Windows XP pro 64, to do or not to do?

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InfamousHindu

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Dec 31, 2002

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gettysburg

• Dec 22, 2005

• #1

Simple, shoudl I make this upgrade to windows xp pro 64 from regular pro. I've down alittle research and can find all the drivers I need but was wondering what kinda performance increase this would give me. Also, would this be a simple upgrade install or would i have to re-format my HD.

 

darksparkz

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Jun 11, 2005

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Chicago, IL

• Dec 22, 2005

• #2

You'd most likely have to reformat everything, it's the same as installing a new OS.

From reviews I've seen, there's only a little bit of improvement from XP Pro to XP x64. It's something around 2-3 points in benchmarks and maybe 0.5 or 1fps. Maybe a bit faster load times for certain applications, around 0.5-1 seconds. Might have good benefits for actual 64-bit applications, but that's rare. The driver trouble you might come across makes the XP x64 not worth upgrading to. If XP Pro is running fine, stick with it, too much trouble with XP x64.

 

tom10167

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Oct 9, 2003

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Phoenix. YOUR HAIR IS GOOD TO EAT

• Dec 22, 2005

• #3

I hope that's only because it's a beta. =\

 

Th0r

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Dec 23, 2002

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England. Liverpool, Aintree

• Dec 22, 2005

• #4

As far as i'm aware Windows XP 64Bit isn't in Beta anymore? :-\

 

benbaked

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• Dec 23, 2005

• #5

i'm using xp 64-bit and i think its great. the media keys on my logitech keyboard don't work but otherwise everything else works great. the video card was a hassle to install though since nvidia doesn't officially support the ti-4200-8x on xp 64-bit but i got it working.

honestly i don't see much of a difference other then the splash screen, xp pro seems just as fast. it is cool to know that at least some software on your computer is taking advantage of the 64-bit extensions...cool in a nerdy way i guess, but if i had to reinstall i would reinstall with xp pro so i could use my all-in-wonder.

 

Vulcan

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Jan 1, 2004

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Pa

• Dec 23, 2005

• #6

there really won't be much a perfiormance difference... Actualy, alot of things will be slower.

 

benbaked

Folding/SETI/Rosetta Team Member

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• Dec 23, 2005

• #7

Vulcan said:

there really won't be much a perfiormance difference... Actualy, alot of things will be slower.

Click to expand...

like what? the only thing i've noticed that is slower is sometimes the boot time. that might be an NF4 issue because my friend's dfi sometimes hangs on the splash screen for two minutes also. other than that everything feels exactly the same as far as speed is concerned.

 

ziggo0

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Apr 27, 2004

• Dec 23, 2005

• #8

I just downloaded the x64 trial...I'm thinking about installing it on a spare drive to give it a whirl.

 

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NeoSpawn

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Maryland

• Dec 23, 2005

• #9

I have an AMD 64 Bit Athlon and just running regular Windows Professional SP1 with no problem, is WinXP x64 Pro that special? 0.o

 

Th0r

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Dec 23, 2002

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England. Liverpool, Aintree

• Dec 24, 2005

• #10

NeoSpawn said:

I have an AMD 64 Bit Athlon and just running regular Windows Professional SP1 with no problem, is WinXP x64 Pro that special? 0.o

Click to expand...

Not yet, but it will be in a year or two.

 

mackica

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Jan 21, 2005

• Dec 25, 2005

• #11

Not to do Only benefit that i encountered is that i can tease my friends that i'm usnig 64 bit OS, other than that it's prety the same.

 

O

OkydOky

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Aug 26, 2005

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Calgary, AB, Canada

• Dec 25, 2005

• #12

Don't upgrade to a 64bit OS unless you absolutelly need it for something. It's just too much of a hassle. Hopefully with Vista there will be far less problems with 64bit...

 

benbaked

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• Dec 25, 2005

• #13

OkydOky said:

Don't upgrade to a 64bit OS unless you absolutelly need it for something. It's just too much of a hassle. Hopefully with Vista there will be far less problems with 64bit...

Click to expand...

what problems have you had with x64 edition? maybe i've been lucky but i haven't seen the problems so many people profess to have with x64 edition. i've read the reviews people have posted on newegg and such about x64 edition and i question how many of those people have actually installed and used the OS.

 

broken_Naols

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Nov 21, 2005

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L2 cache. England

• Dec 26, 2005

• #14

You probably won't notice that much of a difference. By far the biggest improvement, is the MASSIVE ammounts of memory it can support.

XP64 can support 32GB of physical memory. With a paging file in the terabytes. @_@

(with the 64bit archetecture at its current state supporting around 1,000GIG of physical memory. and 256 terabytes of vertual memory....I think)

If you have a spare Hard disc lying about, you might as well give it a shot. There is a 180 day trial avalable for download. But unless you can give it the, quite frankly, silly amounts of memory it can handle. (and run a program that can use it all.) the improvement will probably be mimimal.

 

mepis

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Nov 23, 2005

• Dec 26, 2005

• #15

If your dieing for 64 bit that badly and have an nvidia card theres always the option of using linux. Far fewer problems with 64 bit, only video encoding and thats about all Ive come accross so far. Other than that everything else works beatifully including the native UT2004 and doom3 and such. Theres still only a marginal difference in speed but I think it's more noticeable then windows 64 bit only because all the programs are native 64 bit though.

It's just another option to think about.