Vista Business x32 or x64
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Phil Harding wrote:
I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64
No third choice? As in, neither? ;P Then go with the x64, as you can demand better hardware which you can then use to run XP in an VM. ;P Marc
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I use x64 Ultimate, and I like it a lot... it does have a few problems, however. Device manufacturers seem very reticent to release 64-bit drivers (possibly because MS insist that they are WHQL tested), so a lot of my cheap-as-chips peripherals don't work on Vista, but surprisingly, a lot of my more expensive stuff doesn't work either (this may also be true of 32-bit device drivers as well - you'd best check compatibility and driver support before taking the plunge). If the driver issue resolves itself, I've found that most 32-bit software works fine in x64 (including VS2005, some design packages from Serif I use and most games). The ability to install 8GB's of RAM and have Windows see it all is a real boon. I've not used Vista x86, so can't comment on it, but I've found x64 to be very stable.
Me: Can you see the "up" arrow? User:Errr...ummm....no. Me: Can you see an arrow that points upwards? User: Oh yes, I see it now! -Excerpt from a support call taken by me, 08/31/2007
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I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64 If I choose x64, am I limiting myself in terms of additional hardware/drivers Is x64 that much better (at least on a 2GB x64 dual core processor laptop) :confused:
- "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"
we recently bought an x64 box and put XP 64 on it - Vista is strange enough in Win32 that we didn't want to even bother with Vista on x64.
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I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64 If I choose x64, am I limiting myself in terms of additional hardware/drivers Is x64 that much better (at least on a 2GB x64 dual core processor laptop) :confused:
- "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"
Phil Harding wrote:
I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64
I know I would sound a bit like a broken record, but what exactly are you planning on doing with this machine? Is it a development machine? a runtime machine for software that might actually need/use the extra memory? processor intensive? how decent is the hardware? good graphics card? REALLY good graphics card? Vista is not without its faults, but it is also with a few advantages. The question is will you only hit the faults, or do you need the advantages? Can you actually utilize Vista well? if the graphics card isn't good enough to power Aero well, you are loosing one of the advantages of Vista. Traditional 2D windowing under XP is accelerated very differently and not as efficiently as Aero, BUT there are some caveats: you have to have the bandwidth to stream textures to the card. Some have turned off Aero, because someone put it on a machine not fast enough for it. You are comparing Apples and Oranges to compare to legacy screen interfaces, it isn't just "pretty pictures" it is a very different environment. Traditionally under XP and before you had raster slices on the card which the windowing manager uses to "stack up" windows that are overlapping. You will notice speed degrades pretty rapidly as you get more windows. Aero is designed differently. Using 3D acceleration, you have the advantage of hardware depth buffering meaning the raster image is only created of those items that are "visible" on the screen, culling a majority of your windows, or partial windows that are overlapping. This is good, but to make things more than just a rewrite, they added some goodies to slow it back down. Knowing what you may want or not want is important, because if you just shut EVERYTHING down, you might as well install XP/XP64. Knowledge is a powerful tool, and worth the time to use. If you don't need 64bit, know you will never use 64bit memory, it may not be worth it to you. But if you have doubts, or think that 64bit will be useful soon, it is better to get it working and debugged now, than be forced later in a rush to support it and no time to get it debugged. One clear advantage with 64bit is the 32bit emulation, as buggy as it is, it still gives your application 4gig of contiguous memory -- better than 32bit since 32bit will give you 2gig real + 2gig virtual by default, handy for swap space, lousy for large memory apps. Knowing what you need, what you will need is very importa
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Phil Harding wrote:
is x64 actually worth installing or should I stick with the 32bit version
You may not need the 8gig, but do you regularly use 4gig. Remember that 32bit is 2gig+2gig, and even if you adjust the boot, I think the best you can manage is still 3gig+1gig, so you never really get a full 4 gig of memory without 64bit. Do you need to support 64bit applications to your customers? are you planning to? would you like to? 64bit is an opportunity, but it is not without risks. It is as much a business decision as anything else. The only way to get 64bit software to customers is with 64bit development. if no developers go 64bit, where will the customers get 64bit software and drivers? I am going 64bit for that reason alone, though there are others. I have the opportunity to build and access larger memory sets, or even the full 4gig I should have now! I have the opportunity to spur development through competition, I go 64bit, others will follow to keep up in my industry. I am notorious for spurring various development lines, when I succeed at something there are about half a dozen companies that scramble to figure out how I did it. :) I'm just a stubborn old mule who never learned something was impossible, so when I hear someone say "that can't be done." I do just that. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64 If I choose x64, am I limiting myself in terms of additional hardware/drivers Is x64 that much better (at least on a 2GB x64 dual core processor laptop) :confused:
- "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"
I was in the same boat in the past few weeks. I started with XP64 but ran into several driver issues. So I ended up doing a dual boot of XP32 and XP64. I use XP32 for my daily activities, and XP64 for the fun stuff. (I actually started with Vista 64 but it got on my nerves.)
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I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64 If I choose x64, am I limiting myself in terms of additional hardware/drivers Is x64 that much better (at least on a 2GB x64 dual core processor laptop) :confused:
- "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"
I had XP64 on my development box for about a year. I could not use my scanner and had to use a different driver for my printer. Now I have upgraded to Vista and put the 32-bit version one. One reason for me is that I got the 32-bit business version for free. Secondly I wanted to make sure I could scan and do other things. I use an nVidia card and they have 64-bit drivers so I never had a problem that way. One thing to keep in mind is that if you are writing software to sell, will your customers be using 64-bit? I know that a popular .NET compression/protection tool (.NET Reactor) does not run at all on 64-bit machines. Also if you are developing .NET 2.0 or higher, it has a separate 64-bit version. This means that if you run someone else's .NET 2.0 program and they used the "Any CPU" option, it will try to run in 64-bit mode. I have found this to be a problem if the program also uses an assembly that is compiled for 32-bit only. It will not be able to load in 64-bit mode. I was able to run 64-bit OSes in VirtualPC to test things when I was running XP64. So I will say that I have had good things and bad things with running a 64-bit development box.
Steve Maier
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I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64 If I choose x64, am I limiting myself in terms of additional hardware/drivers Is x64 that much better (at least on a 2GB x64 dual core processor laptop) :confused:
- "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"
At least Microsoft seems to be requiring both 32- and 64-bit drivers to get the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo. I've been running Vista Ultimate x64 since November and, besides my printer, have been able to find 64-bit drivers for everything else.
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I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64 If I choose x64, am I limiting myself in terms of additional hardware/drivers Is x64 that much better (at least on a 2GB x64 dual core processor laptop) :confused:
- "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"
For a desktop machine, the advice I give (in all seriousness) is that if you don't know why you need x64, you don't need x64.
--Mike-- Visual C++ MVP :cool: LINKS~! Ericahist | PimpFish | CP SearchBar v3.0 | C++ Forum FAQ "That's what's great about doing user interface work. No matter what you do, people will say that what you did was idiotic." -- Raymond Chen
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For a desktop machine, the advice I give (in all seriousness) is that if you don't know why you need x64, you don't need x64.
--Mike-- Visual C++ MVP :cool: LINKS~! Ericahist | PimpFish | CP SearchBar v3.0 | C++ Forum FAQ "That's what's great about doing user interface work. No matter what you do, people will say that what you did was idiotic." -- Raymond Chen
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I've got a choice, install Vista Business x32 or x64 If I choose x64, am I limiting myself in terms of additional hardware/drivers Is x64 that much better (at least on a 2GB x64 dual core processor laptop) :confused:
- "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"
I have been running Vista 64 ultimate on a system with 1 GB RAM (motherbord has a broken memory bank and I do not have the time to replace it and possible problems it could cause this year). It seems to be a bit more zippy than the 32 bit version when you are using 64 bit apps. I use the 64 bit IE all the time but have to boot up the 32 bit version if I need active-x stuff. Hardware wise, I have had no real problem, but you should do a search and make sure others with your hardware have the same good fortune.
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