Vista 32 or 64

[aerdt 0]

Glad I could help.My biggest weakness of my system is currently the GPU, but I am not going to get another $200+ card with DX10 being so close (or not?).I am not sure, if the tweaked drivers will work. I haven't used any of them after my old Radeon 9800 Pro (sw-unlocked to 9800 XT).All my hardware seems to be Vista-ready, except for TrackIR and some Logitech drivers, which will hopefully follow soon.

[FTD1949 0]

>Glad I could help.>>My biggest weakness of my system is currently the GPU, but I>am not going to get another $200+ card with DX10 being so>close (or not?).>>I am not sure, if the tweaked drivers will work. I haven't>used any of them after my old Radeon 9800 Pro (sw-unlocked to>9800 XT).>>All my hardware seems to be Vista-ready, except for TrackIR>and some Logitech drivers, which will hopefully follow soon.Not sure why you choose to run Vista right out of the gate but hereare a couple of articles you might be interested in before you takethe plunge. If you're duel booting that's one thing but I'm not readyto take the plunge to Vista exclusivley.http://www17.tomshardware.com/2007/01/17/g...rse-with-vista/http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/175801With Vista Microsoft seems to be more worried about the rights of the Music Industry and Hollywood (DRM) than an individuals right to modifytheir system as they see fit. I personally have a problem with that.I don't care for the fact that they are telling me in their EULA thatI'm only leasing their software or for their ability to tell me I can't use a driver that's not certified to their liking as well as their having the ability to actually disable and or remove software not to their liking.I wish you luck and hope you have an XP CD in case you aren't happy with the results.Craig

[aerdt 0]

The reason to install Vista is personal enthousiasm and also for professional reasons. I work in IT and am responsible for testing, creating and distributing images that are being deployed to 20k users and we're getting ready to unleash Vista to the enterprise later this year.I have beeing running Vista Beta 2, RC1 and RC2 for months, but I am still excited to get my hands on my personal copy of the final. I will still keep an install of XP around, but probably not more than a few months.I don't have a problem with DRM per se, but I disagree in some cases how it is being implemented. For example, I have purchased a video online a few months ago, upgraded my hardware and, of course, it wasn't "authorized" anymore. And that was on XP. I understand that there has to be some way to track install music, video and software, but until they (which is usually not MS, but the content providers) get it right, I simply won't use anything DRM anymore.Pat

[Guest jmendes]

Hi,Not sure what you went with, but if you went for Vista 32 you have probably learned that you can't see all 4GB on memory (even if your motherboard can).32 bits allows for 4GB of memory addresses. Even though devices such as your video card has it's own memory, it still needs a set of address in the 4GB range.If you look at the memory map under Vista 32 bit you'll notice (depending on how many devices you have) about 1GB of memory addresses reserved at the upper end of the 4GB address range. Normally, if you're only running (say) 2GB of RAM, your physical memory doesn't need to use those upper end memory addresses (remember, your video card isn't using physical memory, it needs those addresses, and with only 32 bits, you can't use address above 0xFFFFFFFF (4GB) since you can't generate a number bigger than 0xFFFFFFF with only 32 bits.So, the OS has to cram everything into the 32 bit address range, and your upper 1GB of physical memory will not be seen by the OS (I've tried using PAE in Vista 32 bit and can't get it to work).On a 64 bit system, you have tons of address space, and in your bios you remap a portion of your RAM to addresses beyond 4GB. Since a 64 bit OS can recognize memory addresses above 4GB, it can use the physical memory that you've mapped above the 4GB set of addresses.Currenly, I'm trying both 32-bit and 64-bit...~ Jim

[Guest jmendes]

One other note that bothers me...everybody talks about no 64-bit drivers and they need to be signed (they do, but there is a work around), but in reality, assuming you have a mainstream mother board, what drivers do you need? Video, sound, and your DVD ROM. If you have mainstream cards (ATI, nVidia, Creative) I think you'll find those vendors do have 64-bit Vista drivers.~ Jim

[HamSammich 17]

I'll top everyone. I'm running FSX:On Vista.64-BitOn a Mac!And other than being as slow as FSX is on every other platform (only for now, I hope), it's running swell.

[Guest JackDanielsDrinker]

>On a 64 bit system, you have tons of address space, and in>your bios you remap a portion of your RAM to addresses beyond>4GB. Since a 64 bit OS can recognize memory addresses above>4GB, it can use the physical memory that you've mapped above>the 4GB set of addresses.>>Currenly, I'm trying both 32-bit and 64-bit...>>~ Jim>That's why I went with 64 bit Vista. I don't want to jump through hoops when I get 4 gigs of RAM.

[Guest JackDanielsDrinker]

>One other note that bothers me...everybody talks about no>64-bit drivers and they need to be signed (they do, but there>is a work around), but in reality, assuming you have a>mainstream mother board, what drivers do you need? Video,>sound, and your DVD ROM. If you have mainstream cards (ATI,>nVidia, Creative) I think you'll find those vendors do have>64-bit Vista drivers.>>~ Jim>Well, you can get a little hurt here. My printer (NEC Superscript 870--about 5 years old) doesn't have a driver. I'm using an old HP III driver, but I only get 300 dpi (the printer does 600 dpi). The toner cartridge needs to be replaced, and its $100...so I'm probably just going to EOL the printer and use my inkjet (it works).My webcam (Creative Ultra--about 2.5 years old) will not be getting a 64 bit driver...Creative lists this on their site. So I have to get a new webcam.And my scanner is not working (Epson Perfection 1200), but I think I can figure it out.I figured something like this would happen if I moved to 64 bit, but it's still worth it for me. I'm out one webcam, but I'm future-proof when I go to 4 gigs of memory.So you might have a bit of hardware here or there that won't work (or will with reduced functionality). Check before you take the plunge.