Windows XP 64-bit : Worth trading my Pro key for?

[Chad]

Microsoft is offering Windows XP 64-bit to those with a valid copy of XP Pro. Basically they trade you a copy of x64 Windows for your Pro key. I wonder if it's a limited time offer, or if the performance gain is going to be worth it? Do any of you tech-gurus know if my 32-bit apps will be backward compatible? I know that backward compatibility has been a major part of Windows OSes, but I just want to make sure. And what about some features in Pro that I might lose, like dynamic hard drives and the like... I wish it was easier to talk to a MS rep to get these questions answered firsthand, but unfortunately I have to hear everything via the grapevine.

[1BADRIDE]

Where did you come across this news?

I have the x64 Preview, and performance gains are minimal to nil on my colleague's AMD FX-55. I suppose we will have to wait for native 64-bit apps.

[Miracle]

In windows itself (explorer, ya know ), I really noticed a lot of speed increases (really fast reponse for WIN+E for example, browsing folders went really great!), but overall it kinda was a pain to get all the drivers to work. Most of the drivers still were in beta, so you end up with unstable and even time limited drivers (creative...*sigh*). Of course now that it's gone gold, the final drivers should pop up soon enough, but I'd suggest you stick around a bit longer before jumping to 64bit. Remember that most stuff like drivers, codecs, etc. won't work... Programs do work though .

[sponge]

Of course codecs will work.

[Miracle]

You tell vDub 64bit that, ok?

[sponge]

VD might be a different issue. There's absolutely no reason a codec shouldn't work under 32bit emulation like every other 32 bit app, unless MS is somehow stupider than I thought.

[Miracle]

DivX worked like a charm, yes, but when it comes to you actually encoding them, it's a totally different story . Sorry I wasn't clear on that part.

[gamefreaks]

64Bit computing is no faster than 32Bit computing. At all. Improved instruction sets, more efficient cores are. 64Bit is not.

What 64Bit does give you is over 4Gb ram natively.