Vista x64 Usage Explodes

[Geo]

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/07/30/windows-vista-64-bit-today.aspx

There appears to be a shift taking place in the PC industry: the move from 32-bit to 64-bit PCs.

We've been tracking the change by looking at the percentage of 64-bit PCs connecting to Windows Update, and have seen a dramatic increase in recent months. The installed base of 64-bit Windows Vista PCs, as a percentage of all Windows Vista systems, has more than tripled in the U.S. in the last three months, while worldwide adoption has more than doubled during the same period. Another view shows that 20% of new Windows Vista PCs in the U.S. connecting to Windows Update in June were 64-bit PCs, up from just 3% in March. Put more simply, usage of 64-bit Windows Vista is growing much more rapidly than 32-bit. Based on current trends, this growth will accelerate as the retail channel shifts to supplying a rapidly increasing assortment of 64-bit desktops and laptops.

One of the reasons I bought the laptop I did last summer (ThinkPad T61P) was that they shipped x64 Business. . . . I'm also running x64 Ultimate on my desktop for about a year.

It just feels better in a lot of ways. The most obvious if kind of small? Exiting Outlook (I have some really big Outlook files) actually causes Outlook to end reliably. It certainly did not in x86 or XP.

 

[I.S.T.]

Personally, I use Premium x64 due to a few apps I'm using. I only have 2 gigs of ram

 

[Davros]

I think thats down to ram being so cheap

 

[suryad]

I dont use Vista but XP x64. I dont see any reason not to use the x64 version especially if all your drivers are there for all your hardware.

 

[pcchen]

Personally the only reason I might be using Vista would be x64. I'm planning that if I added another 2GB to my computer (to a total 4GB) I'd changed to x64 Vista. Otherwise, there seems to be no good reason to ditch Windows XP right now.

 

[nutball]

Freaky. I just bought Vista 64 yesterday, they must be talking about me. I hadn't considered that a single sale could be worth making such a fuss about

 

[repi]

x64 is a must. Esp. for gaming and other high-end applications. 4gb of RAM is really quite cheap now.

 

[Humus]

Yep, I think a lot of this is driven by memory. If you want to use more than 3GB, and more and more machines have more than that, you're gonna need x64. Hopefully this will start to drive the transition to x64 on the application side too. Although that'll probably take another 5-10 years. If Microsoft would have skipped the Vista 32 then that transition would probably be a lot faster though. Now vendors have a reasonable excuse for sticking to 32bits.

 

[willardjuice]

Pfft, you sheep. I've been using x64 even back when it wasn't in style.

 

[Rebel44]

I switched from XP to Vista HP 64bit in May 2007.

 

[Davros]

cant live without my ms forcefeeback wheel so no vista or xp 64 for me

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Why even bother with a 32-bit version of Vista?

 

[tabs]

I'm installing V64 for my brother, so I think they're talking about... no.. wait.. I don't live in the US. Still, it's most certainly on the rise, and not just with tech-heads.

 

[trinibwoy]

Yeah there's very little reason not to go 64-bit at this point. The CPU guys have been pushing it for years now. The software and drivers are pretty much caught up for the most part. And memory is dirt cheap.

 

[_xxx_]

More than tripled as in "12 PC's total instead of 4"?

Of course it's the new OEM machines, I don't know a single person who bought any sort of Vista at all.

 

[Geo]

More than tripled as in "12 PC's total instead of 4"?

Of course it's the new OEM machines, I don't know a single person who bought any sort of Vista at all.

Actually, it's still kind of hard to find x64 shipped in an OEM machine. One of the main reasons I have this laptop I'm typing on is it was one of the few shipping x64 last summer.

 

[MulciberXP]

...

 

[Thorburn]

More than tripled as in "12 PC's total instead of 4"?

Of course it's the new OEM machines, I don't know a single person who bought any sort of Vista at all.

Holy smoke I must have had most of them before then

Been running Vista x64 since launch - got Ultimate on my desktop (8GB), Business on my ThinkPad T61 (4GB) and Home Premium on my Media Centre (2GB). Personally I've been very happy with it and not had any driver issues at all (bar NVIDIA taking their time over G80 drivers initially).

 

[horvendile]

I don't know a single person who bought any sort of Vista at all.

I did, and I'm counting on doing it again(!).

 

[Albuquerque]

More than tripled as in "12 PC's total instead of 4"?

Of course it's the new OEM machines, I don't know a single person who bought any sort of Vista at all.

I've bought three copies for home use Two of those three are running 64-bit, the third is on an old P4 machine...