64 Bit CPUS and PC Gaming

[mjcooke]

Hey, my first post on here. Im looking for a few answers.

Recently ive been thinking about buying a new system, and ive found a few fairly decent ones that have 64 bit processors.

Ive been wondering how do 64 Bit processors affect gaming? Do games and programs work for 32bit or 64bit. Or do they have to been designed for the certain type or patched?

For example the games i play at the moment are

Counter Strike:Source
Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
World of Warcraft

I realy wanted to know how a 64bit processor might impact on my gaming?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks.

 

[Kraynor]

Since, according to strangestranger's sig he knows nothing, I'll back up his point (just kidding btw strangestranger ^^)

I'm running a Q6600 (64-bit processor) and have used Windows 98, XP Professional, and am now running Vista Ultimate 64-bit. Apart from 98 (cause it's old) they all run CS:S, CnC3, and WoW, since I play all of those anyway. The only advantage that you could gain from a 64-bit processor is if you have 4+ GB of RAM, and the game can take advantage of that. Even if it can't, it'd have a huge chunk of RAM it could take use of that'd be seperate to everything else. Win-win if you ask me

 

[purplerat]

I realy wanted to know how a 64bit processor might impact on my gaming?

Currently the biggest advantage of 64bit processing in gaming is the ability to have 4GB+ of RAM.

 

[mjcooke]

Thank you all, you have been more than helpfull and have put to rest all my qualms.

Once again my sincerest thanks to the three of you.

 

[MarkG]

Currently the biggest advantage of 64bit processing in gaming is the ability to have 4GB+ of RAM.

That and the fact that the CPU has twice as many registers, if the code is compiled for 64-bit. I remember the UT guys saying that alone gave them a 10-20% speedup when the first Athlon64s came out.

 

[blacksci]

64 bit has the potential to handle 128 gigs of ram as of now, 64 bit cpus are backwards compatible. I would suggest reading up on what gamers are saying about 64 bit though before i choose it as a gaming platform, as many people are complaining about even more lack of driver support compared to vista 32 bit, and issues with hardware also. Not knocking the 64 bit system, we will all be using it someday, its just that you should read up on what you may be getting yourself into right now if you go that way.

 

[nachowarrior]

Well, that and there are games that "take advantage" of 64bit procs... I'm not too keen on the subject, but you must be running a 64 bit os, and the game must be 64 bit compatible. The only one I know of off the top of my head that does this is Crysis. right? So they run natively in 64 bit instead of on "windows on windows 64" or "wow64" which is kind of like a virtual machine from what little I know about emulation and virtual machines. But supposedly there isn't a big issue with 32 bit games running on this in windows. I know more about 64bit vs. 32bit in linux... but then again, that's not what you'll be playing most new games on.

 

[kevmac]

I believe all the game that contain a "Games for Windows" logo on the package must be compatible with 64-Bit OS. I don't know whether or not that specifies natively or emulated, i.e. wow64.

 

[vic20]

Virtually all new CPUs are 32bit with extensions to run 64 bit code.

When AMD64 CPUs came out, they were faster for gaming than P4 or AMD XP, but not because they were 64 bit. That was purely coincidental. They were faster because the architecure was superior to the years older designs. So at 32bit code, they were faster and they also had the ability to run 64bit code. Made things confusing, but was great marketing.

Very few games have a 64bit version, so its been said, the only thing 64bit support gives you is the ability to have more than 4gig (or more than 3.25 useable in XPs case) of RAM. But you would need an OS capable of using mre than 4gig. But the problem with this is the OS and apps will use more RAM using 64bit long code lol. So to see an advantage you need 8GB and Vista 64.

Of course most apps are written to only address 2-3GB of RAM, so unless you are using several large 32bit apps concurrantly, (which typically you don't with gaming) or a 64bit app you are wasting your time.

Long story short......

Buy yourself the fastest Core 2 (not because its 64bit, just because its the fastest CPU in general) you can afford, run 3GB RAM, XP and a good video card and you'll be happy gaming for now

 

[JeanLuc]

As far as I know Far Cry and Crysis are the only games that take advantage of 64 bit. I remember seeing a before and after screen shot of Far cry after the 64 bit patch was released, the main difference was under 64 bit the draw distance was improved.

 

[darthvaderkenneth]

if u buy 4gb, 1gb will be wasted if ur using 32-bit OS but u should get 4gb anyway cuz u can use dual-channel memory

 

[San Pedro]

There is also a 64-bit version of Half Life 2, and Hale Life 2: Lost Coast (only a tech demo).

 

[crom]

Tweak the paging file in XP so you can run 4 gigs. Games run better in XP in 32 bit than they do in Vista 32 or 64. A lot of it has to do with the fact that most games aren't optimized for 64 bit code and the fact that Vista is so inefficient compared to XP that everything runs slower in that OS.

 

[tallguy1618]

CnC 3 doesn't work that well in 64-bit. Took a whole lot of patches and workarounds and all that mess to get it to work. It's not a Games for Windows game, so was not inted for 64-bit normally.

 

[xsamitt]

Crom ...great idea.

Ill go 32 bit for my next build.After reading all this ...it only seems to make the most sence.
Neither option is perfect but 32 is the most reasonable.

 

[tallguy1618]

Crom ...great idea.

Ill go 32 bit for my next build.After reading all this ...it only seems to make the most sence.
Neither option is perfect but 32 is the most reasonable.

No get 64-bit it is still better. withen a year it will be required, so ure better off getting it now. just make sure to buy at least 6 gigs RAM. 4 gigs in 64-bit is the same as 2 gigs in 32-bit performance wise. anything above 4 gigs is where u will start to see an improvement.

 

[blacksci]

Uhh tall, whatever your smoking can u share with us please? There is no way microsoft is going to disavow well over half the market, and make them upgrade to a 64 bit platform, that not only cant handle gaming as it is now, but whos support is even worse then vista 32 bit. I dunno what article you read, but you may want to go take a second look at it, and question the authors crediblity if they are truly saying this.

 

[MarkG]

There is no way microsoft is going to disavow well over half the market, and make them upgrade to a 64 bit platform

How many PCs have been sold in the last few years which _can't_ run 64-bit code?

I'd agree that game companies won't be selling 64-bit only games for a few years, unless the next version of Windows is 64-bit only (as it should be), but if Microsoft had any sense they'd have done as they originally said they would and made Vista 64-bit only to jump-start the transition. Of course they'd also have had to make Vista not suck so people would have had an incentive to upgrade.

 

[wingless]

I have an Opteron 185, Windows XP Pro x64, and several 64-bit games. Half Life 2, Unreal 3 powered games, Crysis, Far Cry, STALKER, and a few others benefit from running 64-bit code. Theres a bit of a speedup in fps and loads. Also detail can be turned up without impacting performance as much. Unfortunately 64-bit hasn't caught on as well as some of us would have liked, but Intel's Nehalem may change all that. 64-bit and multithreaded software will hopefully become more abundant to take advantage of Nehalem's 4 cores and Simultaneous Hyper Threading. Intel, AMD and Microsoft are all pushing for more support of these technologies so going 64-bit will probably benefit you sooner than later. As of now though, theres not too many other games other than the ones I've listed that support 64bit.

 

[blacksci]

I agree with ya MarkG, they should have made vista not suck so bad, as far as computers sold that cant run 64 bit, well i dont have a clue, but i do know that quiet a few have sold in the last few years that cant even run 32 bit vista if thats any consolation..lol.

 

[muaaz17]

That and the fact that the CPU has twice as many registers, if the code is compiled for 64-bit. I remember the UT guys saying that alone gave them a 10-20% speedup when the first Athlon64s came out.

Bro, i have this 64bit processor + 32bit on my laptop .. whenever i play games it get stuck for no reason.
my configuration is good too.. like 4gb ram,1gb ATI graphic card 700 gb harddisk & i don't know where the problem persist ... DOes this stucking part has any relation with JAva ??