Hi, I just bought a new pc with intel duo qua Q9550 and ASUS motherboard P5Q DELUXLE and WD ITB harddisk with two internal dvd writers. I think my new pc support both 32bits and 64bits. I was thinking to switch to 64bits instead of 32bits windows vista that I am using. Is there a great difference between the two? What are the disadvantages and advantages? Is it wise to switch to 64bits now or later? Anyone please comments. Your previous advices in the matter will be greatly appreciated
64-bit Vista has had a few issues with drivers in the past. It's not ideal if you use an nvidia graphics card (though I hear they have improved in that regard), but is strongly recommended if you use a program that requires a lot of RAM, and your PC has 4GB or more installed.
64 bit seems to be more stable in my testing. Some system apps & firewalls will not work with vista64. Most everything else works fine, but once in a while there is an oddball program that does not. 16-Bit windows programs will not work outside of virtual machine, but 16-bit is super-rare these days. One bonus of Vista64 is that 32-bit programs run on an emulator called wow64 (windows on windows 64)...so if they do crash, they rarely take windows with them. Also, some virues, spyware, and trojans will not work correctly on vista64 because they are writen in 16bit or they use features not available in wow64. Also, some apps are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. I tested both versions of Photoshop CS4, and could see no noticable differences. However, SolidWorks64 is MUCH faster than SolidWorks86 when testing with 6GB memory & phenom 9950 & 3870HD 512MB. If you have to pay to upgrade (OEM license), then I would stick with what you have untill you find a 64-bit program that you need/want...they are still VERY rare. BTW...Vista64 will run vista86 from virtual machine. Vista86 cannot run Vista64 this way. BTW2...I have not had any issues with nVidia video/chipset drivers on Vista64 since SP1. ATI drivers 8.12 did not work with vista64, but 8.11 worked fine, and 9.1 works good too. Most of my driver issues have been with old hardware like TV tuners, NICs, sound cards...this is because the makers of these devices have not released new drivers since windows XP came out. Most of these companies are fly-by-night operations, and do not even have Vista86 drivers.
