Windows 7 32bit or 64bit for Gaming?

I'm asking this in the notebook forum even though it pertains to my desktop gaming rig because the question is applicable to both notebook and desktop gaming rigs. Plus this forum has way more traffic.

Ok so here's the question. The desktop gaming rig I built has 4GB of ram. I play some games that go back to circa 2000/2001. Will these games play at all in a 64 bit OS? I haven't installed Windows 7 on my desktop yet cause i'm undecided if 64 bit will run any of those old games at all. I prefer 64 because of the 4GB of ram i'm using.

Wrt Windows 7 i'm am very pleased at it's performance so far. There is one racing game I bought on Steam and that sucker runs better in W7 than it does in XP. Sweet i'll take that.

 

I have 7 x64 and it runs my older games fine. 32-bit apps will still run within the 64-bit environment. 64-bit is nice, like you said, becuase of the RAM access, but also runs *slightly* faster (for 64-bit apps) according to some bechmarks.

 

I would go with 64 Bit without a doubt because the entire system will run much better, not only gaming. Some only think about better use of RAM when they think of 64 Bit but it goes a lot deeper than just that of course.

You should list the games you are worried about and also consider whether you want to use XP mode which is only available in the Professional and above versions of Windows 7. I use a Virtual environment for some of my older games such as Tiberian Sun. My other games that didn't work in Windows 7 had unofficial community patches and now work so consider that too.

 

If those old games aren't 16-bit then they should run fine under 64-bit.

 

Thanks everyone. The games in question are Grand Prix 3, Grand Prix 4, and Colin McRae 2.0

Btw I don't want to run XP mode because it's a virtual box and I need the performance from those games.

 

The only reason they wont run the same in x64 as x86 is if they are 16bit like Chaz said. As they wont run at all if that is the case.

Otherwise it will be probably identical. Some older games do not run well on Vista or higher anyways and will require a XP dual boot if your serious about playing them.

 

Nice, those are some fun games. I cut my teeth on grand prix legends 10 years ago and I still play that one on occasion, now I'm big on GTR2 and GTR Evo, though I've been curious to try Dirt 2 for some rally action.

 

if your gonna play new games like MW2 , get 64 bit.... and 4GB ram... I use 3.2GB when playing MW2... extra RAM in 64 bit always helps...

 

really? i never saw my ram usage over 70%. not for gaming anyway.

 

you should be fine i also play very old games too and on my x64 windows 7 install i can still play them fine. the games i play are final fantasy 7 & 8 and dungeon keeper which are fairly old and they run just fine. i have yet to find a game that wont run in windows 7 (of course 16 bit games wont work but some can still be emulated anyway)

 

My ram usage dropped when I installed Microsoft Security Essentials. It replaced my Windows Defender. I dropped like 5 background processes and I gained an excellent Spyware/Anit Virus program.

 

ohh trust me i got 3.2 GB of ram usage yesterday again when using MW2.. and i'm also using Microsoft Security essentials... was using Mc Afee efore which was a resource hog... nver using that program again...