VISTA upgrade

[Guest c12@fft]

Hello. I tried a search on here for 64 bit upgrades from the VISTA 32 bit OS, and was returned with an error.So, my question is, is it worth the effort to upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit VISTA OS for FSX? I have a stock Q6600 CPU in a MSI P7N Platinum SLI mobo. I also have 4MB of DDr2-800 RAM, and a GeForce 8800GT card. I operate with 2 monitors. I have tried to OC the CPU but with no luck. So I have been using the onboard MSI over clock tool.Would I greatly benefit from upgrading to a 64 bit VISTA OS?Thank you for the help and direction...Bill

[Guest wintercon]

In all honesty,I would say no,Vista is crap anyway and to switch to a 64bit version is not recommended and I work in IT Support and I have vista on my laptop and will be switching back to xp.Vista is crap.Save your money,invest in a better graphics card or ram or motherboard or cpu instead of that.Fullstop.

[Guest santiagoluib3]

In all honesty,I would say no,Vista is crap anyway and to switch to a 64bit version is not recommended and I work in IT Support and I have vista on my laptop and will be switching back to xp.Vista is crap.Save your money,invest in a better graphics card or ram or motherboard or cpu instead of that.Fullstop.

Hmm.. I have a similar question with the OP. My current FSX installation is running on a C2D E8400 OCed to 3.65GHz, (now) 4Gig of DDR2-800, 384MB 8800GTS, running XP Pro and it runs sweet. I am planning to build another rig soon, mainly for my digital imaging applications, and I wanted it to be 64-Bit. Photoshop CS4, Final Cut Pro, 3DSutdioMAX are among the main "big" apps that will be running on this system. I am told that Vista64 is currently "the best 64-bit OS solution for the PC" (well aside from XP64, what else?). I'm eyeing on a Q9650, GTX285, 16GigRAM, on an Asus P5QC ?? mobo.With 64bit in mind, I'm entertaining thoughts of installing FSX on this new rig :( For those running FSX on VIsta64, do you think there is a significant boost in performance? (by performance, i mean overall smoothness, not just FPS).santiago

[BartEnder 2]

With 64bit in mind, I'm entertaining thoughts of installing FSX on this new rig :( For those running FSX on VIsta64, do you think there is a significant boost in performance? (by performance, i mean overall smoothness, not just FPS).

On my QX9770 with GTX280 + OCZ 1333MHz on 790i nForce i did not see any significant changes with 64bit over 32bit. You will have no memory problems (32bit is up to 3,1GB) in 64bit OSes.I would go for a Vista, XP is an old system. Vista is not so bad as people says.By the way, FCP is an MacOS application, not a Windows one

[flilotUK 0]

64bit is ideal for taking advantage of the full 4Gb of your memory, and with FSX SP2 being >2Gb Aware, you may be able to run sliders a bit further to the right than you have now.Just make sure before you switch to 64 bit, that you can get drivers for all the peripherals you use with your PC, such as printers/scanners, etc etc.

[greggerm 312]

So, my question is, is it worth the effort to upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit VISTA OS for FSX? I have a stock Q6600 CPU in a MSI P7N Platinum SLI mobo. I also have 4MB of DDr2-800 RAM, and a GeForce 8800GT card. I operate with 2 monitors. I have tried to OC the CPU but with no luck. So I have been using the onboard MSI over clock tool.Would I greatly benefit from upgrading to a 64 bit VISTA OS?

Despite wintercon's ire against Vista, I take the opposite opinion - Vista is just fine for consumer use, and I'd likely never have a need or want to drop back to XP. You'll find a good number of people who are using Vista on their day-to-day computers with no problems, both in the 32 and 64 bit flavors. I don't think any of Microsoft's OS releases have ever been universally embraced at release throughout their history - recall that Windows XP had people with similar experiences for several years after its release as well. Back on track with the original poster - My system is similar to yours. (See below) I have run XP, Vista32, and Vista64 on it with FSX, and I have found that V64 is the superior version for my needs. Although the differences are small, I found that V64 seems to fly smoother and with less blurring versus V32/XP. Other than that, the system seems slightly snappier in day-to-day use, but not by much. I have not run into any program incompatabilities or problems that couldn't be solved due to the 32-vs-64 difference. Answering your question - Would you greatly benefit from V64? Probably not. But I have seen some small improvements that made the change worthwhile to me. Considering these differences are small, it may not be worth the effort to install V64 onto your computer. There is no "upgrade" path between V32 and V64 - you will be required to do a full-fledged reinstall.If time and effort are no issue, then I see no reason not to try it out. Just keep in mind that any improvements are going to be pretty small. If you do not like reinstallations and such, then you may wish to stay put. It does take some time and effort to do a reinstall like this, so if that doesn't strike you as interesting, you may wish to stay put for now.Enjoy!-Greg

[Guest santiagoluib3]

By the way, FCP is an MacOS application, not a Windows one

Lol, that didn't occur to me. I actually had Adobe Premier Pro in mind, but the fingers typed a different app :( I think that's because there was a point I was contemplating whether to go Mac on these apps.... but ended deciding on sticking to PC :)anyways, thanks for that correction ;)

[sargeski 16]

In all honesty,I would say no,Vista is crap anyway and to switch to a 64bit version is not recommended and I work in IT Support and I have vista on my laptop and will be switching back to xp.Vista is crap.Save your money,invest in a better graphics card or ram or motherboard or cpu instead of that.Fullstop.

wintercon,Get your facts straight before you spread misinformation.c12@fft,Vista x64 is an excellent and solid OS and the BEST OS I have used to date run FSX. You will definitely see a benefit.

[Dean_EGTC 57]

If you're going to try a 64 bit OS then I heartily recommend you give the public beta of Windows 7 a try. It's rock stable with FSX. Think of it as Vista with all the bugs ironed out.

[BobP 56]

I upgraded to Vista 64 last week. I have noticed that selected views 'snap' on screen when selected. Also, I have not experienced an OOM error yet. Make sure you do a clean install. Have fun!Bob..

[yellowjack 28]

In all honesty,I would say no,Vista is crap anyway and to switch to a 64bit version is not recommended and I work in IT Support and I have vista on my laptop and will be switching back to xp.Vista is crap.Save your money,invest in a better graphics card or ram or motherboard or cpu instead of that.Fullstop.

Now there's a well balanced scientific discussion of the merits of two operating systems. :(

[Guest c12@fft]

Thank you all for the input..I am still contemplating what avenue to take. One other question then. If I do a Vista64 install, would I lose my addons? The only one is the Lionheart Creations "EpicLT" aircraft.Also, this computer is strictly for FSX. It was only connected to the internet long enough to register hardware.Again, thanks for the input. I read the boards and posting every day, just don't post much.Bill

[sargeski 16]

Thank you all for the input..I am still contemplating what avenue to take. One other question then. If I do a Vista64 install, would I lose my addons? The only one is the Lionheart Creations "EpicLT" aircraft.Also, this computer is strictly for FSX. It was only connected to the internet long enough to register hardware.Again, thanks for the input. I read the boards and posting every day, just don't post much.Bill

If you own the addon, I would hope that you have it backed up somewhere. You will want to install the OS clean then install FSX clean, and then install any FSX addons.

[greggerm 312]

You will want to install the OS clean then install FSX clean, and then install any FSX addons.

Just a quick point of order... You will HAVE to install the OS clean then install FSX clean, and then install any FSX addons. (There are no "upgrade" options to the 64-bit platform - only a full, clean install) But to reinforce - yes, you will need to have your original files for any addons, whether or not they are payware or freeware. -Greg

[louiseSEUK 2]

I would say no,Vista is crap anyway

Umm, no, its not. (See, I can make unqualified statements too).

and to switch to a 64bit version is not recommended

Oh, really. So I guess this whole move to a 64 bit based OS is just a fad, like that interweb thingy people keep going on about? I'd love to see why it's not recommended.

and I work in IT Support and I have vista on my laptop and will be switching back to xp. Vista is crap.

Guess what, I had a laptop with 64Mb RAM, 233 Processor. It ran XP like a pig. Great Win98 performance though!Have you thought - perhaps - that you're running barely enough on the hardware requirements side?

Save your money,invest in a better graphics card or ram or motherboard or cpu instead of that.

You'll see from my sig that my specs are more or less the same. I've not enjoyed FS9 this much since I made the move to Vista64. Everything maxed out, lots of lovely AI, clouds, full eyecandy; I didn't even get this degree of performance with a cut down version of XP specifically built by me to run just FS9. Took a lot of tweaking to get it just right, but I'm so happy with it right now.FSX runs OK, certainly better than when I had it running in Vista32. Still can't get DX10 preview to work so good, though.I'm no MS fanboi, I think they really botched the rollout of Vista; I think the word "Vista" has caused a lot of reputational damage to Redmond, and probably played a part in the rising success of the fruity OS. Sure, performance was initially terrible, but SP1 pretty well fixed that. Its a mature OS now, and I cannot remember the last time I had a BSOD or crash on Vista (even pre SP1, I think the same cannot be said of XP - that was not a "solid" OS at its inception took till at least SP2 till you got that). It is, as other posters have said, rock solid, excellent performance on the right hardware (read; at least recommended requirements, not minimum!!)<rant>Sorry to all to feed the troll, but I am so, so tired of hearing the same "its crap" comments from so called people in the know who, if they still, this far into Vista's lifecycle, really believe what they're saying demonstrate exactly the sum total of what they really know.</end rant>To the OP - go with Vista 64. You won't regret it. If you can wait for Win7, then wait for that, but go 64 on that. I'm using Win7 as my work OS, and I have to say its even better than Vista. I cannot speak for gaming performance on it (as I said, its the work side of my PC, so I dual boot), but from what I read and feedback on the various fora here, it suggests that W7 will be better than Vista. BTW - I gave up trying to use the MSI overclock tool, and got dirty with the BIOS settings. For me, I found I had to do a lot of research and Googling on my kit, but I am pretty happy with the O/C I have now. All the results I found, did suggest more luck with BIOSing your overclock. Good luck!