Is Windows Vista 64-bit edition recommended yet?

[Quillz]

I'm getting a new laptop very soon that only comes with 2 GB of RAM. I fully intend to immediately upgrade to 4 GB of RAM, but to get full benefit, I will need to run a 64-bit edition of Vista. I'm coming from Leopard, which apparently runs both 32-bit and 64-bit software side by side. Does Vista 64-bit work the same way? Will I have any compatibility issues with it? Because if not, it seems that the 64-bit OS is the way to go for me.

[ANON86364]

This very topic has been discussed countless times here on Neowin and in every corner of the interwebs. For how many times I've answered these questions, I cannot this time. Please search the many threads here to find your answers.

[Quillz]

And as a follow up, I know you have to contact Microsoft for a 64-bit edition of Vista. Do they charge anything extra, or just the cost of shipping and handling?

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

vista 64-bit is great as long as your computer isnt really old.

[Slimy]

Just shipping and handling, the key you have for Vista x86 will work with Vista x64. I recommend moving to Vista x64, especially now that SP1 is out.

[Lee G. Veteran]

Get Vista x64. My computer has 2GB RAM, and I use it, and it's been great. I originally had Vista x86, but switched in June, and I haven't looked back.

[neufuse Veteran]

works great for me, I have a Q6600 with 4GB RAM and Vista x64 running, and it works as good as XP ever did for me

[RAID 0]

If I were to go out and buy Vista, it would be the 64 bit version even thought I only have two gigs of RAM. There's no reason NOT to start the move to the future. Although, if I did buy Vista, I would be triple booting Vista, XP and Ubuntu. Variety is the spice of life.

[Quillz]

Yeah, I really want to move to Vista 64-bit as well, so that my 4 GB of RAM will be recognized, but then I found a site that still recommended that we stick with the 32-bit edition, due to a lack of 64-bit software. So I'm still confused. Can a 64-bit version of Vista run 32-bit apps? Why do people always complain about compatibility issues if this is the case?

[Biotoxic_hazard_835]

works great for me, I have a Q6600 with 4GB RAM and Vista x64 running, and it works as good as XP ever did for me

+1 :yes:

[Vambo]

works great for me, I have a Q6600 with 4GB RAM and Vista x64 running, and it works as good as XP ever did for me

+1 :yes:

+1 :D

[Yuxi]

I've been using Vista x64 since February (even though I only have 2GB of RAM), no problems at all :D

[Kupo-Cheer]

I say go for it. I've been using Vista 64bit on 2 of my machines for well over a year now. Software incompatibility is hard for me to come by, since 64bit is now mainstream. The only problems you might come across are older drivers and software. Most everything will have an update or specific version for 64bit Vista, or else will have a generic driver that will automatically install anyway. But to people warning others away because of lack of software support, I don't understand where they're coming from, because between running 3 different computers with a 64bit OS, I haven't had a problem yet.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

vista 64-bit is great as long as your computer isnt really old.

And with 8GB RAM it FLIES

[Quillz]

I say go for it. I've been using Vista 64bit on 2 of my machines for well over a year now. Software incompatibility is hard for me to come by, since 64bit is now mainstream. The only problems you might come across are older drivers and software. Most everything will have an update or specific version for 64bit Vista, or else will have a generic driver that will automatically install anyway. But to people warning others away because of lack of software support, I don't understand where they're coming from, because between running 3 different computers with a 64bit OS, I haven't had a problem yet.

But I'm still confused. Will 32-bit software run on Vista 64-bit? Or do I need a 64-bit version of all the software I plan to run? Like, can I just download Firefox 3 and it will work, or do I need a 64-bit version of Firefox 3? One of the things I like about Leopard is that both were supported, so you never had any issues finding software.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

Pretty much ALL 32bit software will work and those that don't will have updates to make them work.

Natively 64bit Vista has Windows-on-Windows (WoW64) wrapping to emulate 32bit for those apps. Microsoft says the performance loss in emulating 32bit is very minimal and in some cases of a 32bit app that uses masses of RAM like Photoshop for example it can even run faster even though it's being emulated on Vista64.

I have not seen any app not work or run slow since going 64bit last week and I have a installed app list that scrolls several times.

In task manager you will see what apps are 32bit and what are 64:

[Matrix XII]

I have to get my laptop ugraded to 64 bit Vista. I've heard pretty good things about it, although my dad's laptop had a few driver problems, but they were fixed shortly.

[Quillz]

Alright, everything looks like it will just fine then. I just ordered a new Dell laptop yesterday, but it's shipping with Vista Home Premium 32-bit. Can I contact Microsoft, give them the product key and as for Home Premium in 64-bit? How do I get a 64-bit copy of Vista?

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

If Dell give you a proper OEM disc to reinstall if a problem occurs instead of a Dell rescue CD then you can simply borrow anyone else's Vista 64bit DVD and install using your product key. If Dell give you a rescue CD then you have a Dell OEM branded version of Vista which has no product key so cannot be upgraded the same way as a system builder OEM version can.

[afusion]

I don't want to steal the show here but I thought this would be an appropriate time and place to ask a question

Do you any of you guys w/ 2GB of RAM see any performance difference in using 64bit Vista?

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

You will see a performance drop with anything below 4GB RAM on Vista64 since it uses almost 2GB Ram in general anyway so your pagefile is going to be constantly sent data and read from resulting in sluggishness.

4GB is the minimum for 64bit, above 4GB is recommended to see any benefit.

[afusion]

You will see a performance drop with anything below 4GB RAM on Vista64 since it uses almost 2GB Ram in general anyway so your pagefile is going to be constantly sent data and read from resulting in sluggishness.

4GB is the minimum for 64bit, above 4GB is recommended to see any benefit.

wow that's pretty informative, I was going to install Vista 64

[Quillz]

If Dell give you a proper OEM disc to reinstall if a problem occurs instead of a Dell rescue CD then you can simply borrow anyone else's Vista 64bit DVD and install using your product key. If Dell give you a rescue CD then you have a Dell OEM branded version of Vista which has no product key so cannot be upgraded the same way as a system builder OEM version can.

I obviously haven't gotten my laptop yet, but it did say I'd get a proper Windows Vista Home Premium DVD. So, I can borrow any Vista 64-bit DVD and use my product key? Even if it's another version, it will still pick up Home Premium?

You will see a performance drop with anything below 4GB RAM on Vista64 since it uses almost 2GB Ram in general anyway so your pagefile is going to be constantly sent data and read from resulting in sluggishness.

4GB is the minimum for 64bit, above 4GB is recommended to see any benefit.

Very informative, thank you. I didn't realize I should only run 64-bit with 4 GB of RAM.

[morphen]

Pretty much ALL 32bit software will work and those that don't will have updates to make them work.

Natively 64bit Vista has Windows-on-Windows (WoW64) wrapping to emulate 32bit for those apps. Microsoft says the performance loss in emulating 32bit is very minimal and in some cases of a 32bit app that uses masses of RAM like Photoshop for example it can even run faster even though it's being emulated on Vista64.

There will be no performance loss, since it isn't emulated, it runs nativly, but it can only adress the 32-bit part of the CPU, and up to 4GB ram.

WoW64 is a wrapper, not an emulating layer, like the ones used on IA64 platform, where performance loss is an big issue, since the code set in the cpu is totaly different. The x64 platform is a superset in addition to x86, so there is no need for

emulating, just wrapping.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

Microsoft state it is a 32bit emulator, I state my source from a Microsoft article:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384249(VS.85).aspx

There is a very small performance difference but given the power of 64bit Windows this difference is seldom seen by anyone on any machine capable of 64bit computing and on the contrary as mentioned some heavy RAM usage apps that are 32bit often run better on 64bit through WoW64.

Tom's did a writeup too recently, check it out here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vista-workshop,1775.html