upgrade to 64 bit Windows

[monfoodoo]

May ask for any suggestions on what 64 bit version of Windows should i upgrade to.Totally in the dark on this one. And how will this effect my plugins? What i'm having is a memory issue.I'd like to have access to the 4 gigs in my Home edition. As i understand it,the 32 bit XP only uses up to 3 gigs.

[UnCommonGrafx]

Get the latest edition, 7.
Funny thing, you can use 32 bit apps in a 64bit os and they get to benefit from the memory capabilities, to some extent.
There's trickery in 32bit xp that isn't worth your time investing; it would/should be totally out of the question at this juncture.

[jasonwestmas]

Whatever you do, don't get vista64, especially if you built your Rig. I've had some real nightmares updating the OS.

[rcneo]

I'm running 9.6 on Win7 64-bit and it is extremely unstable.

[monfoodoo]

I'd like to get more input before i make a big decision on an upgrade.

[jasonwestmas]

I'm running 9.6 on Win7 64-bit and it is extremely unstable.

I haven't used lightwave on Win7 but are you saying unstable doing common every day lightwave stuff? Or heavily relying on 3rd party plugins? I usually get crashes when I am forced to heavily rely on 3rd party plugins with Vista and XP.

[rcneo]

Standard stuff, not using any plug-ins

[Traveler]

There are several threads about this topic. Looking for them might help you to make a decision.

As for my own experience. I'm using Windows 7 (64bit) as well and I have absolutely no problems whatsoever. And yes, if you do go for the upgrade, choose Windows 7.

[Cageman]

I'm using LW9.6 x32 and x64 on Windows Vista Ultimate x64 and has so far not posed any problems at all (except some issues in 64-bit LW..read further in the post). We also use Vista x64 at work (I don't know which version of Vista though), and both LW x32 and LW x64 runs as good as any other apps. I'm also using alot of plugins etc in both x64 and x32 LW and I havn't run into much problems at all. Well... except some weird stuff related to L-Script and LWx64 (memory unstaibilty maybe), but that seems to be gone now in LW9.6.1 x64 and LWHC x64.

[jasonwestmas]

Eh. Maybe your rig was broken or something... bad 3rd party drivers? :)

I've had Vista x64 on my workstation (signature) for close to 3 years now and it has been trucking along with no issues at all. I had to reinstall it once about a year ago, but only because one of the Raptors in my system RAID fried. It's an incredibly stable and productive OS. I haven't had a single OS related issue with LightWave, modo, Zbrush, 3D-coat or Octane Render.

My HP dv7 laptop is also running Vista x64 flawlessly.

But with that being said, Windows 7 x64 is probably the best way to go these days if you don't already have a 64-bit OS. It's basically a slightly updated version of Vista.

I'm not saying it's an unstable os, it works fine when I don't have to update. Vista64 works fine with my programs. It's just that the service packs are really screwy and locked me completely out of my computer because of blue screens on reboot. This happened to me three times. Microsoft's only solution was for me to get my hands on a windows 7 disc. There were hundreds of reports of this nature, so it's not just my rig. I had to use an ubuntu disc to wipe my drive too which blew my mind. I'm not sure what the deal is but I probably won't be building another rig for a while because of this kind of thing but who knows.

[lardbros]

I'm not saying it's an unstable os, it works fine when I don't have to update. Vista64 works fine with my programs. It's just that the service packs are really screwy and locked me completely out of my computer because of blue screens on reboot. This happened to me three times. Microsoft's only solution was for me to get my hands on a windows 7 disc. There were hundreds of reports of this nature, so it's not just my rig. I had to use an ubuntu disc to wipe my drive too which blew my mind. I'm not sure what the deal is but I probably won't be building another rig for a while because of this kind of thing but who knows.

Hmmmm, my parents had the exact same thing with their Vista... service pack downloads, installs & then on restart it blue screens, and that's it. Tried it multiple times and it dusnt work. Now they have an issue where it asks them to register vista again, doesn't accept the product key at all. This is on a pcWorld Packard Bell quadcore... quite honestly the most problems I've ever seen from a single computer!!

I'd go Windows 7 pro... seems much nicer than Vista because my experience of it has been horrendous!