switch 32 bit to 64 bit, what is invovled, anyone done this

[Erika Epstein]

I've been thinking of switching my windows XP from 32bit to 64 bit to get more from archicad. Has anyone done this and could share their experience, outline what is involved re other programs etc.?

On the few occasions over many years that I've reinstalled the OS and installed all new software its been days of effort.

Other than Archicad and Microsoft Office, do other programs have this choice or does one have to repurchase/pay some kind of upgrade type fee?

Would I be better if this machine can do it switching to Vista or 7?

Thanks in advance

[Haneef Tayob]

About 8 months ago, I decided to go for XP-64 bit after the dealer oddly gave me an option between the two XP's (I was hesitant to go for Vista 64-bit).

I did have some minor issues which I was able to deal with. I couldn't get my old faxmodem and canon scanner to work, but fortunately have other pc's in the office. Itunes had to be tweeked before installation in order to get my iPhone to work. My old PDF drivers were a problem and I had to ditch my old version of acrobat 7 pro drivers for some open source pdf drivers.

In my experience, Windows xp 64bit generally seems more stable and seldom requiring rebooting to clean the system.

I have no regret, especially with AC13 now being announced.

[Anonymous]

1) There is no reason not to go to 64bits (well there are few minor 64bit driver issues in some devices , so check before)
2) If you plan to go on 64bits just for Archicad, dont get into the trouble of reinstalling everything on your pc. You will get zero performance increase.
3) If you use programs that require intensive high precision arithmetic calculations and support 64bits then do the lift
4) If you use chess programs, then DEFINATELY do the lift (this is a characteristic example where you see more than 40% increase in performance (not due to memory ofcourse, but due to handling 64bit binary structures).
5) If you use Photoshop on very large images, then do it. It would help a lot.

Thats all.

[Sols]

Apart from the 4GB RAM limit, the other main reason for my switching to 64-bit was simply... it's going to be the standard sooner or later. I just made a big spreadsheet of all my installed apps & drivers. Then I spent a good half a day on the interweb checking and downloading 64-bit versions or updates of the drivers, and noting any 64-bit incompatibilities with my apps. Burned them all to a DVD and did a back-up... then just did it!

Sure, there will be at least a couple of things down the track that you smack your head and realise, crap, that doesn't work. But I never encountered anything that couldn't be solved. My worst incompatibility was discovering that my aging digital point-n-click camera (that I forgot about in the preparation) didn't have a 64-bit driver. Good excuse to go get another, better one though

[Richard Morrison]

64-bit may not help your ArchiCAD much, as much as multi-core processors, but it can give you access to much more memory while multitasking. I have Vista Home Premium (64 bit) with an i7 processor and it generally has been very stable and works great with AC.

However, I did learn the hard way that many of my critical software programs (generally my tried and true ones that I've been using for years) don't work in x64. Also, I lost my scanning & faxing capabilities on my HP printer. As a result, I keep my old computer running, and access it through Remote Desktop, which is built into Vista. It was very easy to set up and works pretty well, but you'll find that printer sharing between 32 and 64 bit systems is difficult.