[McCall]

Got a new PC on the way without the OS installed yet. Quad core Intel, 4 gigs of RAM.

Is there any point going straight in as a 64-bit install of Win 7 yet, or is 32-bit still going to be fine for the next two or three years? As far as I can tell, games aren't going to be needing more memory than a 32-bit CPU can address without fudging for a while.

I thought asking around here might save me a bit of trouble later.

[Pred the Penguin]

I would go 64, runs very smooth.

[McCall]

No problems so far, even with some of the oldies?

[Ghostavo]

The only issue I see is that 16 bit programs, i. e. games, have to be emulated through a virtual machine of sorts. There's 16 bit compatibility in the 32 bit OS but not in the 64 bit.

[IceFire]

I'd go for 64bit. I did actually. There is no disadvantage I can see with Windows 7 in 64bit mode and I've been running it that way since release.  This isn't like WinXP 64bit with its weird problems and driver issues.

[Bob-san]

I've been running 64-bit for over 2 years now, starting in late 2007 with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit. Very smooth OS, especially if you end up loading up on RAM and disabling swapdisk. I've got 6GB in my system and it runs beautifully most of the time. Only issue with that method is some hanging programs are not purge-able in Task Manager; they'll stay stuck at least in RAM.

[Klaustrophobia]

there's really no reason NOT to install 64 bit as far as i can see.  32 bit games work on 64, but 64 won't work on 32.  and then you get the other benefits and increased performance.

as for the original question though, i think it's going to be a while before many 64 bit games come along.  it doesn't really help games all that much, what it is really useful for is intense computational programs, number-crunching.

[phatosealpha]

IIRC, win32 only supports 3gb of ram.  So, going 32 bit would effectively limit you to using 75% of your physical ram.

[Klaustrophobia]

it supports 4 gb TOTAL addressable memory, which usually ends up around 3 gb for ram after taking out video card and other bits of memory scattered about a computer.

[CP5670]

As others have said, there is no real drawback in using the 64-bit version, so you might as well install that. 16-bit programs are typically either Installshield installers, which can be run through XP mode, or some of the earliest Windows games, which work in Windows 3.1 through Dosbox.

Games won't really benefit from 64-bit at all. The most memory I've seen a game use was 1.5GB (Crysis Warhead), and the console ports we get these days use much less. A few games out there have 64-bit exes, but I don't know of any that actually get a performance boost from them. It's more useful for graphics or video editing programs that need large amounts of memory, or computational software that does a lot of DP calculations. Most of these programs come with native 64-bit versions.

it supports 4 gb TOTAL addressable memory, which usually ends up around 3 gb for ram after taking out video card and other bits of memory scattered about a computer.

You get 3.2GB in most cases, with any single process limited to 2GB. Although this is more than enough for games.

[SpardaSon21]

I've seen Sins of a Solar Empire eat up over a half a gig.  That game frequently runs right into the 2 gig wall at full speed with predictable results.

[QuantumDelta]

Yup, most 'large scale' strategy games end up pushing over the 2gb limit, some MMOs can get close too depending on your setup.

[Bob-san]

Yup, most 'large scale' strategy games end up pushing over the 2gb limit, some MMOs can get close too depending on your setup.

Almost any "big" game can use 2+GB RAM. Anything from flight simulators to modern FPS's to various RTS and TBS games, &c. Unfortunately, for many of these 32-bit titles, the extra memory is supposed to be sent to Swap and isn't kept in active memory. I know that editing huge photos in Photoshop would yield a >2GB RAM usage, which was the prime reason for the redesign to 64-bit. Sped up those editing sequences as the RAW images could be kept in RAM.

[QuantumDelta]

Which FPS do that? 

[NGTM-1R]

I'm fairly sure I've watched Crysis do it with regularity.

[Bob-san]

Crysis, Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield BC2, Far Cry 2, the newest STALKER (iirc), &c. Mind you, mostly when using High or Ultra High settings.

[QuantumDelta]

Crysis isn't an FPS, it's a tech demo (-> Far Cry 2), MW2 doesn't on my PC on max _everything, and I have no idea about stalker... I can believe BC2 though I guess xP!

[McCall]

Cheers folks. I'll start with 64-bit and see how it goes. Mind you, knowing how these things go, I'll probably have Wing Commander 4 running fine in Windows and something I bought this year CTD'ing like blue's the in-colour.

[darkone]

Win7 Pro 64bit has played everything I have thrown at it and why wouldn't you use the 64bit version because then you can address more that 4GB RAM and really use that new quad processor I have to admit though Win7 does suck up some memory just at idle.

[Flipside]

Only game I've had problems with is Sims 3, and that's not so much the 64Bit as the whole Permissions setup doesn't seem to get on very well with it on Windows 7 (In fact, Sims 3 isn't even supported for Windows 7 by EA).