Windows 7 (32bit or 64bit)?

Got a shopping cart of parts that you want opinions on? Get advice from members on your planned or existing system (or upgrade).

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Shamgar
Posts: 454
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:49 am
Location: Where I Am

Post by Shamgar » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:46 am

The thing is that very few people actually own Photoshop for the sort of demanding use that 64-bit and high RAM systems would help with. A lot of people obtain it illegally and play around with it, while others might use it for proper use at school or work for a while, and families might use Elements rather than the real deal for light work and photo management.

Aside from Photoshop and the usual touted applications that are supposedly better under 64-bit, I think 64-bit will be the better platform in the future for the mainstream when the compatibility issues are sorted out more. Not all vendors have or want to come to the table as far as drivers are concerned. A lot of programs still code in 32 or even 16 bit code for legacy compatibility and I suppose, simplicity. Until this trend changes in the opposite, many users will have to make do with virtualisation to run incompatible apps and hardware in a 64-bit OS, or stay with 32-bit. The only real way is to start from scratch and ensure everything is compatible from the beginning. I'm repeating a lot of what I've said previously, so I'll just stop here for now.

ThaArtist
Posts: 145
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:12 am
Location: Wisconsin

Post by ThaArtist » Thu Nov 19, 2009 1:08 pm

I dunno Im loving Windows 7 Pro x64. I havent run into any problems yet except there is only one torrent application that will run, but that application is good. But its not like I really need that anyway.

Windows 7 is a huge huge improvement over Vista. Wow. Im loving Windows 7 in so many ways. Haha. Or maybe Im just in love with the 25 inch monitor. I dunno. Its every designers dream to have a big screen. Been wanting one since I was 16 so... to have a great OS at the same time is super cool.

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:21 pm

looks like future versions of premiere pro and after effects are going to be 64-bit only...

"Jan Ozer of Digital Content Producer and EventDV tested CS4
Production Premium on 32-bit and 64-bit systems and concluded that “rendering trials
clearly demonstrated that a 64-bit system delivered superior performance with most
formats*... the 64-bit system was 67% faster on my standard DV test ile, up to 63% faster on
HDV-related tests, up to 50% faster on AVCHD tests, and up to 227% faster on tests using
footage from the RED camera.**â€

andyb
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 3307
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:00 pm
Location: Essex, England

Post by andyb » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:30 pm

I seem to have totally missed this debate..........

I personally was expecting W7 to bet 64-bit only, lets face the news, few people are going to upgrade to it because Vista was so crap on low end PC'. But now all low end (new) PC's are 64-bit capable I expected that MS would not release a 32-bit version. OK I need to explain myself here 64/32 bit version, vs a 32/16 bit version that they have released.

There is no need, there is no want, there is little request, lets be done with 32bit OS's and move onto the next generation, 64-bit software.

There is no need to create 64-bit software if there is no 64-bit OS to use it on, and there is no need for a 32-bit OS, and therefore there is no need for 32-bit software. We are aproaching 2010, I would like to have some non-linux apps to use that are 64-bit by then.


Andy

Shamgar
Posts: 454
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:49 am
Location: Where I Am

Post by Shamgar » Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:28 am

Microsoft will not abandon 32-bit for a few years yet. There are too many businesses that still use old software and hardware with little reason to change and add to their immediate CODB. This is why XP Mode was included in Windows 7 so Microsoft wouldn't alienate this significant group of people.

Windows 8 will probably be 64-bit only, however, with Microsoft, you never know what it might do when the time comes around. I wouldn't be surprised if 32-bit stays around for a lot longer yet. Most people are not audio/video producers or digital imaging professionals. For those that are or who aspire to be, you always have the option.

RBBOT
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 9:02 am

Post by RBBOT » Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:48 am

Microsoft have already abandoned 32-bit for their server OS. Windows Server 2008 R2 has no 32-bit version and neither do any of the future releases of their server applications - SQL 2008 R2, SharePoint 2010 etc.

The desktop is sure to follow soon, especially as most 32-bit software runs ok under 64-bit or runs Ok under a 32-bit virtual machine. It is the hardware where there are issues. The current generation hardware is 64-bit compatible, and most people don't upgrade their OS on existing hardware more than once so I can't see much need for 32-bit support in Windows 8.
Last edited by RBBOT on Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

andyb
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 3307
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:00 pm
Location: Essex, England

Post by andyb » Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:04 am

There are too many businesses that still use old software and hardware with little reason to change
MS 64-bit OS's run all 32-bit software just fine (bar antivirus and firewall software), they however dont run 16-bit software at all. I doubt that there are many businesses that still use 16-bit software, but no doubt that will cause those companies serious grief.


Andy
Last edited by andyb on Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

AZBrandon
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 867
Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2004 5:47 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Post by AZBrandon » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:46 am

The Intel N and Z series Atom models cannot run x86-64 code. Hence, if Microsoft wants to continue to compete on nettops, they need to continue to sell a 32-bit operating system. We saw how ferocious Microsoft is when they pulled a 180 on the discontinuation of Windows XP as soon as they saw linux find potential as the dominant OS for nettops. XP crushed that, and not surprisingly, Win7 32-bit is much more lightweight than Vista, in order to run on the new generation nettops, again, forcing linux to the fringe. Atom is the biggest reason they are still pushing Windows 7 32-bit.

RBBOT
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 9:02 am

Post by RBBOT » Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:22 am

64-Bit OS can run 16-Bit software by running a 32-Bit OS in a virtual machine. Windows 7 XP mode is effectively doing this in a user friendly manner.
I suspect you wanted to type 32-bit.
Oops. Corrected above.

smilingcrow
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1809
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 1:45 am
Location: At Home

Post by smilingcrow » Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:07 am

AZBrandon wrote:The Intel N and Z series Atom models cannot run x86-64 code. Hence, if Microsoft wants to continue to compete on nettops, they need to continue to sell a 32-bit operating system. We saw how ferocious Microsoft is when they pulled a 180 on the discontinuation of Windows XP as soon as they saw linux find potential as the dominant OS for nettops. XP crushed that, and not surprisingly, Win7 32-bit is much more lightweight than Vista, in order to run on the new generation nettops, again, forcing linux to the fringe. Atom is the biggest reason they are still pushing Windows 7 32-bit.
Any news on whether the next generation of Atom for Netbooks will support x64? I figure they didn't include it mainly for market segmentation issues and with them limiting the RAM to 2GB x64 seemed pointless. I'm not sure that many people with a cheap Netbook lacking a DVD drive will be in the market to upgrade to Windows 9 in 3 or 4 years time anyway.

ilovejedd
Posts: 676
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:14 pm
Location: in the depths of hell

Post by ilovejedd » Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:15 pm

AZBrandon wrote:The Intel N and Z series Atom models cannot run x86-64 code. Hence, if Microsoft wants to continue to compete on nettops, they need to continue to sell a 32-bit operating system.
As far as I'm aware, the Atom 230 and 330 processors targetted for nettops support 64-bit. I'm actually running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate on a couple of Intel D945GCLF2 and Zotac IONITX builds. I'm guessing you meant to say netbook instead of nettop.

andyb
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 3307
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:00 pm
Location: Essex, England

Post by andyb » Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:57 pm

When someone recently sated that Atom CPU's supported AMD64 instructions I assumed foolishly that they all did, but it is now not a surprise that MS have released a 32-bit W7 OS.

So it seems that only the netTOP versions (230 and 330) of the CPU's are 64-bit, but the netBOOK N and Z versions are 32-bit only.


Andy

Abbala215
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 12:36 am
Location: Canada

Post by Abbala215 » Mon Dec 07, 2009 12:38 am

Thanks for taking the time to help, I really apprciate it.

Post Reply