I've been intentionally trying to not read a lot about this topic until the release is so near. I know theres some faq's on this,but i'de really like to hear the opinions of gamers that are more up to date on this topic.Im not clear on the whole thing.I've read something about 64 bit executables,Dx 10,ect. My main question is can someone do thier best on advice. Such as performance advantages if there are 64 bit code in here at release or later. Will that mean 8GB of ram will be supported,ect.

Any info or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks .

They aren't going to have a 64 bit version.  The 64 bit support someone mentioned meant that the game will work on the 64 bit version of windows.  The game takes around 2.5gb of memory on my system(4gb of ram) in vista 64.  I probably wouldn't upgrade to vista 64 just for the game.

You will get a general performance increase if you have a 64 bit cpu by having a 64 bit OS ( not on AoC but some other programs support 64 bit ).  You will also need a 64 bit OS if you intend to fit 4Gb or more ram.  Apart from that there is no reason to upgrade for AoC.

Thanks for the info everyone.I'll take your advice and hold off till their  is no choice  to upgrade.My comp is upgradable ,But in pvp/pve  to vista,but hear little good about it.

If anyone knows any articles about  64 bit games and how they are coming along ,ide appriciate  any links for me to read.( dont have to do all that if to busy,l like opinions from gamers more than anything else)

I'm just curious when the break  thru will come about.

Thnx

Ummm, actually the game does have seperate .exe's  for the 32bit client and 64bit client, in the same install, at launch.

If your set with a 64 bit cpu, there's no real reason, at all, to run 32bit vista or xp for a that matter.  The 64bit OS is just that much more responsive, overall.  

Even with the hassle of downloading a fresh set of 64bit drivers for your system, it's a noticeable improvement.  Vista does a good enough job but not everything is as current as Win'update likes to think it is.  Sometimes, it tries to send you outdated drivers because the newer ones aren't WHQL signed.

I would guess at a timescale of about 5 years from now when todays low to mid end systems have been or are in the process of being replaced.  Software developers are not going to program excusively for 64 bit when there are still millions of 32 bit machines in peoples homes.

I agree with the 'exclusive' comment.  

I was just pointing out that AoC will infact have a 64bit client exe.   But, I still have only run up against 1 app from '96-'97 that won't run on the 64bit OS/X86 Program folder because of an old directX file that's not supported in vista's directX.   The others were just a matter of normal patching and right click 'run as admin' on the exe file.

I have Vista-64, I have zero problems.  I had zero problems when I built the compter and loaded it.  I have no problems running any games, and I run alot of games.  I got a reply a few months ago from a Funcom rep stating that 64 bit exe files will come with your pre-order or game purchase.  To those who buy into the Apple commercials, thats a load of suck. 

Originally posted by OnAdayPass

I've been intentionally trying to not read a lot about this topic until the release is so near. I know theres some faq's on this,but i'de really like to hear the opinions of gamers that are more up to date on this topic.Im not clear on the whole thing.I've read something about 64 bit executables,Dx 10,ect. My main question is can someone do thier best on advice. Such as performance advantages if there are 64 bit code in here at release or later. Will that mean 8GB of ram will be supported,ect.

Any info or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks .

This may be a bit off topic according to your questions?

I can say from personal experience that upgrading to the 64-bit Vista was not worth the effort. I recently bought 2 Gbs extra ram (making it a total of four) and a new Nvidia 8800 GTS 512 Mb graphics card. Struck by the fact that XP 32-bit only supports DX9 and a maximum of something like 3,12 Gb in ram, i decided give Vista a shot. 

After installation the first thing that hit me was the fact that i couldn't surf the Internet. I had the correct drivers installed and wanted to access Windows Update. I somehow managed to download all the current upgrades and SP1, but after that surfing was really slow. Some websites worked and some didn't. One that didn't work was my Hotmail account. This one plus several others kept giving me a "cannot connect to server" error while other ones worked just fine? Among other things i tried to install Flash player without luck.

Another problem i had was with the tightened security Vista has. I drove me crazy to have a pop-up demanding me to authorize procedures every time i wanted to delete a file or something such. When downloading files from the Internet i couldn't save them where i wanted due to restrictions in access, ARGH!! I disabled the accounts function that controlled those specific security issues but in turn i go a pop-up now and again that "User accounts" (or what the name was?) wasn't active and that my computer "may not be secure".

Also, it seems that in order for Vista to work, you really need to have new components in your computer. I have an older sound card called Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 and the company didn't have any drivers for Vista except for some betas. I installed them but that made my sound volume change randomly while playing and while viewing video. Very annoying! Driver support for older hardware is a real problem in Vista 64-bit.

So since i upgraded i had all kinds of problems and also performance issues. DX10 in all it's glory isn't worth the hassle if you ask me. I reverted back to my old XP 32-bit after three days of testing. I may consider going back to Vista in the future, but for now... XP is the way to go!

(I have a Dual 2 Core 6600 2,4 Ghz CPU in case anyone was wondering)

Peace',

  You can download and run CpuZ app that will (after a bit of a delay running a diagnostic) show you mainboard manufacturer and model number, among other things, so you can get your 64bit drivers from their site. 

 So there, is what I usually consider my biggest pain out of the way.  Ofcourse, cracking the case and peaking works just as well but If your like me and hate moving things after you have it all set up, it's the ticket.

I also found that when it came to my sound card it was best to just find and run the stand-alone driver without the other bonus app stuff.  <--This could be just me, though.

Wow hdnine, that sucks.  I guess I got lucky with Vista 64. (even though I have built 6 more machines with 64 for friends and famliy with zero issues).   With the flash thing , you have two IE browsers, one is 32 bit and one 64 bit.  Pathetic Flash doesn't have a 64 bit download, so make sure you are running the 32 bit browser.

Yes, step #1 with Vista is to disable the "user account control".  All that is, is Microsoft's "cover my butt" solution.  Now they are now longer responsible for security problems, cause you turned it off.

He is right about the older hardware, though.   It's Vista certified hardware for best performance.  

I ran Vista 32bit, on this very system, for over 6months before I made the switch.   I noticed an obvious improvement right from the start and I have had no issue since. 

 EDIT-- I don't use IE 64bit, though.  I'm running Norton 360 and it only does phising for the 32bit IE, it's not an issue to me, the only other thing that Norton 360 doesn't support in 64bit is weak password scans, everything else works perfect(firewall, virus scan, system scans).

Oh, and Vista 32bit seemed to run DX10 for me without an issue, in LoTRO. 

Vista 32 bit recognises 4gb ram after SP1.

If you want to upgrade to vista, go to 32bit as not all software works with 64bit and all the above are just fanboys.

If you don't want to upgrade, then don't. DX10 has it's pluses but until the time comes that when a game you want to play requires DX10 then that is the time to upgrade. There will be no visual improvement between 3.4GB RAM and 4GB RAM as vista uses SWAP space and doesn't utilise all of the RAM, whether or not you have 4GB or 3GB.

You will notice a difference however, using Linux, as Linux touches hardware RAM, and only if needed does it touch swap file.

I upgraded to a 4 core cpu with 4GB RAM to vista, I notice no slowness, and 32bit is easy. I have the security prompts on as it is pretty much a decent security system, along with your usual anti virus. If you want to turn it off go ahead, but with all the viruses out there, I'd want to have a good firewall and anti virus (that means no norton, but kaspersky, nod32 or symantec corporate) and a firewall such as sygate, or for the power user, a configured router/modem firewall, or for the paranoid, a smoothwall server.

64bit hasn't got support for old things, such as my beloved old games, and software, and it's too much of a hassle to get all the special stuff in order for it to work. But in the end the decision is up to you. But Conan will be fine with 3GB RAM along with your 8800. Personally Conan runs fine on my 32bit machine vista 32bit SP1.

lol Drewg,  

  What are you trying to run - Dune2000 and Atari's greatest hits?  I thought I was pretty bad trying to see if Vista would still run LA's Rebellion, circa '96-'97, the only app that I have that won't run.  

 I've got 11 games installed and already played through the other 7 I have, + all the MMO's I've ever tried, + the 9 games I just sold back to EB/GS to pay off last little bit for the AoC CE, not 7 days ago. 

 Only two, took a single step more than the right click 'run as admin', which was 'run in xp service pack 2 mode'(on the 'exe' and burden of the second file the 'launcher', KoTOR 1 & 2.

 As for security, yeah there's better(Kaspersky is great), but I surf and still run the same online games as most of you, with no problems. 

EDIT-- Sorry, just can't leave this,yet.  Other than this thread, I've not heard of AoC taking 2.5gigs of ram.  The highest report, until then, was 1.8gigs(with an un-opimized client).  

 Since Vista, itself, will account for 1-1.5 gigs, due to ram pre-cahcing(-the attempt at lessoning the need for the use of the virtual pagefile system by loading your most used apps into memory, at every startup-) just running the desktop, with Aero. ---

 Then the game, that now, can exceed the 1.8gigs previously reported,  leaves you, simply, stressing your 3Gb of ram system, just  trying to play the game.  And, your now dependant on the virtual pagefile to get you through it.  

End result --  Your game will suffer, not do to the vid card or the cpu but because of the lack of ram, forcing the system to use the swapfile.  - 4GB's of ram is better than 3GB's and a 64bit OS, on a 64bit proc., runs really well, from POST on through.

 However,  I do believe the beta clients are running with a higher need of system resources, than the the retail client will need. 

 Why?  Because, they added the bugs for benefit of the stress testing on the servers, requiring more than what will be needed at release.