Enthusiast Look: Windows XP 32-Bit versus 64-Bit

Since Windows XP Pro 64-Bit was released, there has been a lot of speculation of whether it would help current gaming or anything else in general.  I put both versions of the OS through a round of benchmarks to see if the 64-Bit does indeed offer any advantage. 

What would benefit? 

Technically speaking though, games shouldn’t really have any reason to work better in a 64-Bit enviroment.  The capabilities of the 64-Bit are much greater than 32-Bit, but there are many things that have to come into play before it’s optimized in 64-Bit. 

Firstly, the operating system needs to be 64-Bit capable, which XP 64-Bit Professional obviously is.  The game in question also needs to be developed to make use of a 64-Bit architecture.  None to my knowledge currently have been developed for 64-Bit, but Far Cry recently had a 64-Bit patch released, which I will be using in the benchmarkings. 

In addition, your Processor also needs to be fully 64-Bit, such as the AMD64/AMD64 FX series.  Lastly, your GPU drivers also need to be developed for the 64-Bit platform.  Other things may come into play as well, such as Audio drivers and Memory, but they would likely make very minute differences, if any. 

Every test in this article was performed with the system running at stock.  I left overclocking entirely out of the equation, and didn’t bother to test it myself.  Of course, overclocking would increase scores all around.  System is as follows:

Windows XP Professional with SP2Windows XP 64 Professional with SP132-Bit Video Drivers are official 71.8964-Bit Video Drivers are beta 76.80BIOS is March 10, 2005 Revision

All the benchmarks and tests performed during the article has been done on a machine with all uneccessary applications and services shut down.  For all the gaming related tests, including 3D Mark, the tests were each run twice, and for the hardware benchmarks, they were run once each. 

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world.  Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.