64-bit yes/no?

Heres my predicament. I needed to multitask a lot more than 2GB of RAM could provide, so I got a Mushkin 4GB kit. Forgetting about the 32bit RAM limit, I installed it and was surprised to only see 3GB. After alot reading around I found out that this is mostly due to the graphics card which takes up a decent portion of system RAM (0.5GB).

Now I'm planning on an ATI HD4870X2 2GB card. First of all:

Is this going to eat up my poor 32-bit RAM limit (and give me only about 2GB out of my 4GB)?

Second, I did some more reading about 64-bit windows. I just did a quick sweep, and a lot of the programs I use don't have 64-bit specific downloads. So heres my second question:

Are most 32-bit programs and games compatible with 64-bit?

I just want to be sure about everything before I go and spend $110 on Vista x64.

Thanks for the help,
Indybird

Put it this way, about 75 or 90% of the games I play are 32 bit games, but they run fine on Vista 64. In other words, you'll be fine. As for spending $110 on Vista x64. Order a 64 bit disc off microsoft (not sure if they do this any more) because ANY vista key works with either 32 and 64 bit.

Vista 64 works just fine, Im using it right now with 2gb ram so I dont have to reinstall later when I buy my other 2gb. Games and stuff that are for 32bit work flawlessly so far.

I have been using xp64, and all of my programs, except for the old 16-bit ones work fine.

If those dos programs you speak of actually are MS-DOS programs, look up Dos Box.

the grafix card wont use any more. I have dual 3870X2's (2Gb Combined) and 4Gb of ram. The system shows 3.2Gb of ram installed.

i run Vista Ultimate 64 bit without any problems. 8GB RAM and seeing it all.

i have only found two things that don't run and it's probably more because there are no Vista drivers for them as opposed to 64bit issues. even games as old as Neverwinter Nights still run. Just check it to run as an Admin and even check the "run under XP" check box.

no issues.

Well, I went ahead and installed it. Its nice to see my full 4GB of RAM, but now Vista is using up 44% of my RAM on idle, when before it only used about 32%. Obviously that changed when I open a memory intensive program, but it is still annoying.

My actual problem however is that loading times for applications and windows seem substantially slower; is there any reason for this?

-Indybird

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Originally Posted by Indybird

Well, I went ahead and installed it. Its nice to see my full 4GB of RAM, but now Vista is using up 44% of my RAM on idle, when before it only used about 32%. Obviously that changed when I open a memory intensive program, but it is still annoying.

My actual problem however is that loading times for applications and windows seem substantially slower; is there any reason for this?

-Indybird

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Vista scales up its memory usage to the amount of RAM you have. If you have more RAM, Vista will use more, plain and simple.

Do a defrag, clean out temp files and look at what's running in the background. Final solution would be a fresh install, but those are no fun.

i can't say for vista but when i used XPx64 it was a hell of LOT faster, and with XP my memory usage was about 10mb more at idle but i think thats more due to the wowexec process for running 16 and 32bit apps

But i do know that vista 32 does use omre ram the more you install, there is an update somewhere to stop vista doing that, its not doing anything, it just keeps a record of what yuo do most frequently and then loads that into memory from the word get go, so when you nxt call said app or function its quicker

Quote:

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Originally Posted by .Maleficus.

Vista scales up its memory usage to the amount of RAM you have. If you have more RAM, Vista will use more, plain and simple.

Yeah but its supposed to scale in MB not percentages; with 3 GBs it uses 1.32GB of RAM (44%), with 4GB it should use 1.76GBs (still 44%).

Do a defrag, clean out temp files and look at what's running in the background. Final solution would be a fresh install, but those are no fun.

I'm not worrying too much about a defrag or the temp files because I've only had it installed for one week (and my 32-bit didn't slow down that much after 5 months). And background apps (I'm pretty sure aren't the problem) because I still haven't installed as many of my programs that run in the background.

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Thanks for the ideas tho,
Indybird

Alright I just installed Halo 2 (First game since the 64-bit installation), and I noticed something was missing in my games browser. (Please excuse my terrible mouse-handwriting)

The bar with the cover art and system rating, and the bar with the ESRB and publisher info are gone. Does anyone know how to enable these?

-Indybird

Organise>Layout

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crenn

Organise>Layout

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Thanks, but I'm afraid that didn't change it.

Thanks,
Indybird

Well, I've finally encounted the first real problem with 64-bit. My favorite classic game, Dark Forces II (being from 1997) is not compatible with 64 bit Windows. What should I do to get around this?

(By the way, anymore ideas for the games info bar?)

Thanks,
Indybird

http://www.vistax64.com/gaming/15863...vista-x64.html