Vista 64-bit - any benefits?

[prehensile]

Is 32-bit still going to be the standard for the next five years?
I figured that vista would be native 64-bit but apparently there is a 32-bit version as well.
what's the score with that then?

[magneticman]

i only know of the increased memory beefit, i too would like to know of any advantages...

[TheAnimus]

its more a case of why run 32bit.

The only majorly compelling reason is if your hardware lacks 32bit support.

WoW (Windows on Windows) Will as always provide the legacy emulation (ie running 32bit apps under 64bit).

The only place you will see any out of the box performance boost is in playing/encoding video. When native 64bit vista optimised games come out (this won't take long. At all) then you will see a real performance boost.

Disadvantages, some applications might run slower if they are old 32bit, but due to a major overhall of a lot of vista's graphics sub system most games will run at the same speed, if not faster (despite more going on!). If you have full dx10 hardware.

[nvening]

Well 2GB of ram is recomended for vista so i can see us needing 4gb in the not too distant future and then we will start getting into trouble over 32bit.

As long as i can get the drivers i will defo get 64bit

[badvock]

I was running vista 64Bit RC2 (beta release) Be aware that there is a distinct lack of manufacturer support for 64 bit in trerms of drivers. I would recommend you check that you can get hold of 64 bit drivers for ALL your bits BEFORE making the change. Oh and the 64 bit version lasted 3 days on my system before I got P'd off with the constant Blue screens and resets, so off it went and back came XP and no problems since then

Looks nice though, but thats about it for now until we have some DX10 compatible software to look at.

[prehensile]

so it seems they will offer both versions and wait for the market to make up its mind on which one to keep. I'm still wondering why there would be two versions rather than just one version to upgrade everything from, probably the specification means that the hardware people can write all the drivers and automatically process them into two versions to make them also compatible with 32-bit.

[shaithis]

Many people will still want to run the 32 bit version because they only have a 32 bit CPU and/or cannot get 64 bit drivers for their hardware.

I will be 64 bit all the way, at last they roll 64 bit and MCE functions into a single OS

[magneticman]

well i think ill hold off until bespoke 64-bit program begin to become mainstream...

[DragonStar]

Id imagine the reason that there is a 32bit version is for maximum profitability, a lot of people arent going to want to upgrade all their hardware just to run Vista, so they get the 32bit version, then when they eventually upgrade the hardware they get the 64bit version, if MS only had the 64bit version ppl would probably be less likely to upgrade to Vista and just stick with their XP

[doddsy]

I'll be having a serious look at vista x64 when I upgrade my OS although I used the RC2 x64 for a few days and it was just too annoying trying to find drivers for everything and had a few other problems. Hopefully the x64 version of vista will change how well 64 bit drivers are supported.