Vista Experience

Scram

What if any is your experience with Vista? I hear horror stories with the 64 bit version (no surprise there).

I had one big problem with getting my internet connection to work turns out it was a dodgy network card driver. Other than that not really tried much on it im afraid it will feck up when i put the games and apps i uses on XP on it so its still only a Dual boot option.

Creamy Goodness

i have the 64-bit version here, only problem i've had was finding a suitable anti-virus but thanks to aidan_walsh's sig, it took me 2 minutes to rectify it.

i've heard battlefield 2 gives problems in vista but if your a decent gamer you won't be playing that anyways

Ghost Train

Don't do much gaming, but the one or two racing sims I've tried seem to run without to many issues. Hardware wise, I've not had any big issue, some drivers are a bit rough around the edges but most stuff seems to work (if the manufacturer support is anyway decent).

The 64-bit vista, I've found a bit more difficult, just because it doesn't seem to be as supported as 32bit by software developers & hardware manufacturers, however for general computing and for the majority of hardware software it works fine for me on one of my machines

8T8

Generally very few issues now though it helps to do a bit if research and make sure your hardware and software is supported before making the jump. A lot of the grief was from people making the jump to quickly when the software/drivers just weren't ready.

Running 32-bit and 64-bit with no major problems so far. Currently running a Vista 64-bit system as my main PC and it's been rock solid no problems with games either (but it is advisable to get an ATI card as NVIDIA's 64-bit drivers performance is worse than 32-bit whereas ATI's is fine for both).

BKtje

Been running 64bit for over a year now and no major problems.
It is my main pc.

Scram

is there any performance boost to be gained with 64 bit or do the apps and games have to 64bit too? As far as i know i think Farcry is the only game that has 64 bit support most games run in 32 bit?

8T8

Scram wrote:

is there any performance boost to be gained with 64 bit or do the apps and games have to 64bit too? As far as i know i think Farcry is the only game that has 64 bit support most games run in 32 bit?

With 32-bit apps/games not really no there are some odd rare instances like if you tested 20 games there might be one among the pack that might actually benefit a very small amount from the 64-bit OS.

In order for gains it must be 64-bit but not all apps benefit automatically just from going 64-bit. The biggest benefit 64-bit brings is it removes the barrier on RAM so you can use 4GB+ effectively.

The FarCry 64-bit wasn't really 64-bit you could hack the content so it would work on the 32-bit version.

BKtje

is there any performance boost to be gained with 64 bit or do the apps and games have to 64bit too?

64 bit is faster for raring and un-raring(zipping), video editing and of course the ram barrier to name a few.
There are a few games that benefit from 64bit (Ut2k4 has a 64bit patch, useful when running servers and of course farcry) but they are few and far between.

Personally i didn't see any reason not to get it (rather than looking for a reason to get it). This of course depends on the user's needs and what type of hardware drivers may be needed etc.

Scram

yeah now that i have 4 gigs of ram ive ran into the ram barrier with XP as it only sees 3.4 gigs of the 4 gigs of ram. think ill try vista64 soon once i can figure out if the drivers and programs i use will work.

Are Drivers the main concern? i.e 64 bit versions of them? or is there a general problem with games and apps? Visual basic 6 being something i need to work with vista 64, any ideas?

8T8

Yeah mostly drivers are the thing to watch out for because 64-bit only accepts WHQL signed drivers* with the exception of the graphics card driver which doesn't have to be.

* There is a special boot mode that disables driver signing requirement but it's not really practical as those who make non-WHQL drivers generally don't make 64-bit drivers anyway.

Most common hardware is supported out of the box and through drivers by the manufacturer but anything unusual or off the beaten track should be checked out to see if 64-bit support is there.

As for apps/games generally it's pretty good most stuff should run fine I've been running 64-bit for a while now and no major problems I can speak off however it would be a good idea to go ATI for the graphics as NVIDIA's 64-bit driver lags in performance behind the 32-bit one whereas ATI's is more on par.

CptSternn

Scram wrote:

What if any is your experience with Vista? I hear horror stories with the 64 bit version (no surprise there).

I had one big problem with getting my internet connection to work turns out it was a dodgy network card driver. Other than that not really tried much on it im afraid it will feck up when i put the games and apps i uses on XP on it so its still only a Dual boot option.

Vista, like XP, has a compatibility mode option under each program settings so you can run apps and games in an XP shell. That being said I run Vista 32 and every game to date works on it fine that I run.

Also note: Most all new games, starting last month, are now requiring DirectX10, which is only in Vista. If you want to play new games, like Shadowrun, Overlord, or BioShock, your going to have to upgrade to Vista soon anyhow.