Xp x86 or x64?

Well the last full release of the Creative drivers fixed that dreaded 4 gb memory issue since I am using it right now without any problems :)

Also there is a beta driver at the moment that came out on June 2nd and it looks like it will be a release worth looking out for. Othe than that I agree with your post absolutely.
 
Personally, I find XP x64 to be as usable as regular XP. Sure there is some hardware out there that doesn't work because the drivers didn't get made, but I don't have any. That it's based on Windows 2003 is interesting and carries a few advantages. The big players keep their drivers as up to date for it as anything else. Games seem to work as well as they do in XP 32 and Vista. You lose virtual address space issues and 4GB RAM quirks. You don't have to deal with Vista's various extra demands on your system and general weightiness. It's just a clean, quick OS, IMO.

I agree completely, and I was never quite sure why it got a bit of a bad rep in the first place. It's compatible with all of my hardware, has obvious advantages over 32-bit, and you get hardly any of the Vista nagging and interface clutter. I like XP x64.
 
Well the last full release of the Creative drivers fixed that dreaded 4 gb memory issue since I am using it right now without any problems :)

Also there is a beta driver at the moment that came out on June 2nd and it looks like it will be a release worth looking out for. Othe than that I agree with your post absolutely.
Audigy or X-Fi and which driver pack? I gave my Audigy 2 ZS a go on the system and can't get any audio out of it at all with the beta drivers. Everything appears to be working, but there is no sound coming out and Everest reports no hardware channels at all. The other driver pack is the one from '06 and gave me the 4GB + XP x64 problems in the past.
 
Sorry my bad for not being clear. Its for the X-Fi. It took care of all the issues I was facing.

And I also agree on your evaluation of XP x64. I am surprised more people dont use that OS.
 
Part of the reason is most of those items tested used either a 32bit executable and/or a 32bit OS. If you're using a 32bit executable, there is no way for most single application to use more than 2 Gigs. Using the 3G switch will allow more space allocated to a single application, however it needs to be large address aware. Very few 32bit apps are.

On my 8Gig Vista64 box, with typical lite usage apps running (trillian, mirc, firefox, sidebar gadgets, media player classic home cinema) memory is sitting slightly over 33% used. That's 2.75 Gigs in use.
 
I like to think there is a system cache benefit when you have gobs of free RAM. Certainly the case with Vista, but I think XP still does use it.
 
As you can see vista uses 326mb more when it has an extra 2gb to play with

Yes, but what does it use it for? I look at 'top' on my 2GB Linux box when it's sitting idle, it says 2GB used. On my 4GB box it says 4GB used. On my 16GB box it says 16GB used.
 
I rest my case

Since there's no link to tell me where this data came from (other than ImageShack, which obviously isn't the true source) then I have to assume that whoever did this test also had the foresight to run all of the 4GB tests on a 64-bit operating system. I also have to assume that they are showing memory usage for the game's process and not the entire operating system...

Because if not, they're pretty much useless.
 
That study wasn't even done using the final build of Vista, let alone Service Pack 1.
 
I'm saying it's quite possible the benefits are understated or overstated as there were several patches done between RC2 and SP1 in the area of memory management especially with respect to gaming.
 
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