Vista 32 vs Vista 64

I am considering buying a new Dell Laptop (not sure if it will be a Inspiron 15, Studio 15 or XPS 15) but I would like to know if I should get Vista 32 or Vista 64.

Please give me some advice on any cons with 64 bit since I would guess 64 bit is the future of most software and the price is the same between the 2 versions.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=356370&highlight=32bits+64bits

Good one to browse through.

cheers ...

 

Thanks, it looks like there is a mixed opinion on the choice but it seems like the majority seems to think 64 bit is the way to go.

If I were to have a 32 bit program that does not behave well with 64 bit Vista is there a 32 bit emulation mode for Vista to make it run properly?

 

With 64-bit Vista you'll get 32 more than 32-bit Vista.

 

The main pro of using 64-bit is the ability to address 4 GB or more of RAM. There are other pros and cons, many of which are laid out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit#Pros_and_cons

Yes, it's called Windows-on-Windows 64-bit (WoW64) and it's capable of running 32-bit software.

Here is another good resource for 32-bit vs 64-bit: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=357233

 

Vista 64bit, hands down.

I cannot go back to a 32bit version of windows.

 

I have to say that for the average home user, Vista32 is probably the better choice. Most of the programs that will be used will be 32bit, and I must admit that until there is a widespread availablity of 64bit programs there is little point having a 64bit OS.
I have Vista64 on my HP DV5... I had a few annoying issues, and now I have replaced it with Vista32. I have found the graphics to be a little snappier, the previous software issues (particularly CD/DVD burning software) to have been resolved.
Realistically, getting Vista64 probably isn't "future proofing" as Vista isn't the future. Windows 7 will be. At present, it's a 32bit world by & large.
Given that a Vista liscence allows you to use either, my feeling is to use Vista32 now, & maybe down the track, when Vista64 is properly supported with optimised drivers & software to change back to Vista64.
Just my 2 cents worth (based on recent experience).

 

Vista 64bit also use more ram than vista 32bit when running the same applications. If you're not putting 4gigs of ram on the laptop, you'll get more "usable" ram if you use 32bit Vista.

 

vista 64-bit has definately come leaps and bounds with driver compatibility, but a lot of programs still dont utilize 64-bit architecture. those programs will still work in 64-bit, but for overall compatibility i would choose 32-bit unless i was running 4gigs of ram.

 

I tried Vista 64 with my 4 GB of RAM. nothing specatular woth mentioning performance wise. u will not notice 1 bit of difference dude. only compatibility issues

back to Win XP Pro 32 bit! the best OS in the world IMHO

 

Go with 64-bit if you can would be my recommendation, it's been proven to be more stable and can address a lot more RAM than the 32-bit version.

@IBO: I gotta agree, been using 32-bit XP for many years now, great OS, although Windows 7 may just dethrone it.

 

True, I used Windows 7 and it seemed to be the way to go. but until it's final. XP and nothing else FTW.

In XP, forget about utilizing all your 4 GM of RAM! 2 GB is more than enough anyway in XP since the OS barely uses 192 MB alone

 

Get Vista 64-Bit, I've had almost no probs with it, runs great, you can run Minefield (64-bit Firefox) which is REALLy fast!

 

64 bit breaks compatability with 16 bit apps which can be a major dealbreaker, but if you're not running any legacy apps there's no real reason to go with 32 bit

also the memory thing is bigger than people make it out to be, 32bit Vista can address about 3.2gb of total memory, but that includes both RAM and Video RAM, so fi you're running a video card with half a gig of memory you're well under 3GB

 

Breaking the 16bit compatibility is probably a good thing. There are still tonnes of 16bit computer viruses floating around on the internet.

 

Of course you can forget 4GB of RAM. Is XP32 even able to (correctly) address more than 2GB? < lol

I'm currently using W7 RC1 X64 with 3GB of RAM. I'm using 2.2GB as we speak. Do I care? No because 7 won't slow down until I reached 2.8GB used. When I was on Vista with 2GB it was using 1.2GB. Did I care? Of course not, since it was as quick as if 400MB were used. When I was on XP with 1.5GB and it was using 500MB. Did I care? Hell yeah, because XP becomes friggin' slow with more than 500MB used

I do still like XP though =P

 

The only thing that annoys me constantly about 64-bit Windows is the lack of Flash. I do notice the system does run slightly faster on 64-bit, especially on start up and shut down.

 

That's only true for the 64 bit browsers.

 

How many legacy viruses would even do anything in a Vista (or any NT) environment even if they could execute?