![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, May 04, 2005
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Windows XP Pro x64 Edition Gaming Comparison
Join us as we directly compare the gaming performance of Windows XP Pro (32-bit edition) versus Windows XP Pro x64 Edition on the latest ATI and NVIDIA video cards. We’ll find out if moving to Windows XP Pro x64 Edition with an AMD Athlon 64 has any benefits or pitfalls for your gaming experience.
Video Card Setup:
Windows XP Pro x32
ATI RADEON X850 XT-PE 256MB PCIe
For Windows XP Pro x32, we used the latest Catalyst 5.4 with Catalyst Control Center (CCC) WHQL drivers.
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB PCIe
For Windows XP Pro x32, we used the latest ForceWare 71.89 WHQL drivers.
Windows XP Pro x64 Edition
ATI RADEON X850 XT-PE 256MB PCIe
For Windows XP Pro x64 Edition, we used the latest 64-bit drivers available from ATI -- Catalyst 5.4 for Windows XP Pro x64 Edition. Unfortunately, there is no 64-bit version of the CCC for Windows XP Pro x64 Edition. Therefore, the legacy control panel is the only option with these drivers.
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB PCIe
For Windows XP Pro x64 Edition, we used the latest ForceWare 71.84 WHQL drivers.
Operating System Setup:
Windows XP Pro x32
We used a clean installation of Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2.
Windows XP Pro x64 Edition
We also did a clean format and installation for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition with Service Pack 1. Note that the system is detected as an “ACPI Uniprocessor x64-based PC.”
System Setup
CPU | AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 |
Motherboard | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe |
System Memory | 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200LLPro |
Hard Drive | Western Digital 74GB Raptor SATA/150 |
OS | Windows XP Pro SP2 and Windows XP Pro x64 Edition SP1 with DX9.0c |
For our system platform setup, we are using the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard with an Athlon64 FX-55.
Note that we used the latest 64-bit version of the NVIDIA nForce4 chipset drivers, which are BETA version 6.39.
Game Evaluation Setup
Please be aware we test our video cards a bit different from what is the norm. We concentrate on examining the real-world gameplay that each video card provides. Gameplay includes performance and image quality evaluation. The Highest Playable section shows the best Image Quality delivered at a playable frame rate. We use a high performance system with a very fast CPU in order to remove CPU bottlenecking.