Please Help! Vista or XP for gaming? Which is better?

[PIMPDURB]

Is vista or XP better for gaming. I am trying to build a PC and am not sure whether or not to go with vista or XP. I will be building it primarily for gaming. If vista is better should I go 32 or 64 or does it not really matter? Thanks in advance

 

[trickson]

Vista will be fine for gaming all though some games (older ones) will not work on vista , New games and future games will , 32 bit is the ONLY way to go for gaming rig as there are no games made even today for a 64 Bit OS .

 

[Trap05]

OK and what about supporting more than 4GB of ram? No reason not to get 64-bit if you're building new now or in the near future.

 

[grimm003]

Well 64-bit is going to last you through the future more, especially when you need more than ~3GB of ram, and for most newer games, it helps having more than 3GB. Non-64-bit games still run fine on Vista64. I would agree that you should get Vista, not because it is necessarily better for gaming, but a lot of the problems that Vista had have been worked out and it really runs great on any decent computer for today's standards.

 

[trickson]

Like I have said 64 Bit OS is not a gaming OS and there is no games being made now (That I know of) that are going to be made for the 64 bit os it is a waste of money at this time is all . but do what you want .

 

[Albuquerque]

32 bit is the ONLY way to go for gaming rig as there are no games made even today for a 64 Bit OS .

Huh? Where have you been? There's more games taking advantage of 64-bit then there are taking advantage of quad cores at this point. Even HL2 has a native 64-bit version, and how long has that been out? Even before HL2 was FarCry that also had a 64-bit version. Crysis? Unreal Tournament? Chronicles of Riddick? Colin McRae?

64 bit is the only way to go on new hardware, and Vista SP1 is your best bet for a multitude of reasons. And 32-bit apps have no problems running under a 64-bit operating system. However, 16-bit apps will not work if you still have any -- go download DOSBox for free if you need 16-bit support. It's great for playing really old games I know because I use it for one or two games on my Vista 64 rig...

 

[trickson]

OK you are right get the 64 BIT OS FTW !!
*
Half-Life 2
*
Lost Coast
*
Bet On Soldier: Blood Sport
*
Codename: Panzers (Phase one)
*
Colin McRae Rally 2005
*
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
*
Far Cry
*
Fahrenheit
*
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
*
Unreal Tournament 2004
*
WWII Tank Commander
*
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
*
Dreadnought

WOW that is a big list ...

 

[Albuquerque]

Can you give me one good reason why you wouldn't go for 64-bit?

It costs the same.
It has better performance.
It has better memory management.
It works with 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
It has the same amount of hardware support on the Vista platform.

What's the negative?

Edit: And your little list is FAR from comprehensive. You're missing quite a number of titles... All the Unreal (and unreal-engined games) have 64-bit capability. Id Tech 4 engines too. And where's Crysis? And the gammut of games that use the HL2 engine (Team Fortress 2, Portal, HL2:Ep1 and Ep2)?

 

[trickson]

There are some games that will not work on it . there are lots of programs that will not work on it . But hey I know nothing at all . about the vista one I only know that the XP Pro 64 bit one will not run my programs such as reg mechanic , spyware doctor , wash and go , windows washer and my LG monitor drivers as well , I am not sure about any one els but for me I want them to work and as they work fine in vista 32 bit they may not work in 64 bit as well I know they don't when I put them into the XP pro 64 bit os .

But hey you all know so much more then I as you all have the Vista 64 bit OS I do not .

 

[Albuquerque]

I only know that the XP Pro 64 bit one will not run my programs such as reg mechanic , spyware doctor , wash and go , windows washer and my LG monitor drivers as well

Maybe it's because XP64 isn't an XP operating system at all? XP64 is a Server2003 operating system with the XP GUI on top.

Vista64 has none of these issues; if it works on Vista32, it works on Vista64. That's because they ARE the same operating system now, and 32-bit apps on Vista64 that are trying to access registry entries that dont' exist will get a virtualized instance of the needed keys so that they don't fail.

Try to chill out a little; this is the third thread I've seen you in where people are trying to teach you things that may actually be of some benefit, and you make it a specific point to get angsty...

 

[Trap05]

So have you ever used Vista SP1 x64?

 

[trickson]

I am chilled I gave you what I know from what I have experienced and you make is sound like I know nothing is all and it is some what insulting .
I know now that the Vista 64 Bit side maybe worth looking into . Thank you for that .

 

[Albuquerque]

So have you ever used Vista SP1 x64?

I've got a Dell 755 and a Thinkpad T61 at the office with Vista Enterprise 64 with SP1 on them, and my personal "uber rig" (in my signature) has been running Vista Ultimtae 64 since the day I assembled it -- I loaded up SP1 somewhere around three months ago I think... And my personal Dell Inspiron E1505 has 64-bit on it, but due to a chipset (hardware) limitation, still has the crappy 4Gb barrier

Here's a list of games I've installed and used without issue from the top of my head:

Unreal Tournment '99 and 2004
jDoom (freeware 3D accelerated version of the old-school original Doom)
Quake 2
Doom 3
Quake 4
FarCry
Crysis
HL1: Source and the entire gammut HL2 / TF2 / Portal
STALKER
Hitman: Blood Money
GTA3 / GTA3 VC / GTA3 SA
Pretty much ever Need For Speed game since the original Hot Persuit
Freespace II (yes, the really ancient Win95 3-CD game)
Rainbox 6: Las Vegas
CoD 2 and 3
BF 1942

I'm sure there are more that I'm just forgetting, but that should get you a start. Hell, most of those were installed before SP1...

 

[Trap05]

I would definitely check it out if you haven't...It's been on my desktop for months now (well before SP1) and I recently switched my work laptop over as well. The laptop was harder to find drivers for everything but a quick trip to Google fixed that. I've honestly found nothing software wise I've wanted to use but couldn't due to compatibility issues.

 

[trickson]

Can you tell me if you DiaBlo II will work OR any of the home world games will work on the Vista 64 Bit OS ? This is what I have been wondering and what has kept me from getting the 64 Bit Vista OS .

 

[Albuquerque]

Can you tell me if you DiaBlo II will work OR any of the home world games will work on the Vista 64 Bit OS ? This is what I have been wondering and what has kept me from getting the 64 Bit Vista OS .

If I can find a way to get ahold of one to test, I can give it a shot.

Edit: I searched for "Diablo 2" Vista in Google and the second hit mentions that all it needs is to have your D2 link set up for "XP SP2 compatibility mode" and it works fine. If you don't, there's a long delay on startup... This isn't a 32 vs 64 bit issue, just a Vista issue in general.

If it works on 32 with the compatibility mode, it will work on 64. Not sure about the other homeworld games...

 

[Nebulous]

Using XP64 (Server 2003) with SP2 here with zero issues. I don't use the programs trickson uses (eg: reg mechanic , spyware doctor , wash and go , windows washer , etc). What I do use is:

RegScrubXp
CleanUp
CrapCleaner
Perfect Disck 2008

Not 1 single issue..ever. Games I have installed and play on a reg basis:

UT2004
UT3
FarCry
FEAR
Quake4
Doom3
BioShock
TimeShift
CSS
HL2
RTCW
COD2.

All my games/software have the latest patches/updates installed and run flawlessly especially with 4GB of ram.

There are programs/software that will not run or have issues in 64bit OS's so maybe that's what trickson is trying to say from what he's experienced on his system.

Now lets just settle down...

 

[trickson]

Cool maybe I will get sooner than later then . I wounder if I can upgrade my vista home Premium to the 64 bit ?

 

[CGR]

Can you give me one good reason why you wouldn't go for 64-bit?

It costs the same.
It has better performance.
It has better memory management.
It works with 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
It has the same amount of hardware support on the Vista platform.

What's the negative?

Edit: And your little list is FAR from comprehensive. You're missing quite a number of titles... All the Unreal (and unreal-engined games) have 64-bit capability. Id Tech 4 engines too. And where's Crysis? And the gammut of games that use the HL2 engine (Team Fortress 2, Portal, HL2:Ep1 and Ep2)?

Only has better performance on 64bit apps. Games are coded in 32bit afaik, and will not benefit from a 64bit OS.

Most people dont even use apps that can run in a 64bit environment.


Edit: You sure about all those 64bit available games?

 

[Nebulous]

Cool maybe I will get sooner than later then . I wounder if I can upgrade my vista home Premium to the 64 bit ?

Hmm, I don't see why not? Might have to pay for the lincense tho, not sure.