Vista 64 for gaming etc

[BWMerlin]

I have been having problems with my three month old system (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250890-30-gigabyte-ep35-raid-problems). The computer shop that I brought it from is blaming on the problems on vista 64 as they had the system running stable with vista 32 in the shop (I really don't know why they weren't running 64 as that is what I brought it installed). Any way the head shop's manager is saying that is vista 64 that is the problem and he want's to prove to me that 64 is the problem.

From what he is telling me it seems that he wants to install vista 32 and give me back the system and say problem is fixed. This will not fly with me, I will be taking nothing less then a brand new system with vista 64 on it. He is insisting that I go 32 and that as a gamer I will experience nothing but problems with 64bit and that as most games aren't 64bit so there is no point so on and so forth.

Has anyone running vista 64 (any version, I was using ultimate) had any problems with games or any thing else that they can pin solely on vista 64.
Will I have worst gaming or programme performance using Vista 64 instead of 32?

At the end of the day I think the shop is trying to take the quick way out instead of giving me the system that I originally order and payed for (a working system with vista 64).

 

[Mem]

Obviously 16 bit games won't run natively in Vista x64 unless you use something like DOSBOX etc...I find gaming in Vista x64 in general to be solid,my last count was 82 games installed from oldies like Planescape Torment to new games like Mass Effect.

One tip I can give you is make sure you have latest DX9.0c version installed in Vista x64,some people forget its for Vista as well as XP,the only other thing I do is disabled real time scan on Windows Defender(I set mine to scan once every week).


DX9.0C download (June 2008).

 

[Scarpozzi]

Good point about DirectX. I'm not sure what version I'm running, but here's my review for my limited games.

I bought my system last Fall with XP Media Center 2005. I installed Vista Ultimate 64 on a separate partition so can easily disable it in the boot loader if I want to in the future.

I installed Battlefield2 and all of the expansion packs. I got errors right away telling me that the software hasn't been tested on Vista....but it plays fine. I occasionally get kicked off a server and the whole application crashes, but that occasionally happens on XP too.

COD4 works great and so does Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

The only issues I had with Vista64 are with my TV card and Logitec Force 3D joystick. Both were driver-related issues. The Vista Developers tend to put all their work into the 32-bit version of Vista and leave the 64-bit folks SOL. This is just because the developers are underfunded by the companies, but more and more people are moving to 64-bit. You'll see a lot more compatibility in new devices you buy.

Logitec finally programmed a compatible driver for my joystick, but my TV card is still really buggy and unusable in Vista (Hauppage is the manufacturer).


Now.....after reading your Tom's Hardware thread, I'm going to tell you what I know about RAID. To back it up, I currently run about 100 RAID Arrays ranging from RAID 0, 1, 5, and 1/0. RAID is simply a disk system at the device level. When you configure hardware RAID (meaning there is a controller involved), the only RAID driver you're going to need for your Operating System is for the controller itself. What this means....

Your 2 Hard drives running RAID 1 show up as a "Device" with the arrays on it. All the RAID magic happens at the device, so after you configure it, it will work by itself no matter WHAT OS you have...unless your firmware is buggy and needs to be upgraded.

Your Filesystem, NTFS will be written to the disk at a low level and initial drivers between NTFS and the RAID controller will be present for your Operating System to use...whatever it is (xp, vista32/64, linux). It's not uncommon to have errors at a low level and never see them because someone would have to program an error handler to report the problem to the OS level, so only the RAID device on the motherboard might have logs pertaining to any errors.

I don't doubt that the computer shop guy has a good recommendation to backrev to Vista 32, but before jumping the gun you should at least attempt to remedy the issue by checking the driver version, go into Device manager and double-check your RAID Driver. When you find it, check the version number. The latest version is 1.17.36.00 From 5/30/08.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=2741

If you're not on that version, try upgrading and see if that fixes the issue. If that numbnuts at the computer shop is telling you to reinstall an OS without looking for a more recent driver first, you can tell him that Scarpozzi thinks he's an idiot.

 

[pontifex]

no problems with vista 64 and games on my system so far. I have STALKER, CoD4, R6V2, Company of Heroes, Crysis, Crazy Machines 2, Trackmania Nations Forever, Assasin's Creed, and some Valve games installed.

Haven't tried the valve games or AC, but all of the others work fine.

 

[badnewcastle]

Valve games are fine... anything I've bought from Steam has worked fine, along with all the others mentioned here. I have not found anything that I cannot get to work.

 

[pontifex]

i think this speaks for itself.

 

[videopho]

No issue here whatsoever!
FSx, FS9, Crysis, COD4, WIC, GoW, SH4, HL2-E2, Stranglehold, to name a few.

 

[Mwing]

No issue here also, WOW, Hellgate London, Bioshock, Warcraft III and Frozen Throne, Counter Strike Source, Far Cry, Need For Speed Underground

Except when installing patch for battle.net, it couldnt be done automatically, I had to go to blizzard website, download and install manually

 

[BWMerlin]

Thanks for all the replies I shall pass my concerns onto the shop when they ring me (they were suppose to on Monday but didn't and by the time I got home the shop was closed today). I am no longer in possession of the computer (I left it at the store when It blue screened in front of me) so I can not check the raid driver version but the technician said the drivers were the latest he could get a hold of (I don't know if that means they are the latest from the website or the driver CD that came with the motherboard). At the time I was using direct x 10 and personally never had any problems (besides the raid) running any applications or doing every day tasks.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: pontifex
no problems with vista 64 and games on my system so far. I have STALKER, CoD4, R6V2, Company of Heroes, Crysis, Crazy Machines 2, Trackmania Nations Forever, Assasin's Creed, and some Valve games installed.

Haven't tried the valve games or AC, but all of the others work fine.

I run most of the same games, also with no problems. Stalker actually runs better under Vista than it did with XPro, at least for me.

 

[BWMerlin]

Update. I called the store today and it seem the guy who was handling my computer has left (this must have occurred over the weekend, needless to say I am not impressed that know one bothered to inform me). The new person who seems to know what has been going on has told me today that it is the graphics card (MSI 8800GT OC) and its drivers for 64 that are causing the problem. Currently it is being tested with a differnt manufactures card (Leadteak I don't know what model) and I will receive a phone call tomorrow.

This has become such a circus, currently the computer will have been at the shop for a month and only know they have identified that it *may* be the graphics card causing the problem. At the moment I am either going to take my money back or get a brand new pc, My mum wants me to take it back when/if they fix it because if I get a new one I could have the same problem, my think it that I should not have had these problems so I want/deserve a fresh start with a new pc (it may be selfish/greedy but I will be able to get a better speced pc for the price I paid for this one).

 

[badnewcastle]

I have not run into any problems with vista 64 or any of the games I play, i.e. Stalker, WoW, CoD 1/2/4, CS 1.6, CS:S, HL, HL2, Crysis, Grid, Dirt, and so many more.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: BWMerlin
Update. I called the store today and it seem the guy who was handling my computer has left (this must have occurred over the weekend, needless to say I am not impressed that know one bothered to inform me). The new person who seems to know what has been going on has told me today that it is the graphics card (MSI 8800GT OC) and its drivers for 64 that are causing the problem. Currently it is being tested with a differnt manufactures card (Leadteak I don't know what model) and I will receive a phone call tomorrow.

This has become such a circus, currently the computer will have been at the shop for a month and only know they have identified that it *may* be the graphics card causing the problem. At the moment I am either going to take my money back or get a brand new pc, My mum wants me to take it back when/if they fix it because if I get a new one I could have the same problem, my think it that I should not have had these problems so I want/deserve a fresh start with a new pc (it may be selfish/greedy but I will be able to get a better speced pc for the price I paid for this one).

I've got that exact video card and don't have *any* driver problems at Vista 64. Sounds more like it's a hardware incompatibility, or a retarded tech