Windows 64-bit, FS9 & FSX

[martinlest2 58]

Hi,I am sure that I have read a post (or more) which answers this, but as I cannot now locate it/them now I hope someone won't mind too much answering the following for me:What advantages will I have if I reinstall FS9.1 and all my FS9 addons in a Windows XP 64-bit environment? (I have so much stuff for FS9 (some of which, like airports, aircraft repaints etc. I did myself) that I really do not want to start again with FSX. Also I would prefer XP to Vista 64-bit, according to all I have read here).My main aim is to prevent Out-of-Memory errors when landing at complex airports flying complex a/c like PMDG, which is ruining my FS9 flying pleasure. I've tried everything I can find on this site to fix this problem - unless anything has come up in the past 5 months (I've been abroad all that time, just got back) - including boot.ini switches, new FS9.exe files etc. etc.The bottom line I suppose is, how far will reinstalling FS9 in XP-64 prevent this from happening?Many thanks,Martin

[deetee 164]

Hi Martin,I have Vista x64 SP1 running FS9 & FSX. I can say with confidence that using this operating system I rarely if ever get errors - it is now a very stable platform. Just make sure that your system is capable of running Vista x64 with ease (4GB ram, duo-core etc). Not only is it more stable than when I had XP (x86), FS9/FSX run very well indeed. That is my happy experience with it, but there will always be the Luddites (XP->Vista, FS9->FSX). :)

[martinlest2 58]

Hmmm, odd the way different systems react (or perhaps it isn't) - several people have said don't get Vista (resource hog by repute), stick to XP. Still, if yours runs fine.Thanks. Any other comments?M.

[Guest ianrivaldosmith]

I use vista 64 SP1 with fs9. Resource hog? nahh! Its way better than XP ever was. I never get errors. Runs fine...Only 1 problem, FS9 wont run in windowed mode, But I never do that anyways.

[mageej 0]

It runs best with at least 4gb of ram. Very smooth.

[Chuck_B 2]

I just finished my FS9 migration to XP 64. I took a conscious pass on VISTA; it's very pretty, but IMO it's overkill, and it's overpriced. FS9 is a 5 year old program built specifically with XP in mind, and I personally saw no real advantage to going with VISTA but only potential problems (my machine is FS9 dedicated and I run no other programs on it) I'm very happy with my new 64 bit system -- is it perfect? No. I have to remember that there are basic, fundamental limitations with the program itself that even the latest, greatest super-computer won't solve.That having been said, would I go back to 32 bit simming? No Way!EDIT: Have you seen this thread? It was immensely helpful to me through the entire decision making and implementation process:<< http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=search >>

[Avcomware 1]

Hi Martin.This is from someone that has been involved with just about all the OSs since the 1970s, Mainframe, Minis and Micros, there is nothing but grief to be gotten from Vista 32 or 64. The only reason to get it is if you are forced to, or don't know any better. Just carefully read the posts from some of the people that "love" Vista, one word is How great it is, next is how you can cover up / work around some problems or try to live with it's short comings, I refer to it as misery seeks company syndrome.Here are just two examples of some of the problems, besides just being a bloated OS. Most of the people that run it have upgraded hardware and they may not have noticed the performance drop, or don't care to admit it.The systems that I use it in, only because I have to, have signed Drivers, not overclocked / stressed in any way, and I get a blowout at least once a day. Whenever it feels like it dials out, regardless if you have window update on or off, when and if you get an update it will shut your system down even if you are in the middle of an 8 hour project. I've seen messages from people where they had to pay a lot of money for the Phone bill, because their Internet Provider was Long distance and the system connected in the background for hours without them knowing about it.All systems Vista 64 SP1, that I know of, do it, but here are a couple of examples of the type of problems you can expect, in addition to what others and I have mentioned before.The out of Memory, the system / OS caching every thing, in this case 6GB of RAM, is triggered by just normal use open app., close it, do some testing using MS provided code etc. Shortly after I captured that pic. and I tried to load another app., I got an error, Insufficient memory... It gobbled up 6GB of RAM. from 6100 MB to 150.The other is just using MSFS shooting approaches, it blew the Video Driver.. TV

[deetee 164]

>I use vista 64 SP1 with fs9. Resource hog? nahh! Its way>better than XP ever was. I never get errors. Runs fine...Only>1 problem, FS9 wont run in windowed mode, But I never do that>anyways.I can run FS9 in windowed mode without problems. Perhaps it's a video card/driver issue? (I have an NVidia 8800 GTX)

[martinlest2 58]

Thanks once more for the helpful comments. No, I hadn't seen the other thread, so I have copied it to my hard drive for later perusal!Some people 'love' Vista I know, but 90% of the comments I read are to avoid it for FS (or often indeed, for anything else!). When I got a new machine earlier this year (free from Dell, to replace my old one which gave up the ghost just inside its 3-year warranty!), I specified I wanted XP Pro, not Vista, and I don't regret it.The OoM errors are certainly not related to how much physical RAM you have, that much is clear from all the learned posts on the subject. I am still not clear though how XP 64-bit handles memory issues compared to 32-bit (any techno gurus explain?) and whether this would help eliminate such crashes: as I say, I've spent dozens of hours on OoM problems and although I've managed to reduce them, they still occur at the most awful moments. I'd certainly buy XP-64 and reinstall if I thought that were the way to go.Martin

[martinlest2 58]

.. now I start reading the thread you indicated Chuck, I see some of my questions above are answered there,M.

[Chuck_B 2]

I can't explain it to you technically, all I can tell you is XP64 is a much more robust OS and handles all of my complex sceneries that were beginning to overload XP32. It now registers all of my RAM whereby XP32 always held out the block of memory for my GPU (that's expected). I over clock like crazy and I haven't seen an OoM or CTD that couldn't be explained by an addon in ages -- and that's great! Just think about it -- IF I see a CTD I'm pretty confident now that it's probably NOT the OS. That in and of itself was worth the $139 USD I paid Tiger Direct for the OEM disk.I think the author explains it all in detail in the post I linked you to, but you can also go over to the Hardware forum here and do a search -- there has been a lot of discussion on the topic over there.

[Guest djt01]

>This is from someone that has been involved with just about>all the OSs since the 1970s, Mainframe, Minis and Micros,>there is nothing but grief to be gotten from Vista 32 or 64.>The only reason to get it is if you are forced to, or don't>know any better. Just carefully read the posts from some of>the people that "love" Vista, one word is How great it is,>next is how you can cover up / work around some problems or>try to live with it's short comings, I refer to it as misery>seeks company syndrome.Wow, really, what grief, I

[Bob Scott 7,719]

>I use vista 64 SP1 with fs9. Resource hog? nahh! Its way>better than XP ever was. I never get errors. Runs fine...Only>1 problem, FS9 wont run in windowed mode, But I never do that>anyways.You need to disable Windows Aero while running FS9 in windowed mode.Right-click the desktop, then selectPersonalize -> Windows Color and Appearance and select Windows Vista Basic, and FS9 runs just fine windowed.In theory (haven't tried it myself) you can right-click the FS9 icon, go to the compatibility tab, and check "Disable Visual Themes" to get the same effect.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

[Bob Scott 7,719]

Windows Vista 64 working very well for FS9 here, with a eVGA 680i mobo, intel Core 2 Duo Extreme o/c to 3.6 GHz, 4GB 1066 MHz RAM, nVidia 8800GTX/768MB w/ v178.13 driver, and Creative Audigy 2ZX. Has killed my OOM problems dead.I'll accept the a 1-2 fps drop to get the smoothness and stability I see in Vista 64 (most likely due to being able to use much more of the system RAM).RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO