Vista 64-Bit Review – Is the 64-bit playground worth it?
OVERALL PERFORMANCE RESULTS:
We see an overall performance increase of about 11% by moving to a 64-bit OS. Native 32-bit programs (the majority of all the programs you run now) run in the Vista 64-bit environment generally perform at the same speed or within a few percentage points of 32-bit Vista. And programs coded with 64-bit extensions can boost performance substantially. This is a pretty dramatic performance upgrade that can be had without adding any new hardware or even overclocking, and if you already own a retail version of vista, it is completely free!
Reasons to Upgrade:
-There’s essentially no performance hit, or compatibility issues (between Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit)
-Drivers are ready (Nvidia and AMD both have drivers for 64 and 32 bit, and are released at the same time)
-64 bit is the future. (In the coming years, 64-bit will take over completely, jump on the bandwagon.)
– Applications with 64-bit extensions are out there, enhancing performance dramatically.
– Your processor is 64-bit for a reason.
Reasons Not to Upgrade:
-You use Cisco VPN (this is the only program I could find that would just not run on 64-bit vista (although I did find a workaround using VirtualPC 2007 🙂 )
-You have an essential program that you know to be 64-bit incompatible.
-You encode a lot of divx files and don’t want to bother finding a 64-bit codec.
Conclusion
The truth is, I’m kicking myself for not having moved to 64-bit Vista earlier, there are almost no disadvantages and a whole host of reasons to upgrade to Vista 64-bit over Vista 32-bit. I hope this review can help you make the leap as well. 64-bit is the future, and many have been using 64-bit for years now (64-bit XP Professional). It isn’t as scary as you think and you will be glad you did.
Feel free to discuss your thoughts in the comments or in the forums here.
by visiting this website: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/64bit.mspx
