Win XP & Server 2003 64-Bit 360 day trial

[Asus]

Just thought I'd post this here.
Who has an AMD64 CPU?!
Lucky you.
Window XP Pro 64-Bit
Windows Server 2003 64-Bit

Resources:
VIA's 4 in 1 64-Bit drivers

# VIA Audio driver for integrated controller
# VIA V-RAID, RAID utility and SATA driver
# VIA IDE Port driver
# VIA AGP controller driver
# VIA Inf driver

Nvidia GFX drivers
I have not seen any Nvidia platform drivers.

ATI has beta 64-Bit drivers included in the Build. From what I've read they don't do OpenGL. But thats just like when you re-install WinXP normally. Since they are beta I wouldn't expect anything.

The Build should have several drivers included like standard AC97 audio drivers and several NIC drivers.

This thread seems to have some helpful advice.
PlanetAMD64

 

[simmo]

I wish I had a 64bit CPU, is it true they have no FSB so they can fit in any mobo ?

 

[ComradeBadger]

I wish I had a 64bit CPU, is it true they have no FSB so they can fit in any mobo ?

Simmo, no, they need motherboards with the sockets designed for them.

 

[Willber123]

ive heard that they dont have a fsb directly but instead have some other crazy thing like a fsb, i cant remember the name of it tho.

 

[Asus]

hehe. Hypertransport?
Yeah HT makes it real easy for the people who design the systems and it helps them perform too but that doesn't mean you can swap a CPU out for another that easy. Still based on sockets.

um...Ready for too much information?

AMD64 has a HT link (Serial) from the CPU down the the rest of the system (except memory) that runs at 1600mhz. 16bits @ 800mhz up and 16bits @ 800mhz down. It can transfer both ways at the same time.
Plus the memory controller is on the CPU so it does not go up/down the hypertransport link. It is free for Hardrive, AGP or PCI data.

The P4 uses a FSB (Parallel) that can transfer 32bits either up or down (but not both) @ 4x200mhz (800mhz effective). Bandwidth comes out the same for both systems @ 6.4gb/s but the HT is much more flexable since it can go both directions at the same time and is free from 6.4gb/s alone from memory access.
P4 is bottlenecked with memory access and can get worse off especially if you have harddrives in Raid 0. If you have full memory access reaching 6.4gb/s you have completely filled the P4 FSB so no other data can be sent w/out slowing the memory access down.
Athlon XP is much worse off concerning bottlenecks with its 2x 133/166/200mhz FSB (266/333/400).
But the AXP doesn't depend on it like the P4. It has proccessing power on its side (IPC). Basicly all that "much worse off concerning bottlenecks" with the AXP is worth very little.

 

[Willber123]

wow that was too much information

 

[TrueWeltall]

Too little information for my taste Im the kinda guy that reads for 3 hours about one thing.

 

[Asus]

Too little information for my taste Im the kinda guy that reads for 3 hours about one thing.

Hehe I'm pretty much that way too.

 

[Chris D]

What are the advantages of 64bit CPUs then?

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Almost everything, most still run the normal bit, the 64bit does everything a lot better....AMD 64 was made to test it out.....btw from what I am hearing from the upgrade, you cannot install some things on there b/c microsoft hasn't put support in it, unless I heard the wrong thing from someone or something, I dunnoo...

 

[Habibapotamus]

geeze some people are getting Hypertransport and 64-Bits mixed up. At least ASUS knows his stuff.

 

[Asus]

Almost everything, most still run the normal bit, the 64bit does everything a lot better....AMD 64 was made to test it out.....btw from what I am hearing from the upgrade, you cannot install some things on there b/c microsoft hasn't put support in it, unless I heard the wrong thing from someone or something, I dunnoo...

I havn't heard anything like that. News to me.
I know you need drivers that may or may not be available.

The big plus for 64bit right now is getting rid of the 4gb memory addressing limit.
It's not about physical ram in your system btw. Just the ammount of memory it can keep track of at one time whether thats in your RAM or Virtual Memory. OS reserves 2gb for itself so it's really a 2gb limit. Many games go up pretty close to a 2gb footprint (this is not how much is used from your system memory). Going 64bit now is very good instead of in 2006-07 or end of the decade like Intel wanted. Getting memory dumps is not a good thing and some people dealing with large projects in photoshop etc have ran into this 2gb footprint issue already.

 

[ImJacksAmygdala]

What are the advantages of 64bit CPUs then?

Gabe said that if you run the HL2 64bit client you will get a 30% performance increase over using a 32bit HL2 client using the same system....

 

[Cunni]

Any chance we could sticky this thread, for those of us who may consider buying a 64 bit processor between now and whenever HL2 is released?

 

[simmo]

Simmo, no, they need motherboards with the sockets designed for them.

thxs badgey