Windows o.k no body move, i got a copy of windows vista home premium (64bit) and i'm not afi

but first do i have to install xp first then vista if i want to duel boot ?

 

screw legacy!

 

yes is the answer you want.

Sadly fod, with 64-bit, you need legacy, YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SPEC SAVERS, I mean, RETAIL

 

pfft, 32bit is for losers! ( i have a 32bit ISO of vista <and XP> too but i don't really care, since all my software works just fine)

 

so you don't need a new antivirus for 64bit OS?

is there any other application needs to be switched to 64bit for it to work in 64bit OS?

if i run 32bit game in 64bit OS, is it slower than running it in native 32bit OS?

 

games are running fine - running bioshock full deets @1920x1200 with no slowdown! granted i have got an utterly beasty system, but still.

x86-64 is still x86 - there shouldn't in principle be any slowdown. the only thing that could cause slowness is dodgy drivers, but they seem mature enough at this point, for me, anyway.

 

how much RAM have you got? and what exactly is your system spec?

i thought 2gig wasn't enough for 64bit, so i shall be installing 32bit on my new system. when i saved up more, plug in another 4gig to make 6gig then i will install 64bit.

 

running 2gb at the mo, but will be going to 4gb very soon (would be now if it wasn't for a faulty module ). to be honest though i doubt it makes much difference. it's amazing with 2gb (yes even bioshock) so unless you REALLY need 4gb (i do a lot of multitasking, photoshop and coding) don't bother.

rest of system is an 8800ultra, q6600 and 680i mobo

 

ah cool. thanks for the reply. i'll install 32bit for now as i don't have 64bit disk (university business licence, disk image is on uni's server)

i'll install 64bit on my next re-install, even if it's still 2gig

 

I noticed a performance difference between 2gb and 4gb on Vista64. I did boot into it with 1gb of ram and it was painfully slow.

 

n/a

 

Vista really needs 2Gb of ram...32bit or 64bit..... If you run lots of a memory hungry apps then 3Gb+ but I dont think it is worth it for normal users.

As for 64bit, most software you install will be 32bit, hence sits in the 32bit bit program files area of vista. At the moment the most 64bit code are drivers but I doubt people will really be able to tell the difference in speed unless they use specific benchmarks/softwware. The main reason now as I see it for 64bit it to access more memory (3.5Gb and above). This is relly important for servers. We use blades with Dual socket QC Xeon's with 16Gb of Ram.

As for the desktop, I use to use 64bit vista, but has issues with some older software not installing, or older drivers failing to run so went back to 32bit. Noticed no speed change. I know some software for say graphics processing support 64bit and are significantly faster, but it is difficult to know if it is 64bit that is making them faster, or that they they are using newer SSE etc instructions and better compilers.

Maybe in a few years time when 64bit OS's are more common, software manufactures will have more code compiled with 64bit, as the moment most code is compiled as 32bit.

Have fun with Vista.....I do prefer it to XP and I use both....I however hate the DRM in Vista...causes me lots of problems with my HDMI TV.