I've been thinking about building a new computer from the ground up. I'm currently trying to decide if I should go with a 64 bit system for the 1st time ever, or stick with the 32 bit. After searching the web, I've found that 64 bits systems will run 32 bit games, such as WoW, but I can't seem to find out if any games are released in 64 bit format. So, are there any games out yet that can actually take advantage of a 64 bit system and all the extra ram and such?

not much yet. but think about it differently:

you will buy 64bit hw, even if you don't want to. there isn't any non64bit hw around anymore (for gaming related systems).

you will buy a windows license of choice. that license is always independent on bitness. so you can run it with 32bit windows, or 64bit windows. doesn't matter, license allows both.

so i'd say, by now, just go 64bit. except if you plan to natively run some really old 16bit games.

Quote: Original post by davepermen
not much yet. but think about it differently:

you will buy 64bit hw, even if you don't want to. there isn't any non64bit hw around anymore (for gaming related systems).

you will buy a windows license of choice. that license is always independent on bitness. so you can run it with 32bit windows, or 64bit windows. doesn't matter, license allows both.

so i'd say, by now, just go 64bit. except if you plan to natively run some really old 16bit games.

Doesn't the both intel and AMDs 64 bit cpus support 16 bit realmode aswell ? (I thought that was pretty much required to stay x86 compatible)

As for the extra RAM, most people don't just run one application so having an OS that can handle more memory than the individual apps doesn't hurt.

As for Windows, the 32/64 bit license part isn't entierly accurate as XP has separate 32/64 bit versions and Vista has separate versions for OEM licenses (You need to buy the retail version to get both 32 and 64 bit) (allthough if the OP is upgrading frequently a retail license will be cheaper in the long run anyway)

Quote: Original post by SimonForsman

Quote: Original post by davepermen
not much yet. but think about it differently:

you will buy 64bit hw, even if you don't want to. there isn't any non64bit hw around anymore (for gaming related systems).

you will buy a windows license of choice. that license is always independent on bitness. so you can run it with 32bit windows, or 64bit windows. doesn't matter, license allows both.

so i'd say, by now, just go 64bit. except if you plan to natively run some really old 16bit games.

Doesn't the both intel and AMDs 64 bit cpus support 16 bit realmode aswell ? (I thought that was pretty much required to stay x86 compatible)

It's not about what the CPU's support, but the OS. If you get Win 7 64 bit, you won't be able to run 16 bit code natively (although you can get support through virtualization, etc).