Want to upgrade my second gaming rig using an XFX 9800 GX2 and 4x1Gbs memory. Bits I've got lying around basically. I want this one as XP tho', and basically don't know wether to stick with 32bit or plump for 64bit. I know the obvious advantage is greater memory with 64, but are there any other significant advantages over 32?
good god dont install 64bit xp as its horrible, buggy and has poor driver support. either go XP pro 32 (if you already have it) and grab win7 64 for your 64bit if needed. i tihnk you would be much better with win7 64 though because the 9800GX2 has 1GB of video RAM plus your 4GB of system RAM. if you go 32bit your will only be able to use < 3Gb of system RAM.
The basic thing is there aren't any disadvantages with x64 (at least, I haven't found any yet). I assume ability to address more RAM is key, but I'm no programmer!
OK. Like most gamers in the world today I have a Steam account, and I've noticed of late that some of their more recent releases are not supported for Vista x64 or XP x64. Does this mean then, that if I get XP x64, I could experience non-installation some of my XP games, or is it like Vista; backward compatible to x86? It's proberbly a daft question, but I'm just not that savvy on OS.
I have Vista 64-bit and my friends as well, and we have no problem with Steam games. New games should not produce any issues. I don't know where you read that, but if true my vote is the buggy land XP 64-bit. The only downside of the 64-bit OS, is not because of the OS itself, but rather our CPU when it goes into 64-bit mode. 16-bit application can no longer run. That means almost all the games/software on floppies (DOS), and some games/software designed for Win95/98 will not run. The workaround for these applications (not games), is Win7 XP Mode (pro and ultimate edition), or having Virtual PC running Windows XP or older versions of Windows or DOS. 16-bit applications don't exists anymore, if you wonder. In fact, if you have all your software updated to the latest versions, or basically released after 2004, then they should be Vista/Win7 64-bit ready, sadly their are some exceptions thanks to bad, no university degree, programmers, that are stuck in there world in doing badly designed software (ie a software that was not done with computer scientist nor software engineer, to probably save a bundle of crash). Vista and Win7 64-bit uses a technology called Windows on Windows (WOW.. see SysWOW64), this technology is basically having 2 OS on above the other, but NOT like actually loading 2 OS... it's still 1 OS (no waits or anything... the end user doesn't fell a thing, not even 1 nano-second lost)). So basically you can see it, as 64-bit Windows with all it's processes and applications in 64-bit + all the system library, applications, etc.. in 32-bit form so that ALL (at 100%) 32-bit applications runs under Vista/Win7 64-bit. So you don't have to worry about a thing. We sure don't!
Sorry, no. It's because 64-bit Windowses don't include the original WOW anymore (which allows 16-bit apps to run on a 32-bit OS), only WOW64 (which allows 32-bit apps to run on a 64-bit OS, as you said).
After doing research, I would like to apologies for the miss information that I gave to everyone. Yes, you are correct, it's Microsoft that removed Virtual DOS machine from Windows 64-bit. I guess I miss read/understood the first time. :/
