10 replies to this topic

[viking16]

Hey all this is my first time with a 64bit system. And I got some questions. I found out 32bit drivers don't work on a 64bit system I think. Am I right? And right now it's saying it wants 2gig's of ram for a 64bit system. Is that right? Any help on this would be great. I am learning so many new things with 64bit. Fun times.

[Sambo]

Speaking only of the beta W7 on my test machine...

The 32 bit drivers mostly don't work and fortunately W7 has some very good native 64 bit drivers if you let it discover your devices on install. Everything I have, scanner, printers, print buffers, NAS, video interface (A to D)card and video & sound card - all had good 64 bit drivers built into W7. The exception was the nVidia graphics card. The manufacturer had a better 64 bit version, but the W7 64 bit still worked. I won't be sure if my main machine has this few problems with drivers until December when I do the upgrade.

I have 2 gig on my XP main machine. I'll be adding an additional 4 gig after the upgrade. I have been told by our vast IT staff at work that a fresh install of W7 is best with 2 gig, and then add more memory. Apparently there are some issues they encountered on both laptops and desktops starting off with 4 gig or greater. I'll be taking their advice. Doesn't it just make sense to have 2 gigs or greater these days?

[viking16]

Sambo I am from the old school where 2gig's was fine heck I still have my commodore 64 NO VIRUS WOO HOO. Hence it doesn't know an internet is.

[Sambo]

Sambo I am from the old school where 2gig's was fine heck I still have my commodore 64 NO VIRUS WOO HOO. Hence it doesn't know an internet is.

I was on the internet all the time with my C64 and trusty old 300 baud modem. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I upgraded to a 1200 baud. Of course there wasn't a world wide web back then but there was most certainly an internet.

As for 2GB... When I run Photoshop and assorted graphic support software and my photos open, I can already bang my head on 2GB and rely on paging to the hard drive. You also have to factor in the approx Half GB of stuff that runs in the background anyway. It is quite easy to use up 2GB. It will be harder with 6GB.

[viking16]

Ohh shoot I didn't know it could go online. Shoot. well then I know what i buying next more ram.

[marinersfan59]

I'm running the 64bit version of 7 and as Sam said, the driver support is actually very good. The only one I really had to go out of the way for was my RadeonHD 4890 vid card. Also my printer isn't supported (as of now), but I need a new one anyway.

As for the RAM, I have 2x2GB of DDR3-1666 and it's excellent. I'd definitely recommend more than 2 GB.

[viking16]

MY motherboard doesn't support ddr3 only ddr2 no biggie the biggest thing I play is warcraft and RCT3 so don't really need DDR3 and photoshop just confuses me. The most powerful thing in this rig is my vid card (1 gig) and my pent 4. But okay thanks you 2.

[rcthelp]

As for 2GB... When I run Photoshop and assorted graphic support software and my photos open, I can already bang my head on 2GB and rely on paging to the hard drive. You also have to factor in the approx Half GB of stuff that runs in the background anyway. It is quite easy to use up 2GB. It will be harder with 6GB.

When I started working IT, 16 of us were simultaneously coding and testing on a machine that had 64MB ( = 3.125% of 2GB ). It was slow and affecting productivity. When we asked the computer systems manager for a quote for another 64MB it was over £16,000 (or 4 times our average annual salary). So instead of buying the memory, they put us on 2 shifts of 8 people, and gave us an extra 20% salary! We were happy. , so were the company (do the maths!).

[marinersfan59]

64 MB? I would be going crazy. On my test server I run Red Hat with 256MB SDRAM (2x128's) and get frustrated - and there's only one of me. I don't know what I'd do with only 4/8 MB at my disposal (other than wait 10 minutes to find out that 10 + 10 = 100 ).

[viking16]

Wow thanks guys