xp64 pro test

[liljim]

I decided to download Microsoft's trial version of Windows Pro X64 just to see what compatability and performance issues i would face. Its been pretty interesting thus far.

The installation was no different as expected, all went smooth in a decent amount of time other than booting. I say that simply because the first few reboots took a good 3 minutes each. During the install, i noticed something on the install screen that i wasnt aware of. As its installing and im reading all how Microsoft is safe and secure, blah, blah, blah, it says that X64 has a built in emulator that enables most 32 bit apps to run in a 64 bit enviroment. What! Holy Crap! I had no idea!

Once i got my desktop up, i started installing drivers. This machine has an Nvidia chipset, graphic card and Creative X-Fi sound card, all of which had X64 drivers available. Once all drivers were installed, boot times were slightly faster than 32 bit XP.

So now i have a shiny new desktop and wondering what to do with it. The first thing i did was check to see if all my memory was finally being seen.

There it was, all 4 gigs



With the 32 bit emulator in mind, i decided to try a 3D Mark 06 install. The installation was smooth as silk and took much less time to install and load than ever before. The last time i ran this on this machine, with 32 bit XP, i scored a 4150, all hardware is the same.

on X64


Thats a substantial increase for nothing more than an OS change. The load times between test was only 2-3 seconds where it was 8-10 before.

The next thing i done was installed Crysis. I have major performance issues with it on XP32, everything is set to low with exception of texture quality being medium. The game is completely unplayable with everything set to medium. Im running 1024 X 768 res and i get some lag when turning around real fast or lots of on screen activity. This is where i was hoping to see real performance increases and i wasnt let down. I can now run Crysis at the same res with everything on high and only experience lag when theres alot of enemies shooting. With everything set to medium, i can run 1280X1024 with no lag at all. Its a much more impressive game when you can see the detail involved.

Overall, im more than impressed with X64. The above is pretty much everything i've done with it so far as i've just installed it roughly 2 hours prior to this post. My next steps are antivirus and other 3rd party apps. I will post as i go just to have for reference if nothing else. If everything continues to run this well, i just may consider a permanent upgrade.

[venney]

i am intrested in this liljim, im quiet impressred with your finds
im waiting your next post

[Axelation]

I think it is mostly due to the increase in ram. When I was testing with 3dmark, there was a 200 point difference in the score just by stopping a few un-needed processes thereby freeing up some RAM. That was 200 points for freeing up maybe 50-100 Mb. By going to the 64bit, your machine sees a whole 1gb more of memory. That would explain the substancial increase in your test scores and performance in 3dmark.

[liljim]

I agree, i think alot of it is the ram. My goal now is to see if i can create the same software enviroment i have in XP without problems. If i can do so i do see myself converting all together just for the memory expansion. If X64 can see 16 gigs of ram then this opens a pretty big door for performance that 32 cant. I have another 2 gigs of ram around but its all 1 gb sticks and im out of slots. Im going to have to buy at least 1 2gb stick to further determine just how much of a performance gain is attained per gig. Aww hell, i can just pull a gig and get the same answer. I'll do that and post the results soon.




So far the only thing i've done to X64 is installed Antivir PE and updated it successfully.