Vista - Vista 64bit questions

Hi all,

Thinking about jumping to Vista 64 bit as ive just upgraded to the new i7 intel stuff after years of having a rubbish PC and the new PC has 6gig of memory which I believe requires a 64bit os?

Currently on 32bit XP

Read a bit about software issues and stuff not working, can anyone tell me if there are probs with the following:

Adobe CS3 / will be upgrading to CS4 (master collection)
Office 07
Nero 6 (can upgrade if needs be) / img burn
Cute FTP 8 professional
The usual multimedia apps, winamp, itunes etc

Pondering XP 64bit but got told this has issues. Is this the case with the above?

Any advice is much appreciated

Thanks,
Ash

I'd choose Vista 64 for the amount of memory you're using.

You'd be waisting your time on a 32bit OS as it's limited to only 4gig of memory. And when I say only 4gig, I mean 4gig which includes the memory your video card uses.

Example: a 512meg video card + 4gig of RAM = 3.5gig system memory + 512 = your total memory of 4gig.

In short, you'd be waisting about 2.5gig or RAM!

As for software, you'd be well advisted to do some research on the programs to see if they offer 64bit support.

I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 and can vouce for Office 2007. It runs as advatised.

As to Adobe CS3, I've heard mixed reviews. Do some research as I guess it depends on what you're trying to do or use. Be aware that Flash does not work under 64 (yet).

I can say that i'm still using Photoshop CS2, and it works for me for the most part, though I mainly do photo editing. Adobe Bridge sometimes acts funny.

You might be interested to know Adobe just released CS4 which is 64bit comapatable, (still no word on Flash though).

As for Vista 64, most people run into problems by using old software or hardware that may never see the light of day for 64bit support or isn't supported by Vista at all.

I would suggest to anyone that if you go with Vista, make sure you have fairly new hardware software and hardware.

Since you're going to an i7 system, it's a fairly safe bet that your hardware is good, so you'll just have to worry about your software.

Hope this helps.

64-bit isn't going to go away. The industry isn't going to suddenly decide to stay at 3.x GB forever. If you move to 64-bit now, you get the benefits now. You get to use all your RAM, and you get to run 64-bit apps that can use that RAM. You get to use the capabilities your processor provides.

As far as compatibility, anything current that doesn't work with 64-bit Vista today, I can't recommend using regardless. It indicates stubbornness and amateurness on the behalf of the developer. There's no reason why common and popular apps would not run on 64-bit Vista.

I would recommend visiting the sites of the makers of software you use and seeing what they say. I do know Office works fine in Vista x64.

XP64 is nice but it's not really sold anymore by MS and will basically be supported off Server 2003 updates (since XP64 uses the Server 2003 kernel). I have a hard time recommending it, as Vista x64 should run comfortably on pretty much any 64-bit system.

64bit and x64 - Home is an excellent source for info about what software runs on, and is available for, 64 bit platforms.

well out of 100's of software, utilities & games, 1 program didnt work & its an old 95 game that ive got working now.

Vista for me is working a lot better for some older games tho, like tomb raider 2, which used to freeze on xp - dont on vista.

I've been using CS3 on Vista x64 for over a year now without problems. I imagine CS4 should do just fine also. Office 2007 also works well. As does just about everything else I've run on it including various programs, games, utilities, etc.

The only programs that I ran into troubles with were (in order of annoyance):
-Palm Treo sync didn't have 64-bit USB drivers. So I had to sync via bluetooth as a workaround. I eventually got a Blackberry instead.
-Quicktime doesn't work on 64-bit systems. This doesn't affect me daily like the treo did, but lots of videos off of cameras are in QT format, so editing them is a huge workaround.
-Juice. Podcatching software didn't work in Vista x64. There are dozens of others.

These programs may have 64bit versions available now, I haven't bothered to look anymore. Everything else I use worked just fine.

EDIT: To address your specific programs, CS3, Office 2007, Nero 8 all work fine. I use Filezilla for FTP, Mediamonkey for audio. I don't use itunes.

You can check your program's compatibility here Windows Vista Compatibility Center. I can confirm that Office 2007 works. Winamp also works.