Win 7 - 64 bit - My View

[UK_Force]

I have been using Win 7 32 bit for over a year, and when the RC came out I decided to reformat and throw on 64 bit.

I've been running it for a few months now, and spent an age finding all the drivers and software I needed for the 64 bit versions.


I have seen NO difference at all, if anything its more of a pain for my needs, with sourcing software.


Anyone else notice a significant difference, good or Bad

[Tim270]

Well im running 32bit, seems fast and much more efficient than XP. I guess its down to personal taste, but from my Win7 is just XP with a decent UI and much improved speed/resource usage.

[Robbi]

What were you finding difficult to find?

I stopped using Win 7 at the start due to PS CS4 not being compatible.

But now I am using mac for graphics anyway, plus the RC support is fully supported now by a lot of things.

The compatability mode now on this RC is so much better than before.

[space]

The main benefit of 64 bit is extra RAM. Because there arent yet large numbers of 64bit users, most applications are optimised to use 2gb RAM. This means that the main programs that will really benefit from 64 bit at the moment, are RAM intensive applications, like Photoshop, or modelling software, which are often used by professionals/hobbyists, who will be using 64 bit., and 4gb RAM.

As more and more people start to use 64but, I suspect that more games etc, will start to recommend it, and then hopefully 32bit will then be finally killed off. In the mean time, the only thing that an "average" user is going to notice is that maybe they can open alot more applications at one time.

[RedWater]

Im using Win7 64 ( How I posted already in Rhinos XP Thread ) and Im not having ANY problems with it.
My specs atm are as followed:

Intel Core i7 940 Bloomfield Boxed
6 Gigabyte Corsair Tri-kit RAM
Radeon HD 4850 (Gonna get a new one, that just got 512 mb vid-ram --> sux )
Asus Rampage II Extreme Mainboard
WD Velociraptor 300 gig Harddrive

When I installed Win7 it automatically detected EVERY driver for my hardware. I didnt install anything apart from my needed Software and Games.

Tbh, I think its awesome. Fastest and most stabil system I ever had so far, I had i running 3 days long WITHOUT any restart.

Win7 is EPIC

[UK_Force]

It is awesome - I love Win 7, but what I am saying is, I don't see any difference using 64bit TBH?

I also hate the control over unsigned Drivers !!!


My Graphics card - NVIDIA Geforce 8800, runs worse now - I install the latest NVIDIA Drivers, but I am sure it still runs of the Microsoft ones it installed when I put WIN 7 on ???





This what I installed, and nothing came up to say it had not Installed OK ?


186.18_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql


The numbers - kind of match up I suppose, and maybe its these Drivers, but my card defo runs worse than before


.

[Robbi]

Maybe, also if you install drivers direct on top of old ones it can cause problems.

You need to uninstall, run a driver cleaner [ I use Driver Cleaner dotnet] and then restart and reinstall...

I have obviously noticed a big difference with having 64 bit as I have 8GB of RAM so 64 bit is a must, but to the normal everyday user its no real difference, which is a good thing really


If your having problems with sourcing software, thats what us guys are here for

[Darkpowder]

The main reason you aren't noticing much of a difference is because most of the applications you are running are not 64 bit, even though the core of your OS is.

I doubt very much unless you are running a lot of VM's you will get anywhere near needing 8GB. So don't bother getting any more than 4GB. If you totally bin the swapfile, you might find it useful.

(Geeks like me might need 8Gb but UK force, who isn't running XenServer, and a load of other virtualisation junk, or Robbi who paints his world electronically). So UKF 8gb won't make your 64 bit win 7 pay dividends unless you are running stacks of stuff at the same time).

Mem usage can be higher when you are using 64 bit versions, so bear that in mind.

If you use Peerguardian beta, you will see how fast the updates are on the 64 bit version. Try Crysis 64 bit, if you have some serious power to run the extra textures. Farcry, or Riddick, - they all have 64 bit executables. HL2 will install 64 bit files too on 64 bit OS's

[Robbi]

8Gb of RAM for Graphics based situations mate, which yes I do use a lot

[Darkpowder]

Lets hope we see a 64 bit version of "Corel Painter" soon. (the true artists app) How is CS4 on 64 bit, is it compiled for 64 bit or just optimised?

[UK_Force]

I'm running 4gb of ram, and for what I need its enough. I may revert back to 32 bit tbh when its released ?

I will try the uninstall thing Robbie - cheers

[Robbi]

To be fair UKF, stick with 64 mate, because it wont be as difficult as it is now, by the time its fully released MS will be absolutely solid with 7 support, alot more than vista was.

@Darkpowder - The things you can do are un imaginable, and the extra RAM really comes in handy.... Its fully compiled for 64 bit iirc

Check this out.