Member Avatar for Member #23858

How much faster is xp 64 than 32? Is vista 64 ready for prime time yet? Will 64 bit make video editing faster? I have some questions on this and if anyone can answer I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

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A short, practical summary for anyone reading this thread years later: both Windows XP and Windows Vista are out of support and no longer receive security or feature updates, so they are poor long‑term choices for a video‑editing workstation. For reliable editing, driver support, and modern NLE compatibility, a supported 64‑bit OS is the sensible route. (support.microsoft.com)

As correctly pointed out, simply running a 64‑bit OS does not speed up a 32‑bit program — the application must be 64‑bit (or large‑address aware) to make full use of wider registers and more RAM. Where 64‑bit helps most is removing the 4 GB / 2–3 GB limits of 32‑bit Windows so large timelines, frame caches, and plugins can live in memory; real‑world editing gains also depend on multi‑core CPU scaling, GPU acceleration, and storage speed. For the technical limits see Microsoft’s memory page and for hands‑on editing/hardware tradeoffs see Puget Systems. (learn.microsoft.com)

If you still plan to dual‑boot XP x64 and Vista x64 for legacy tools, follow a checklist: back up everything; use separate physical drives if possible; install the older OS first (XP) and then Vista so the newer boot manager handles the multi‑boot; verify 64‑bit drivers for GPU, capture cards and other hardware on vendor sites before you commit; and consider running legacy apps in a VM instead of exposing an offline, unsupported OS. The “install older OS first” guidance is documented by Microsoft and avoids bootloader problems. and ’s driver warnings are valid — older hardware often lacked 64‑bit drivers — and ’s note shows some editors did ship x64 builds at the time. (learn.microsoft.com)

Quick practical targets for an editing machine today: run a 64‑bit OS that your NLE supports (modern Premiere/Resolve require Windows 10/11 x64), plan for 16 GB minimum for HD work and 32 GB+ for 4K, use a GPU with current vendor drivers, and put scratch/cache on a fast SSD/NVMe. Always check the NLE vendor’s published system requirements and your hardware vendors’ driver pages before buying. ()

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Member Avatar for Suspishio

From my experience, XP 64 isn't faster than XP 32 unless the application is compiled to take advantage of 64 bit processing.

In more (but not geekish) detail, XP 64 provides benefit where you can take advantage of 64 bit registers. An application compiled as 32 bit will not do that and runs at 32 bit speed. Floatinf point calculations can take advantage of 64-bit architecture and would need a 64-bit OS to provide those registers.

On video editing, the dual or quad core will make it faster; it will also speed up if the editing application is 64-bit (and I don't know which such applications are 64-bit) and can thus double it's data rate through the registers.

On Vista 64, I kept clear of it because my Adobe products wouldn't run on Vista. I don't need to pay Adobe for an upgrade ffrom Photoshop 5.5; nor do I want to lose the use of PageMaker; nor did I want to pay for the Acrobat 8 upgrade for the privilege of using Vista. Then I'd expect to get nasty surpsies on a whole raft of software that works no problem in XP (32 or 64).

Hope that's informative.

Member Avatar for Member #23858

If I am going to dual boot using xp 64 and vista 64 what things do I really need to know?
Hardware?
Software?
How do I find out what works?

Member Avatar for jbennet

Dont get 64.

32 has more drivers for it, 64 is very buggy and has limited drivers

Member Avatar for Suspishio

Dont get 64.

32 has more drivers for it, 64 is very buggy and has limited drivers

I'm not sure what jbennet says is the best reason for not getting XP64. It works perfectly well and I use it daily.

Limited drivers? A moot point; all the nVidia drivers are there; all the HDDs are supported, etc etc. All the major printer brands.

Your challenge will be to find 64 bit video editing software. Anyway, as you know core 2 duo is 64 bit hardware and you can move to XP64 at any time in the future. Just make sure you can add lots of RAM to your mobo and not get one that's limited to 2GB.

FInally on Vista, I refer you to my earlier post. A heck of a lot of routine stuff doesn't work on Vista (but, of course, works on XP64!).

Member Avatar for jbennet

make sure you have PAE and remember to use the /PAE and /3gb switches if you have 4gb of ram or else XP will only use two

Member Avatar for jbennet

No, it works on my XP pro

Member Avatar for Suspishio

No, it works on my XP pro

Not contradicting you - but what do you do with this switch set that you can't do without it? What special applications do you have that need this switch to be set?

Isn't it just a means for Windows to give (virtual) memory to applications rather than to the system?

And as it's Virtual Memory, surely it doesn't matter whether or not you have 1 GB, 2GB or 4GB on your system?

Member Avatar for jbennet

no, your wrong

on a system with 4gb physical ram, windows gives 2gb to apps, and 2gb for itself and other system tasks

thats a waste

/3gb reduces the system to using only 1gb max, therefore giving another 1gb back to applications which are built to take advantage of this

you need this for running exchange/mssql properley

/3gb doesnt exist on 64 bit i dont think

Member Avatar for Member #23858

If I would happen to use 32 bit for my os, is 3gb or 4 just wasting money?

Member Avatar for jbennet

xp doesnt really ever need above 2gb

Member Avatar for Suspishio

xp doesnt really ever need above 2gb

Yes - that's right - provided that you're not using memory hungry server applications.

Member Avatar for Member #23858

I will be dual booting xp and vista.

Member Avatar for jbennet

and?

they both run very well on 2gb

(2gb gives performance on vista equal to about that of 1gb on xp, if you are using aero)

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

Dont get 64.

32 has more drivers for it, 64 is very buggy and has limited drivers

Yes I agree. I tried 64-bit just long enough to find out that I couldn't find a video driver. So I went back to 32-bit os and tossed the 64-bit CD into the trash where it will take about 10,000 years to decompose.

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

I will be dual booting xp and vista.

I have that setup on two different hard drives -- XP Pro 32 bit on Drive C: and Vista Home Premium on Drive D:. Didn't have a problem with it. Just run the compatability program you can get free from M$ before installing Vista. If everything tests ok then you probably won't have any problems.

Member Avatar for jbennet

beware if you run linux, vista tends to kill grub

Member Avatar for Clevo

Ulead Video Studio 11+ is Vista 64bit compatible...I run it fine on my Vista 64 bit PC

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