The PC (Personal Computer) is a highly configurable and upgradable gaming platform that, among home systems, sports the widest variety of control methods, largest library of games, and cutting edge graphics and sound capabilities.
so last night i did something stupid. bought windows 7 home 32 bit and not 64! my question is. how damning is this? did i just fuck my self if want to do high end gaming? also which would be easier sending the damn thing back and waiting 2 weeks for the 64 bit version or updating?
so last night i did something stupid. bought windows 7 home 32 bit and not 64! my question is. how damning is this? did i just fuck my self if want to do high end gaming? also which would be easier sending the damn thing back and waiting 2 weeks for the 64 bit version or updating?
64-bit support will only grow. You waited this long for Windows 7, another two weeks won't kill you.
I don't think there are many games that utilize 4+ GB of RAM (maybe a couple, like Dirt 3 or Starcraft 2, i'm not sure)... even Battlefield 3 doesn't require 64 bit. Probably because of the fucking console versions keeping the game tied down. So you're in the clear for the next 2-3 years I think.
When you buy Win8 in a few years, make sure to get the 64 bit version. Or, since you paid for your copy, you can get the 64 bit version of same product from a fileshare website
How much memory (both RAM and GPU memory) do you have in your machine, if its over 3.6GB I'd send it back and grab someone elses install dvd, you can run Windows unactivated for up to one month.
I thought buying Windows 7 would include both versions. They did that for me at least, but to answer your question: You will be prevented to use more than 3198MB of RAM, which may suck if you have like 6000MB or something. Other than that, you can still use DirectX 11 and get most of your GPU. I'm not sure about the CPU though.
If you have 4GB or above of RAM then you will be able to fully utilize them under a 64-Bit OS. With 32-Bit, allocation is different,and you will only be able to utilizes 3GB.
My current system has only 4GB of RAM and most games that I have tried average's a usage between 500MB- 1GB. Windows 7 alone takes around 1.1GB to 1.5GB on average.
@Jackel2072: Updating (to Win7 64) would just cost you more in the long run unless you mean Windows 8 when it supposedly comes out next year. You're CPU is most likely 64 bit unless your rig is as old as dirt. (maybe something besides Crysis 1 will utilize 64-bit someday!) ; ) I'd get rid of it due to the memory (RAM) limits alone... I've got 8 gigs of RAM and 24% of it is taken up just to run Windows 7 and whatever startup programs I have running (which isn't much).
I say return it. You don't have to but I would if you plan on upgrading RAM. Like some1 else stated, you've waited this long, another week or two won't kill ya.
32 bit utilitizes a total of 4gb including RAM on the video card. Get the 64bit version. Next day ship if you really are desperate. Otherwise download a version of it and you should be able to use it as a trial for a few days, use key from your copy when it comes in.
ok thank you guys. i figured thats what i had to end up doing. il just send it back to new egg and then go to best buy or something and grab the 64 bit.
I thought it was 3.75GB of RAM used by an x86 build of Windows?
isn't it 2.75 ? hmm.
My Dxdiag log says 3198MB out of 4096MB. It could be possible it all depends on the system itself, the motherboard and how much RAM. But i think we all can agree that 32bit wont go up to 4Gb, and definitely not up to 6 or 8Gb.
ok thank you guys. i figured thats what i had to end up doing. il just send it back to new egg and then go to best buy or something and grab the 64 bit.
Best Buy to my knowledge only sells retail copies. It's going to cost a lot more than a OEM version. Just order from NewEgg an OEM 64bit and next or 2 day it. Then when the 32 bit comes in return it, they may charge you a restocking fee however. However if the order hasn't been shipped yet, cancel it or contact them. NewEgg is great and will help you out. Say you made a mistake and ordered the wrong version, they will swap it for you. Don't wait til it comes.
ok thank you guys. i figured thats what i had to end up doing. il just send it back to new egg and then go to best buy or something and grab the 64 bit.
Best Buy to my knowledge only sells retail copies. It's going to cost a lot more than a OEM version. Just order from NewEgg an OEM 64bit and next or 2 day it. Then when the 32 bit comes in return it, they may charge you a restocking fee however. However if the order hasn't been shipped yet, cancel it or contact them. NewEgg is great and will help you out. Say you made a mistake and ordered the wrong version, they will swap it for you. Don't wait til it comes.
ok thank you guys. i figured thats what i had to end up doing. il just send it back to new egg and then go to best buy or something and grab the 64 bit.
Best Buy to my knowledge only sells retail copies. It's going to cost a lot more than a OEM version. Just order from NewEgg an OEM 64bit and next or 2 day it. Then when the 32 bit comes in return it, they may charge you a restocking fee however. However if the order hasn't been shipped yet, cancel it or contact them. NewEgg is great and will help you out. Say you made a mistake and ordered the wrong version, they will swap it for you. Don't wait til it comes.
I've got a question myself. Since my dad's computer has 3.5 GB of RAM, would it be a good idea to upgrade it to 64 bit? I plan on doing it in the future when I upgrade it to 8 GB, but I was wondering if I should just upgrade his OS sooner and get it out of the way.
@Kandycane2029: Will you only upgrade his RAM, or will you add new layers to his current PC (RAM and something else?) I think it all depends on when you will upgrade it since Windows 8 should be released... i believe early next year? And then it's a great time to go 64bit. And 3.5 GB RAM? You will not see much of a difference between 64 and 32bit then.
isnt it 2 GB? , or was it 2.19 GB , hmm , maybe 3.97 GB?
lol you guys ;)
With 32 bits , you can adress exactly 4 GB , the problem is that this includes everything , not just ram. so if you have a graphics card with 1 GB vram , you're down to 3 GB of usable ram ( 1 + 3 = 4 ) .so the limit varies from machine to machine depending on its loadout
So when my RAM shows me 3198MB, does this mean that the memory on my graphics card is at 802MB? So in theory i could have 4096MB of RAM + 1024MB of video memory with a 64bit OS? Looking at the GPU system memory, it just confuses me even more: total available graphics memory @2366MB, dedicated video memory @1024MB, system video memory @0MB and shared system memory @1342MB.
Nothing on there adds up to a 4000MB Memory.
Yes, i'm pretty much new to this so if you would like to explain to me how this works i would much appreciated it.
@FritzDude: the shared stuff is normal ram that your graphics card could use if it ran out of it s own vram , but thats slow as hell. just ignore that value. if you have 1024 MB of vram , that should leave 3072 MB left for other stuff , like ram.
does it say that all those 3198 MB's are useable? , if you right click on "computer" at the start menu , and then go properties , there should be a row for installed memory , telling you how much you got installed , and beside it , how much is usable.
i agree with MrKorox though , if you can return it , you should.
@Devildoll: The Windows index says 3.12Gb is usuable, and that 4.00Gb is installed. My Dxdiag report says 4096Mb is installed and 3198Mb is usable. So the report should be accurate.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment