64 bit vs 32 bit OS?

[Vyron]

I recently decided to get a MS Vista Home Basic 64 bit edition, and I was wondering if that was a good choice if I am primarily using my computer for gaming and downloading stuff. It was a problem a few years ago when not a lot of drivers or games were made with 64 bit in mind, but what is the situation now? Did I pay more for what I don't need and is there still as much hassle as it was a few years back?

[Big Zam]

It was a problem a few years ago when not a lot of drivers or games were made with 64 bit in mind, but what is the situation now?

Few years ago? I hate to burst your bubble, but Vista is just approaching its 6th month on the retail market. As it stands, it remains a relatively young OS and as such there is a great deal of compatibility problems surrounding it.

That being said, I've only seen Vista first hand on a handful of occasions, among them being an occasion in which it seemed to hijack directx class for a couple of hours, and the time my coworker repartitioned the only PC in the office that was running Vista because it realy, realy dindn't like her chocie in architecture software.

As far as gaming is concearned, I've heard complaints while playing Guild Wars that it slows down responce time (their youthful exagerations claim it takes a full two seconds for the gui to respond to onclicks) and for the most part the only thing I can realy blame is the fact that pretty much everything on the new interface uses up video memory in ways they didn't need to before. I would imagine that most major games currently being supported right now have people working out vista compatability, but older games, especialy those ones that have trouble on XP (Best Wars, Silent Hill 2, Septerra Core, my poor Shogo...) definately wont fare so well.

So I guess what I'm saying is, if you're taking this as an investment to build on, and you're prepared wait for improvements to the OS and to make additional purchases as video cards finaly manage to nail down dx10 and so forth, then yes, the future looks bright. If you intend to play older games (as I so enjoy) or worse yet, intend to use it for business, I'd recomend you reconsider your options.

[Samster]

Few years ago? I hate to burst your bubble, but Vista is just approaching its 6th month on the retail market.

I believe the TC was refering to 64-bit OSes in general, most likely XP 64 and not Vista. Also, I don't think you really answered their question.

As for your choice of the 64 bit version of Vista Home Basic I would have to say that if you want to run games or most new software natively, that is not emulated in a 64 bit OS (or at all in some cases), you should go for a 32-bit version of Vista. As you noted, 64-bit drivers and software were hard to find a few years back, the situation has not changed much and most development is still focused for 32 bit OSes. Vista being relatively new has not been known as the best gaming OS, I believe XP still reigns there, but that should improve with time.