64-bit battle for third place

If you are not a user of professional software that exists in 64-bit version, you can still have benefits from these OSs in few cases. For example, if you have large amount of RAM memory and you actually use all that memory, you should certainly think about 64-bit OS. Let’s say that you use Adobe CS3 suite which doesn’t exist in 64-bit version, you will certainly need a lot of operative memory especially when you start at the same time, for example, Illustrator and Photoshop. That means that all users that use many programs at the same time will benefit from 64-bit OS because there is less, so called, swapping in virtual memory (HDD).
Driver problems are just a little bit more noticeable on Vista because Vista demands digitally signed drivers. Windows XP x64 is very interesting operating system but it simply wasn’t built as long term solution so we prefer Vista as 64-bit OS choice. Windows XP x64 is the only OS on this test that didn’t complete PC Mark 2005 only because it couldn’t recognize installed Windows Media Encoder 9. Although WME exist in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, we tried with both versions (for operational PC Mark it is necessary to install WME in XP), but we didn’t made to the end of test. This fact automatically diverted us from any recommendation for this Windows. If it has problems with this program it will surely have problems with some other software.
Windows XP x64 also disappointed us on gamer’s tests, which is really odd considering the fact that 3D Mark results were great. This is the detail that most gamers will find repelling. Opposite of Windows x64 is Vista x64 that worked very well even though the test results for PC Mark fell short (Vista x64 was very good in all other fields). If you choose Vista, you must pay attention that hardware you will choose is Vista supported. To cut a long story short, let’s go on finals and deal with all Vista advantages against XP.

Finals in 32-bit

Even though finalists didn’t allow us to take full advantages of all 4GB RAM, they did have better performances for non professional application, so we didn’t count this as a big fault. As you already know, you will need less than 2GB RAM memory for most applications. When it comes to software which is more important for home users, these OSs turned out as better than their “relatives” mentioned before. It’s important to note that both systems are nicely supported but XP is supported better than Vista (that is not a surprise if we consider how long it exists on market). XP turned as faster solution (except in PC Mark) even though differences between them are small. So we should think about some advantages that Vista brings. Vista brings famous and notorious DirectX 10 which is not a big advantage considering a lack of games that use full advantages of this API. It’s well known fact that all games in near future will come out with support for DirectX 9 and DirectX 10, so they will be Windows XP compatible. XP also has noticeably better frame rate in games, especially in old ones, and that is something what can turn away hard core players from Vista.
On the other hand, Vista brings advanced file search function which is similar to search engine on Mac OS X. It is very easy to get used to this way of searching; search field is placed in right corner of Windows Explorer where you can type key word, while on XP you must activate search function. What's more, you will get better search results in Vista thanks to better search engine.