth the upgrade :thumbsup:

[TheTerminator2004]

Every modern processor (since the old Pentium 4s IIRC) is 64-bit, so no worries there. As for compatibility, 64-bit OSes can run 32-bit programs, but not vice-versa, and provided you upgrade to Vista or 7 instead of XP, you should have no issues (the 64-bit version of XP was horribly buggy I believe, and is probably the main reason why people always worry that using a 64-bit OS might break stuff. Vista or later are perfectly compatible, and you should have next to no problems with it). Yes, if you have a really old printer or whatever, that might get a bit funny, but by and large you should be fine, and 64-bit does offer a speed increase. In theory, a very major one, but in practice its usually smaller (but noticeable, when running 64-bit software).

 

x64 versions of any version of Windows later than XP are absolutely fine, and are no buggier or more unstable than the 32bit releases. You won't see a massive benefit, except from the increased RAM capacity though, thanks to the lack of software written for x64 systems, but once it gets more widely adopted, it should have some great benefits.

 

Oh, and Retribution, Oblivion runs flawlessly for me, on Vista x64 Ultimate. Never had a single issue with it, in fact it probably crashes less than it did on my old 32-bit XP install.

[Argomirr]

I'm using Vista x64 and Oblivion seems to run a lot better on it than it did on XP x32.

 

I might get Windows 7 x64, I wonder if it'll run as good on it. Probably even better. :P

[Thor.]

I'm using Vista x64 and Oblivion seems to run a lot better on it than it did on XP x32.

 

I might get Windows 7 x64, I wonder if it'll run as good on it. Probably even better. :P

 

Sure will :biggrin:

[spammster]

the choice is pretty obvious isn't it ?

 

if you use more than 3 GB of ram use a 64bit OS or theres no point in having more RAM (and given that most games require 4 GB or more for higher settings, theres no way to avoid 64bit OS)

 

I'm using XP x64 for years and the only problem i ever had hardware wise was an really old webcam which was awful anyway so i replaced it. (I'm also using Windows7 ultimate x64 (as dualboot) and that only had 1 problem (scanner driver) however that problem was fixed when the retail was released and canon provided a driver)

 

and the only hardware requirement for 64bit OS is the CPU and if your CPU can run Fallout3, Stalker etc. it will def. support 64bit (i don't think there has been a CPU since 2000 that doesn't support 64bit OS)

 

so yeah, some really old hardware may not work anymore (and thats a big if, most hardware can be forced to use old 32bit driver (vista driver work quite well))

 

but a 64bit OS is never a bad choice (its kinda amazing that 32bit OS still exist, since most people use around 4 GB of Ram or more (and real gamer def. do))

 

so def. try a 64bit OS, you will like it (but go with Win7 it ads more backwards compatability for older hardware and it actually uses less RAM than XP)

[Thor.]

try a 64bit OS, you will like it (but go with Win7 it ads more backwards compatability for older hardware and it actually uses less RAM than XP)

 

True, not to mention the 20sec starts you would be getting :thumbsup: Confirmation that is true, the ram part.