My system has 64 bit capabilities (except for the ram which I'd be willing to upgrade) but I'm running in Vista Home Premium 32 bit. I've run many games on it and many, in fact most, run flawlessly. 32 bit itself is working out but for the purpose of getting the most out of my system, I am considering upgrading to Vista Home Premium 64 bit. Would this inhibit any of my 32 bit games? Can 64 bit emulate 32 bit drivers well? Should I just stick with my 32 bit Vista for my 64 bit apps?

It all depends on the games you play? Since SP1, most games run just fine; however, every now and then you'll find one that just doesn't get along with 64-bit Vista and you have to jump through a hoop or two to get it to run. Rarely though does a game "just not work".

I will say that 64-bit Vista blew me away as far as gaming goes. Doing a direct comparison with Vista 64-bit, Vista 32-bit and XP SP2, 64-bit ran everything so smoothly it made it seem as if I had a newer graphics card. Of course, 4GB's of RAM helps a lot, but still, modern games just spank.

You will have to reinstall from scratch. Some games are 64-bit. Most are still 32-bit. No 16-bit programs in 64-bit.

I was signing-up to ask the same question. I have recently bought a new system (Intel Q9550, 4 gigs ram, GeForce 9600GT 1Gb RAM, plus usual bits) and I've put XP (32bit) on and it's ok, but I was questioning the merits of Vista and infact 64bit Vista. I had a quick play with Vista on my partner's laptop and it seems smooth, I liked it actually.

From what I've read here and other places, it seems that most software will run fine on 64bit, where most problems encountered are likely older software, which I have no intentions of using.

It's good to see that CoD 4 works because I've ordered it (and BF2142).

I play BF2, 2142, and COD4 in Vista x64 Ultimate. They can quit for no reason when playing. no error messages or events.

Originally Posted by SCSIraidGURU

I play BF2, 2142, and COD4 in Vista x64 Ultimate. They can quit for no reason when playing. no error messages or events.

I've heard that same complaint from a lot of guys. So far, to a man, they've all shared one thing in common: a series of MS patches prior to SP1.

I did a clean install of Vista and immediately patched to SP1, avoiding all the incrementals and have not had any crashes or stoppage of play in any of these games. I go for hours on end with each just fine.

I recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate x64, but I'm having problems getting my nVidia drivers going.

When I installed the new drivers, after the system restart, I either a) lock up on restart, or b) my monitors aren't recognized, and they both sit in standby mode.

Everything worked great in XP, I'd hate to have to roll back to this version

Edit: I've been told to completely uninstall my drivers, and restart the system so Windows Update will find its own version of the drivers. Anyone else agree with this?