FSX and Windows 7 32 or 64 bits?

[Emmer]

Hey guys,

I am planning buying some new RAM , 4 Gigs and a 64 bits Windows 7 OS.
Does it matter if FSX is running with a 64 bits OS or 32?
Do i gain more out of a 64 bits OS with say 4 G of RAM?

What are your opinions?

[DarrenL]

Win7 64 bit will make use of more ram if you go above 4GB later.

I run Win 7 64bit with FSX, 4GB of ram still but if I upgrade to 6GB I don't have to do anything except plug it in.

[DaveB]

That's about the long and short of it. A 32-bit OS will only ever see 3gb of ram (and I guess this applies to Win7 32 too). A 64-bit OS will see much more but you run the risk of compatibility problems with older programs.. you will see this with Win7 and older progs anyway so as the gap widens.. your choice should become easier

ATB

DaveB

[DanKH]

Win 7 is pretty "large" when it comes to compatability actually.

I run both FS9 and FSX on a 64bit WIN7 and 8 GB RAM

Both FS9 and FSX are of course 32bit programs, so in that sense alone you wouldn't gain a whole lot in running 64 bit.

But 64 bit becoming more and more common there's really no issue NOT to go 64 bit if you can live with the very seldom situations where a very old program won't run ..... but as I said this is very seldom ....

[Emmer]

Right.

Well, am sticking for now to the 32 bits version.
It runs pretty well i must say.
Anyways , thank you all for the advices.....

I'll just wait it out;maybe in the future i'll switch to the x64 version.

Thanks again.

[DarrenL]

I have run Windows 7 64bit for a year and never had a compatibility problem, it uses two Program Files folders, one for specific 64bit applications and games and another for 32bit. That is set up by Windows, everything works. If something won't work I bet it won't work for win7 32 either.

And they are both better than Vista.

[J0hn]

I hear a lot of "it doesn't matter anyway, because FSX won't use more than 2GB" from people on forums around the net, but the point is that you are never running just FSX - there is always a lot going on in the background, too, and the extra RAM that a 64bit system can use makes it a good choice. Not to mention things like TrackIR, SST or any other profiling stuff, security progs and so on.
Also, as long as your progs don't specifically use it, you can ditch the paging file for faster data access (use with care).

There were quite a few non-compats to 64bit in the past, but most of them now have either 64bit versions or workarounds.

I used 64bit Vista and now have 64bit Win7. My framerates in FSX trebled when I switched from the 'old' to the new. I completely ignore the Program Files(*86) folder, unless I specifically want something in there so that Windows will 'keep an eye' on it
That said, the first thing I do with either OS is ditch UAC.

Also, don't forget that the memory on your graphics card and any RAM-fitted sound or physics cards you may have, will count towards the 3.2GB that 32bit systems max out at.

The best way is this - you get both 32 and 64bit systems on the disc, when you buy Windows 7. You also get 30 days trial before you have to activate - and that is mainly handy so you can try them out - so why not do that?

My tuppence

JD

[petermcleland]

Bear in mind that some of the more complex payware aircraft will not run on 64 bit and some like Dreamfleet will not be converted so you lose them.

[emfrat]

Hi All -
in relation to this, a while back I bought Win7 Home Premium 64-bit. I did not go for the higher level more expensive ones, because they seemed to be aimed at the corporate end of the market, and I couldn't see why they would offer any advantage in running either FSX or FS9.1, on a dedicated flightsim machine.
Does anyone know if that was the right call, or can advise?
I don't like to see newbies forking out lots of extra cash for "super-duper" or "ultra-better" versions which are actually not going to do anything better in terms of just running FS, or even general gaming.

TIA
MikeW

[DarrenL]

Home is fine, the Ultra , Enterprise and Professional ones are business based really.



Ps here are memory limits for all.

Windows 7 Ultimate Limit in 32-bit Windows - 4 GB - Limit in 64-bit Windows 192 GB
Windows 7 Enterprise Limit in 32-bit Windows - 4 GB - Limit in 64-bit Windows 192 GB
Windows 7 Professional Limit in 32-bit Windows - 4 GB - Limit in 64-bit Windows 192 GB
Windows 7 Home Premium Limit in 32-bit Windows - 4 GB - Limit in 64-bit Windows 16 GB
Windows 7 Home Basic Limit in 32-bit Windows - 4 GB - Limit in 64-bit Windows 8 GB
Windows 7 Starter Limit in 32-bit Windows - 2 GB - 64 bit - N/A