Whats the deal with 32/64 bit Vista?

I read that 64 bit OS may have driver problems which might cause programs not to work well. Can someone enlighten me?

I understand that 64 bit allows for better processing, but it seems like there's a lot of negative aspects about it.....

 

A few aspects, not quite "negative" though. Most programs built for 32-bit will work just fine in 64-bit. However, they are not made to "harness" the power of 64-bit processing, if you will. Drivers might be an issue, so you have to make sure your computer is compatible with a 64-bit OS.

Every program I have so far works fine for me. Firefox 64-bit is nice too

 

well im buying a new lenovo notebook with vista business 64 bit...so I presume the drivers would be fine??

How about programs like photoshop? And when you say "most programs" would work, what type of programs do you think would be the exception?

 

Depends on how old your computer and/or peripheral hardware is. Just do your research and gather what you need before making the switch. Visit the vendor websites and check for updates. Do a search here for more info as well when it comes to laptops. Notebooks can be a bit more finicky than its desktop counterpart in the realm of 64-bit.

A year or so ago it was troublesome to get 64-bit drivers but nowadays there are more available. 64-bit allows for full potential of the processor as well as using more RAM (4GB+). Personally, other than the odd driver or certain software application issues, I have had zero problems really with 64-bit. It's the future, baby!

 

Buying a new system with 64 bit you should be free of most of the "bug" issues.

Simply put 2^64 does not suffer from some of the limitations of 2^32 OS's? Computing power 2^64 in potential? Crushes 2^32. Running 2^32 applications on 2^64 does not realize the benefits.

But if OEM is selling you a 2^64 OS you should be fine, and not worry.

 

If you have older peripherals (printer, etc.), you may not be able to find 64-bit drivers. That's probably the biggest potential issue.

In terms of software that's not compatible with 64-bit... I think they can be divided into three categories:
- Some older or custom software that hasn't been updated in years
- Software that needs to mess with hardware at a low-level, such as Notebook Hardware Control
- Companies that are just lame and can't be bothered to fix their stuff... like I heard something about Quicktime not working (or not being supported, or something) in 64-bit. I haven't tried to use it myself, so I can't say firsthand.

So far I've only personally encountered two incompatible programs: Stardock's IconPackager trial (although it claims that the full version is 64-bit compatible), and some free partitioning program I found (I was able to run it anyway outside of Windows by booting with UltimateBootCD).

Here are a couple lists of programs that do work:
http://thevistaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=10217
http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showtopic=30090

 

Lol if the people you buy from says its comes with 64-bit then you'll be fine with it! They have drivers for all of the hardware in that computer then.

Photoshop starts up in 1.3 seconds for me and since it can utilize the majority of my RAM now (never allow more than 75% though), it does the most intensive filter at max settings in less than 2 seconds. 250.0 gaussian blur for a 1024 x 768 image, for example. Quick quick!

Edit: Just used a 600px (max) brush for the liquify filter on a 1280width image, flawless. I can liquify seamlessly without the computer lagging. Anyone else know of any memory/processor hogging photoshop techniques for me to test with?

 

I'm very curious where you read that, and when the article was dated.

 

There's a search bar at the top right corner of this forum for a reason. I bet you don't even know how many threads have been made asking the same question.