Ostriig on 2/9/2009 at 13:48
What the fuck? Or are you being sarcastic? W7 is pretty much bound to be able to run any game Vista does, and the latter has run pretty much any game I'd have expected XP to. The only notable exception I've heard of is KOTOR 2, strangely enough. Otherwise, I've ran games like Drakan and System Shock 2 on Vista with just minimal amount of fiddling, much like what's needed on XP anyway.
I'm set to wipe and reinstall my system, it looks like it could use it, but I'm waiting for 7 to come the fuck out already. I can't just reinstall Vista and upgrade later since I wanna switch from 32 to 64bit, and the waiting is pissing me off.
Ostriig on 2/9/2009 at 15:07
Thanks for the link. That's kinda the problem, I was indeed thinking of either Home Premium or Pro, though I should probably look more carefully into the spec and price differences. If I can somehow justify the Ultimate price tag, it would be really useful for me to do install before the end of September, so I don't have to worry about it once my courses have started.
Renzatic on 2/9/2009 at 15:35
I'll break down the basics for you right now.
Home Premium ($119 upgrade): About everything most people need.
Professional ($199 upgrade): Everything above, plus domain support, remote desktop, and the XP virtual machine.
Ultimate ($219 upgrade): Ditto, with Bitlocker and multilanguage support.
Home Premium is what I'm probably gonna grab. I don't have, nor will I ever have, a reason to join a domain, and the XP VM is only a neat toy if you're not spending alot of time with old legacy software. But if I decide to go up a SKU, I might as well spend the extra $20, bypass Pro, and get Ultimate.
Rogue Keeper on 2/9/2009 at 15:40
Please somebody convince me that 64bit OS has some real sense for average user. I'm not meaning people who generate climate models or process terrabytes of data and move them there and back again. Are there finally enough games fully utilizing 64bit instructions in the operating system? I had XP 64 before and it was generating more trouble than benefits. I'm not talking about drivers, I found the drivers - it was compatibility with older software and lack of opportunities for the 64bit instructions in general, apart from AMD64 patch for FarCry (pwetty fishes in teh sea and fog, yum yum!). Or are the upgrades to 64bit OS just another hip trend?
mothra on 2/9/2009 at 15:47
you can address more than 4gb ram. with the new corei7 + triple channel ddr3 I will certainly switch to 64bit to justify getting 3x2gb ram.
Rogue Keeper on 2/9/2009 at 15:56
Very well, and how do you efficiently utilize those 6 GB of RAM (I presume it's a workstation)? Don't you think that by the time there will be games which will demand optimum of 6 GB of RAM, you'll have a different rig and OS?
Renzatic on 2/9/2009 at 16:07
Well XP64 wasn't a well supported end user OS. Vista and 7 64 are (supposedly) able to run all your programs as easily and hassle free as their 32 bit counterparts.
That said, if you're expecting a huge speed increase from games designed top to bottom for 64 bit, you'll be disappointed. It isn't about giving you more FPS, it's about efficiency. A well designed 64 bit OS, and thus any program running on it, will be more smooth and stable than a 32 bit one. For instance, say you're playing the same game on a 32 bit and 64 bit processor. You won't suddenly have an extra 35% FPS gain from the upgrade, but if the game makes a CPU physics call, you're less likely to see a framerate hit on the 64 bit machine because it's able to handle larger instructions at once and can swap stuff in and out of memory with more grace and poise.
Assuming that all your stuff runs perfectly on a 64 bit OS, the only downside you'll face is that it takes more memory to do the same thing than it does on a 32 bit OS.
So is it a hip geek trend? Eh...kinda. The difference (right now anyway) isn't so huge you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO HAVE IT OH GOD OH GOD. But it can't hurt either. I'm gonna go for it once I have a little more ram backing me up.
Rogue Keeper on 2/9/2009 at 16:26
Ok, it convinced me that my 2006 system will be enough for two more years, then I shall judge the situation.
Or at least until T4/DX3 come out.
EvaUnit02 on 2/9/2009 at 17:34
Quote Posted by Rogue Keeper
Very well, and how do you efficiently utilize those 6 GB of RAM (I presume it's a workstation)? Don't you think that by the time there will be games which will demand optimum of 6 GB of RAM, you'll have a different rig and OS?
Except that 4GB limit of x86 OSes doesn't apply to just System RAM, it's the sum of all RAM in your system period. System, VRAM, etc. 1GB VRAM video cards are fast becoming the standard. Games become more demanding (i.e. ArmA 2), texture sizes increase, OSes consume more resources. 32-bit just can't make hack it anymore and frankly it would be stupid to buy a 32-bit Windows license at this stage.
Compatibility issues are virtually 90% non-existent now.
