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I have no knowledge at all about these 64-bit processor's. My brother is upgrading his computer to one and before he does I figured I'd ask on here for some advice.
Windows XP 64-bit will be purchased to go along with the processor.
Other than that here I have some questions:
- Will all standard 32-bit apps still work?
- Will games like Warcraft 3, Starcraft, WoW still work?
- Is there anything else I should warn him of?
Are you sure the machine is comming with Win. 64? In my experience most are still comming with the 32bit version.
The main thing to check it if there's 64 bit versions of driver for your hardware (graphics card, NIC card etc.) which is where most of the compatibility issues come in.
Well the switch is to mainly for performance increase in gaming. Also needs PCI-E support for a new video card.
I'll tell him to check if the drivers for the card in mind have a 64-bit version.
That site listing program compatibilty was great, thanks.
Anything else I shoud know?
Maybe, is switching to 64-bit worth it for someone who games a lot?
If you are programming - you can get a 64-bit compiler to produce 64-bit versions of your programs which run faster on 64-bit machines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halsafar
You have to remember that most games that are out currently (WC3, SC to reference some you've named) we're programmed for the current 32bit systems and compiled for 32bit systems. I don't think the full effects of the 64bit processor will be seen for at least a few years down the road. Until companies start compiling for 64bit processors, people using them aren't getting the full capabilities out of them. On another note you will most likely see a huge upgrade with a PCI-E video card.
~Just my 2cents~
I've been using an AMD64 for about 9 months with 32-bit WinXP, and have had no problems. The only real issue I have heard of for 64-bit Win XP is the limited amount of drivers, there wasn't one for my PCI-E graphics card when 64-bit was a free(beta?) download.
As already mentioned by others, the games you have are 32-bit so you won't get any gain from switching to 64-bit. The processor and OS just emulate 32-bit, which is apparently not too good for Intel processors (for 32-bit XP-Pro my AMD 64 3000+ is faster at almost everything than an a similar Intel PIV 3000 I had at work).
My PCI-E graphics card isn't much better than an AGP card, but you can check magazines or hardware review sites to see what the relative performance of various cards is.
There is a very big difference between the Intel and AMD 64bit chips.
They even need different versions of windows XP.
the Intel will only run in 64bit mode (i think it uses an emulator for 32 bit)
the AMD can switch from 64 to 32bit mode.
That depends on which Intel chip you have. Intel's initial 64bit release was the Itanium, which as you say needs the Itanium version of windows. I doubt anyone has one of these chips as they where designed for servers and cost rather a lot of money. Intel's new 64bit processors use AMD's 64 bit instruction set, and so use the same 64bit windows. Oh and the 32bit mode is called WOW64 (windows on windows) and is still emulation.Quote:
Originally Posted by grahamxyz