Windows 7 Hardware Upgrading... Is Windows 7 32 bit Enough For Heavy Gaming?

Alpherior

New Member
I'm upgrading my silly hardware computer to a good hardware computer (I don't have the specs, but it will be quad core with a good graphics card, motherboard, and 4gb ram), however I want to know if I can play intense games like Crysis, Bulletstorm, etc. with a Windows 32 bit OS.

I'd like to stay with Windows 32 bit because, honestly, it takes about 3 days to a week just to get all my settings, programs, and everything else back to how it should be.

I know Windows 7 32 bit limits ram usage to 3.5G, so what I want to know is, would that be enough ram to run those really intense games... at highest settings... with a good frame rate?

I've had little luck finding these answers around the internet because I get such a variatey of answers.
 
The short answer is yes. Just remember if you want to run the game at high resolutions then make sure your graphics card has plenty of onboard RAM.
I've gamed quite happily on 3GB of RAM for a while now so you'll be fine. I did have a post somewhere showing a article by Toms hardware where they tested how much RAM was needed and 3-4GB was fine for gaming and everyday tasks. If I find it i'll post back.

Happy gaming.. :)


Edit: This might interest you: Link Removed - Invalid URL
 
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Thanks for the REALLY quick response, but I have a few questions.

First off, what kind of fps do you get exactly when playing highly intensive games with your amount of ram? I know video card/processor is virtually what forms the fps, but I'd still like to know.

Also, How much ram is usually used when playing THE AVERAGE HIGH-GRAPHICS GAME WITH HIGH SETTINGS, and how much free ram is there usually when you are gaming and/or just doing whatever on your computer?
 
FPS depends really on the card used but for example my factory overclocked 5870 runs at between 100fps to 55fps in Crysis 2 with all settings maxed out.
A handy chart for VGA can be found here: Guru3D VGA Charts
RAM used is around 2GB leaving enough for background apps ect..
 
He,he found the article. Checkout the conclusion:
Not much has changed since 4 GB of RAM became the “sweet spot” for performance and price in the enthusiast market. While 32-bit operating systems previously limited those 4 GB configurations to around 3 GB of useful memory space, today's test shows that 3 GB is still usually enough.We remember days when having multiple Internet Explorer windows open could cause a system to become sluggish. But even that scenario has become unrealistic, as all the configurations we tested in this review supported over 100 open windows simultaneously. If 3 GB worked so well, why do we continue to recommend 4 GB to 6 GB triple-channel kits for performance systems? Perhaps we’re just a little too forward-looking, but we can certainly imagine scenarios a typical “power user” could encounter where 3 GB might not be enough, even if today’s tests didn’t reveal any of them. For those folks, stepping up to a 64-bit operating system at the same time is undoubtedly the best course of action. We can only recommend larger capacities of 8 GB to 12 GB for professional applications where its usefulness has already been documented and for servers. None of our tests required high-memory capacities and wasted RAM is a burden both financially and ecologically.
Full article can be found here:http://windows7forums.com/hardware/13372-how-much-ram-do-you-actually-need.html
 
Thanks, and thanks for the article too. I'm really happy to hear that I can just upgrade my hardware without spending a couple decades restoring my computer to it's original state after a 64 bit install.

I can't wait to play all the games.

All of them.
 
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