Enthusiast Look: Windows XP 32-Bit versus 64-Bit

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by Rob Williams on June 8, 2005 in Software

Since Windows XP Pro 64-Bit was released, there has been a lot of speculation of whether it would help current gaming or anything else in general. I put both versions of the OS through a round of benchmarks to see if the 64-Bit does indeed offer any advantage.

Page 4 – Half-Life 2


I thoroughly benchmarked through three popular FPS’s: Half-Life 2, Doom III and Far Cry. Far Cry is the only one out of the three that has an actual 64-Bit patch for use with x64 XP.

To benchmark Half-Life 2, I used the Half-Life 2 Benchmarking Tool. The first round of tests, I used two built-in Demos, and then I created two myself and tested them on both platforms. Half-Life 2 is much more CPU intensive than other FPS out there, so I was interested to see if there would be any improvements here.

We can see that the Guru3D Demo played equally on both platforms, but the HardwareOC Coast demo averaged an extra 20 frames through both resolutions. This is the first sign of a gaming advantage with the x64 XP.

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Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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