Is Windows 7 - 64 bit good for audio?

n-Track Studio Discussion Forum
#1
#2

I am using Windows 7 on my business computer and I’m impressed with it. What have you found in using Windows 7 64 bit?
I know the plugins are few for 64 bit, but other than that . . .
Thanks,
Bax

#3

My main DAW machine is Win 7 x64. It runs Reaper x86 or x64 extremely well. Flies as a matter fact.

Reaps does a pretty good job of bridging 32 bit plugins in x64 so I have no issues with that even. The main reason to go 64 bit is more available memory to a 64 bit OS. For example, if you run a lot of VSTi’s that are samplers, really big instrument sample sets may eventually max out your RAM in 32 bit land. 32 bit Windows can only really use approximately 3GB. Processor efficiency is theoretically more efficient when running 64 bit compiled apps but I think this is a small percentage increase.

UJ

#4

asus amd here with 7 64 - happy as a UJ in slop with it.

#5

#6

so much for freedom of speech…

#7

The other part of the question - how much memory would be a good amount for Windows 7 and audio? From what I read, it should not really take too much more, but what has anyone experienced?
Thanks,
Bax

#8

Win7 x64
i7-950
ASUS Sabertooth MB
8gigs Corsair DDR3 XMP @ 1600
1- 500 gig SATA III Programs/Sound Fonts/VSTi/VST/ect
1- 500 gig SATA III Data
1- 320 gig SATA II
Peaks/Temps/Scratch
ASUS NVidia 560TI vid card
ASUS lightscribe Dual layer DVD/CD

Built system in last 2 weeks. Replaced a 3.5 years old Vista x64 Core2Quad 9550 system with 6 gigs ram. New system is smokin.

Old system, I could spike the processor and mem usage to 98%. And in the last 3-4 months it had started to randomly reboot. Tested all hardware and never found a fault…dont matter now old relegated home office and internet only.

New system under Win7 is smother, I’d say it’s snappy. Loaded up 16 tracks if VSTis the other day just to see what would happen and it didn’t blink. Tried that wth the old one once and brought it to it’s knees.

I am hoping Solid State drives start to come down to a reasonable price, and up in size. I would love to dump one of those in there.

#9

My old WinXP DAW flaked out so I rebuilt it with Win7 a couple of months ago. It’s now my son’s DAW so I’m just about 100% laptop now. Still record drums on the ‘new son daw’ machine.

The new machine is running smoother than it did with WinXP. It has 2 gigs of memory, with a medium/older video card. The video card what was in there had no Vista nor Win7 drivers, do I dug one out of the box that that did and went with it. It’s something with an
nVidia chip.

I could not put Vista on the same machine. There were errors during the hardware check that said no dice. Win7, with the exception of the video card, passed.

We also have a completely new machine in the house with Win7, but it’s just for everyone to do anything on.

I’ve been very happy with the two Win7 machines. They seem as good as WinXp was and way better than Vista ever was.

#10

I am runing Win 64 bit and its rock solid stable.

i7 870/16gb Ram :) It rocks :D