Put me in the Microsoft haters club. Can't stand the company, can't stand the products. Nevertheless, I like computer games so I'm stuck with Microsoft until Apple or Unix become the operating system of choice for the latest games.
Naturally I wanted to play the latest DX-10 games, so I purposefully built a machine to run Vista when Vista was first released. Since Visa was brand new and was already having massive driver compatibility problems (plenty of blame to go around too--Nvidia and Creative anyone?) I opted to go 32 bit so there was one less "new thing" for me to worry about. I also went with the standard 2GB of RAM since Vista 32 wouldn't see much else with two 8800GTXs combined 1536 MB of RAM hogging a bunch of addressable memory.
I dual booted Vista 32 bit and XP Pro for a few months, then the Vista driver issues got sorted out so I overwrote my XP partition. Vista was running pretty well for me, but I was frustrated by the performance on bleeding edge games and on my benchmarks. I just wasn't getting the performance I thought I'd paid for. Moreover, my computer always did funny things, freezing and blue screening despite the fact that it was running cool and had plenty of power. Eventually, I broke down and bought two more Gigs of RAM, but, as I expected, the extra RAM made no real difference.
After seeing Vista Home Premium 64-bit on sale, I finally bit the bullet, did a complete application drive wipe and attempted to install Vista 64. What a nightmare! Those extra 2GB of RAM drove Vista nuts and I couldn't even get the installation to run without blue screening. After tearing my hair out for four hours, I removed the two new RAM modules and Vista 64 installed in twenty minutes without a hiccup. I was pretty pissed off at Microsoft for neglecting to mention that Vista 64 bit couldn't be installed with 4GB of RAM since that's why most people buy a 64 bit operating system in the first place and I was sure that this little experiment was going to end in frustration like most of my other computer efforts. Nevertheless, I started loading in my drivers and applications and prepared for the worse. The drivers install went very well, but I refused to get my hopes up based on past experience. The proof is in running cutting edge games and I knew that my new 64 bit OS was going to crap out just like my 32 bit OS had so many times before. I even installed Crysis so that the game could taunt me with my fruitless efforts to run my computer like it should.
And then, unexpectedly bliss. Crysis runs much, much faster. Crysis runs much, much, much smoother. Not only that, but my other applications open faster, run smoother, don't crash inexplicably. Computing is satisfying and fun again. :heart:
My Futuremark score improved by 600 points to 13604, but that's not the half of it. Everything just runs effortlessly. Not just games, but video and embedded flash in websites. It's all smooth as silk. This is the way it's supposed to be.
So consider this an alternative to everybody who posts here hating on Vista. If you are running the 32 bit version, much of your problems are RAM limitations, particularly if you are running an SLI or Crossfire graphics solution which brings its own memory demands to the OS. You need the 64-bit version.
OK that's it, go ahead and pummel me, but I for one really like Vista 64 bit.
Naturally I wanted to play the latest DX-10 games, so I purposefully built a machine to run Vista when Vista was first released. Since Visa was brand new and was already having massive driver compatibility problems (plenty of blame to go around too--Nvidia and Creative anyone?) I opted to go 32 bit so there was one less "new thing" for me to worry about. I also went with the standard 2GB of RAM since Vista 32 wouldn't see much else with two 8800GTXs combined 1536 MB of RAM hogging a bunch of addressable memory.
I dual booted Vista 32 bit and XP Pro for a few months, then the Vista driver issues got sorted out so I overwrote my XP partition. Vista was running pretty well for me, but I was frustrated by the performance on bleeding edge games and on my benchmarks. I just wasn't getting the performance I thought I'd paid for. Moreover, my computer always did funny things, freezing and blue screening despite the fact that it was running cool and had plenty of power. Eventually, I broke down and bought two more Gigs of RAM, but, as I expected, the extra RAM made no real difference.
After seeing Vista Home Premium 64-bit on sale, I finally bit the bullet, did a complete application drive wipe and attempted to install Vista 64. What a nightmare! Those extra 2GB of RAM drove Vista nuts and I couldn't even get the installation to run without blue screening. After tearing my hair out for four hours, I removed the two new RAM modules and Vista 64 installed in twenty minutes without a hiccup. I was pretty pissed off at Microsoft for neglecting to mention that Vista 64 bit couldn't be installed with 4GB of RAM since that's why most people buy a 64 bit operating system in the first place and I was sure that this little experiment was going to end in frustration like most of my other computer efforts. Nevertheless, I started loading in my drivers and applications and prepared for the worse. The drivers install went very well, but I refused to get my hopes up based on past experience. The proof is in running cutting edge games and I knew that my new 64 bit OS was going to crap out just like my 32 bit OS had so many times before. I even installed Crysis so that the game could taunt me with my fruitless efforts to run my computer like it should.
And then, unexpectedly bliss. Crysis runs much, much faster. Crysis runs much, much, much smoother. Not only that, but my other applications open faster, run smoother, don't crash inexplicably. Computing is satisfying and fun again. :heart:
My Futuremark score improved by 600 points to 13604, but that's not the half of it. Everything just runs effortlessly. Not just games, but video and embedded flash in websites. It's all smooth as silk. This is the way it's supposed to be.
So consider this an alternative to everybody who posts here hating on Vista. If you are running the 32 bit version, much of your problems are RAM limitations, particularly if you are running an SLI or Crossfire graphics solution which brings its own memory demands to the OS. You need the 64-bit version.
OK that's it, go ahead and pummel me, but I for one really like Vista 64 bit.