Just a quick question to people who may have had some experience - I've recently upgraded to a 64 bit system, just curious which OS i should head towards windows XP 64 bit or Vista 64 bit?
I like the idea of XP because i know it inside out and it won't slow down my pc that much, but then again I think Vista might have greater advantages...
I've been running XP64 for about 6 months now (I had to make the switch to a 64 bit system in order to overcome the 2 go memory limit - very nice thing when you work with heavy 3D scenes + photoshop)
Of course, there were a few problems at the beginning and some remains unsolved (drivers for my Canon 3200f scanner and Hauppauge Nexus-s tv adapter are the only real ones now)
All my programs are working flawlessly (exception : ZBrush :( It's not due to XP64 itself but to the fact that it won't work with XP64 AND more than 2 GO)
I had some troubles finding a firewall at first but I finally installed the 64 bit version of Outpost and I really like it, not a ressource hog and very efficient, especially if you configure it by hand (NOD32 as antivirus)
In fact now, I only miss a little tool I used in XP32 to load the color profiles of my monitors automatically when starting windows (funny to note that microsoft didn't bother updating their tools :()
I can't really talk about Vista 64 since I only installed it on a machine to test it a bit and well, it wasn't my thing
It doesn't mean it's a bad OS but it's not what I want from an OS (to make thing clear and in order for you to understand better how my opinion might be biased, I run my XP64 with all the visual effects and eye candy turned off - not due to my computer, it's a Dual Opteron Dual Core with 8 go memory and a Geforce 7900 GTX, so not exactly a bad or slow computer - but because I like to have my computing power going to my apps, not feeding my os)
I must also say I had more "problem" applications on Vista 64 than on XP 64 but I guess, in a few monthes they will have solved that
So, it really depends on what you want from an OS and what your PC is. If you want to have as much as possible of your computing power going to your software, I would say, go for XP 64. If you like the new Vista look (nothing wrong with that) then, well Vista
In the long run, Vista 64 will be a better choice. Why ? Because supporting Vista will be a must for any new application and hardware (while they won't necessarily bother with XP 64). I guess though, Vista 64 won't be supported as widely and as fast as Vista 32 (maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that despite the fact we have had 64 bit processors for quiet a long time now, 64 bit OS are still not very widespread - maybe due to the fact that their only visible advantage is the high quantity of memory you can use)
I hope this help a bit, I will check this thread from time to time so if you have questions ....
Thanks, I would prefer xp 64 just because i've used vista and it's really a pain in the ass, the only way windows could "secure" was to have everything ask you every 5 seconds whether or not to allow it...
I'm not one for looks so i don't care much for vista's front end (i set it back to win95 look on my other pc). That being said it does take up a fair bit more HDD space as well as memory.
Working with large 3d scenes is pretty much all i do but still the lack of support for various programs and drivers would be a pain in the ass.
I wish everyone would pull their thumbs out and move everytihng to 64 bit - as you said the 64 bit architecture has been around for a long time.
I think I will wait until this 32 bit xp craps itself and then try vista 64 and turn off all the pretty stuff =P
x64 anytime bro....vista is long way to be tried and tested for graphics,leave alone drivers problem,stability,compatibility and many other serious issues,which will do take time to settle..so for other 1 year or so or maybe more x64 is da way to go,and now with the service pack on da way,as vista lauched...microsoft has said they will come out with a service pack soon after vista is launched,,,,so x64 is da way to go...
cheers.raj
I agree with everyone is saying: stick with XP for now. I have a new notebook with Vista reinstalled and I don't like it too much for the following reasons:
1) My familiar work process is interrupted. The initial learning curve for a switched user is a little too big. I'm sure I can figure out everything later but if you want productivity right now, better use another one while playing with Vista. The security implementation really hurts the usability. It asks for permission every time (as another user mentioned). Later I found you can turn it off by disable it in User control. It's odd that you can't be a true administrator for your own system and you can't access all the folders for security reason. I've found you can enter "net user administrator /active:yes" in "CMD" to add adminstrator to the login and maybe able to change the setting for your other accounts (although I still can't change my regular username from standard to administrator).
2) I feel part of reason for new system is the conspiracy between software and hardware companies to bring up new needs for unneccessary upgrades. Remember the days when my PC has 128MB RAM, I could open 3 to 4 applications. 8 to 10 years later, with 1 GB of RAM, I still can only open 3 to 4 applications. With many times faster processor, my startup time has not improved much, desktop manipulation may be marginally faster. It seems that the OS/software is growing just to keep up with what the hardware allows. My productivity does not improve that much with all the technology advances. Although I could have managed my system better, it would take a lot of effort.
Ive used both 32 bit and 64 bit vista and xp 64, Out of ease of setup vista 64 is far better and runs sweet on my intel board. out of comparison between 32 and 64 vista, they run totally different, and I wont install vista 32 on any systems I come across.
People assume 64 and 32 vista runs the same, I certainly didnt find that 32, was slow as a dog and gave me problems, installed the 64 and its good, I wouldnt say perfect, cus vista has its bugs one being file transfers,
So summing up, vista 64 is cool and run better than xp 64 and vista32, me and I have doen this, I have a dual boot system where I have xp 32 and vista 64. best of both worlds.
I have the best rendering performance with Vista 64-bit. I don't know why, but it is true. I even leave all the eye-candy on, and the Task Manager says that Vista eats a lot of the memory (4GB), and there are over 50 (!) processes running, but it looks like that the Task Manager is not a reliable indicator, because I work and render significantly faster than with any other version of Windows.
Windows operating systems have never been transparent about what is going on, what processes are running, so I always simply try out, not with benchmark tools, but with my main applications. At the moment Maxwell Render is my benchmark tool, and although generally Maxwell renders faster on x86 systems, Vista 64-bit is the best. It is not logical, it makes no sense, but it is a fact.
I have XP x86, XP x64 and Vista x64 on my machine, and I only use XP x86 and Vista x64. XP x64 I will erase some day, it has become useless.
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