Win 7 64Bit > Win 7 32Bit for gaming

Or so i concluded so check this out

I had my same spec below (see signature) except only 2GB ram and Win 7 32bit using ATI Catalyst 9.12

Benchmarks:

Resident evil 5 maxed AA,AF 1280x768

Fixed benchmark = 39FPS

Dirt 2 Maxed AA,AF 1280x768

Benchmark = 37 FPS


Then i only added a second 2GB of RAM and got the Dual channel mode active + fresh installed Win 7 64bit + Catalyst 9.12

Benchmarks:

Resident evil 5 maxed AA,AF 1280x768

Fixed benchmark = 45.5FPS

Dirt 2 Maxed AA,AF 1280x768

Benchmark = 46 FPS


so there you go 10% to 15% improvement, now is it the extra RAM?(but neither Dirt 2 not RE5 uses the much RAM to begin with) is it that the Catalyst 9.12 64bit is more optimized than it's 32bit one, is it that the RAM was working in DC mode now...I DON'T KNOW

all i know is that WIN 7 64bit is great for gaming

your answer would be determined by discovering if the game can actually address and requires the increased RAM, you could discover this by trying a Windows 7 32 bit install.

My guess is that the game simply benefits from the increased bandwidth offered by the additional ram and running it in dual channel mode

Well for me RE5 runs exactly the same with 3gb or DDR2 (1 2GB stick and 2 512mb sticks
So it does sound like the RAM is the thing that's bumping it up. RE5 and windows uses about 2.6gigs of ram in total so that's 600 megs that is being stored on your hard drive (what happends when you go over your limit)

I'm not saying this at all well =P Basically it's the RAM. I haven't noticed any difference between 32 and 64.

If you're going to do a benchmark comparing the performance results over changing one variable (like operating system), best to only test one variable at a time. Keep the test sytem identical except for the 32/64-bit OS and you'll have far more useful results.

UnseenMenace said:

your answer would be determined by discovering if the game can actually address and requires the increased RAM, you could discover this by trying a Windows 7 32 bit install.

My guess is that the game simply benefits from the increased bandwidth offered by the additional ram and running it in dual channel mode

Click to expand...

+1.

Anyway, its not a valid comparison b/c of the difference in ram...its the ram, not the OS that did it.

The only people that should still be running 32bit OSes are benchmarkers (for the limited benefit in Overclockability) and maybe companies.

I think a lot of the bad press for Vista came from running the 32 bit OS. It is not as good as the 64-bit version. I do not know why. I installed 32 bit on my HTPC and ran into all kinds of weird issues after a month or so. Same time my gaming PC has had V64 on it for the last.... year or so and still humming along beautifully. And has had the same codecs installed that the HTPC did because my gaming PC doubles as my 24/7 PC.