M9750 compatible with Windows 7 64 bit?

I decided to soup up my m9750 by replacing the 2GB of ram with 4Gb and replacing the OS drive with an Intel SSD. Now I am wondering if I should also get Windows 7 64 bit but will I be able to get 64 bit drivers? Will there be any compatibility issues?

I know little about 32bit vs 64 bit. However, it is my understanding that Windows 7 works better with SSD and can handle more ram and that might be enough of a performance boost to keep me from wanting a new computer for a couple more years.

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I have an m9750 and put Windows 7 64-bit on it. Works fine. Check my sig for the specs on my machine.

 

Did you have to download the drivers from the manufacturers? I just logged on to Alienware and it looks like I can't get access to any drivers.

 

Absolutely pointless to do this on the m9750 as the chipset itself doesnt support 64-bit ram addressing. So no matter if you put 4gb or 8gb ram in you'll have the same amount available (about 3gb).

 

Thanks for that info, Simon. So the only advantage of 64 bit over 32 bit is its ability to use more ram? I thought it might also be faster or more efficient.

I originally decided to switch to Windows 7 because I got an SSD and Win 7 manages SSD better. However, it would be easier to do an upgrade install of 32 bit Windows 7 over my 32 bit Vista than 64 win 7 over 32 Vista. So, if 64 bit Win 7 would have no advantages over 32 for me, I'll install 32 bit.

 

Yes the only thing that 64-bit does is allow more memory to be addressed. As stated due to a limitation in the chipset it wont allow you to use the extra memory irrespective of the operating system.

 

Thanks, Simon. Based on your good info and some googling I did of 32 bit vs 64 bit, I now realize that 32 bit is the way to go.

 

Definitely by chipset on the m9750, its compatible with 64, however unfortunately alienware only supports 64 bit on windows 7 so you cannot get direct drivers from them if you do 32. I just upgraded to w7x32 on mine. I doubled my ram to 4GB as you are, but windows only lists ~2.5 on comp info, where systeminfo recognizes the virtual memory of 4+ but actual physical memory is around the 2.5. I'm finding out that I cannot get graphics drivers on my 8700M GT's from alienware or nvidia. The ones from Nvidia looks like it does not support on 32 bit and resulted in a BSOD for me, and thinking I could use old drivers from vista 32 bit had the same result. So if I can find support for the nvid cards i will stick with 32, but it does not look like it, so I may have to go get a 64 ugprade.

 

Good luck, Burn55. I hope you find a good driver. I am stuck with the driver that Windows 7 picked for my 7950 GTX GPU and it is an older version than I was using with Vista. The only driver I can get from nVidia doesn't work as well.

I believe that the more RAM you have on your video card, the less RAM of the 4G of RAM you will have "Available" for the rest of your computer with a 32 bit OS. If you switch to 64 bit you can use all 4G of RAM no matter what you have on your GPU but 4G is not very much for a 64 bit OS.

First I talked to a tech at Alienware and he recommended 64 bit Win 7 over 32 bit because 64 bit is faster. Then I got talked into 32 bit because of compatibility with games.

Anyway, Win 7 is working well with my computer and it is faster but it should be because of Win 7, 50% more available RAM and and 80G solid state drive. It isn't as fast as I thought it would be though. When I bought Win 7 it came with one disk for 32 bit and one for 64 bit. If I hear that you get your computer to work real well with 64 bit, I might give it a try.

 

The chipset supports the use of a 64-bit operating system YES!! It does not however support memory addressing of greater than 4gb no matter what operating system you install on it. So put 64-bit on your system by all means but you will still only have 2.5gb usable identical to 32-bit. Upgrading the BIOS allows windows to display the full amount of RAM but still doesnt allow it to use more. My system for example says "Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB (3.00 GB usable)"
64-bit just isnt worth it on this system as you get no benefits and plenty of driver headaches.

As for nVidia drivers you should be able to use the Vista 32-bit ones from nVidia or you should try the LaptopVideo2Go ones. If you have dual cards please read the SLI guide SLI Guide

 

You definitely should! x64 is going very smooth, I was able to get the install and some software and all hardware drivers within an hour, something that on x32 it was very difficult, where windows was already missing base drivers that I could not locate.

If you end up getting x64 on m9750, you can find base drivers here on alienware: Drivers for xp, vista, w7x64 Then get the associated drivers for your specific cards, I did mine from nvidia, then the only other thing was the bison cam install.

 

Alienware dont supply 64-bit drivers for the M9750 the system cant take advantage of the extra RAM if you install 64-bit so what exactly is the point? I'd rather not go through the headache of trying to find drivers for an old system which wasnt ever natively supplied with 64-bit for no benefit thanks. I dont believe you when you say that you found drivers easy for x64 than x86 (it isnt x32) considering the x86 drivers are obtainable directly from alienware. Also got any old software which uses a 16-bit installer? Forget it on 64-bit windows it wont work even if the base application is fully compatible.
My M9750 with 32-bit runs faster than my m11x with 64-bit windows, there isnt a speed benefit here.

 

simon i upgrade my m9750 to 32 bits windows 7 but my optical driver is not reading cds.

My computer saids it's a blank cd, but itunes can rip it.

I dont know whats going on but i need help. i like this windows 7 but i can get to read my cds.

 

plinki, this probably has nothing to with the x86 / x64 Os you are using..

before upgrade ,what OS did you have?