New Gaming PC W/windows7 32bit .Should I have gone 64???

I suggest what the Mac did going to OSX. They made OS9 run in a window. And they made dam sure the application developers did a bang up job with their OSX upgrades. People flocked to OSX because it was truly better, not in theory but in practice. Programs ran faster, OS ran faster, etc.

Perhaps Win7 as a virtual machine under Win8? Then support the application writers like mad to ensure no one ever wanted to run Win7 again. Microsoft has the $$ and know how. I hope they do it.

I found
http://www.pcworld.com/article/18116...bit_world.html
an interesting and informative read. I even forgave his ignorance that a 32 bit OS can address much more than 4GB of RAM because he got the rest pretty well.

No where in the article do they say that.

I am not sure what you are saying.
He seems to be saying 4GB of memory is the maximum for 32 bit.
That is not true. Therefore I say he is ignorant of the facts. If you have been following the links you will see plenty of 32 bit OS's (servers by Microsoft are a few) that address more than 4 GB. Or am I missing your point?

Win200 Datacenter is 32 bit and can address 32 GB of RAM. The Mac Kernal is still 32 bit and addresses a ton more than 4 GB RAM.

I'm saying if you address more than 4GB memory, you are using more than 32 bits. I'm not going to mention any of the ways that have been created to exceed the 32 bit barrier. After all we are talking about Windows 7 and the max for 32 bit is 4GB. Lets not talk about ways to enhance our 32 bit system to 36 bit capability if we have hardware to support it.

I don't know about these business servers, but I've never seen a home computer or laptop that is 32 bit with 4GB RAM even reaching that limit. Around 3GB was tops that I seen, and that was with running several open programs. This laptop that I'm on right now has only 2GB, and it's not straining itself. For a computer to run over 4GB RAM, you have to have a 64 bit processor. I haven't seen any documentation that suggests otherwise. If it were true that we could access more than 4GB RAM with a 32 bit computer, no one would upgrade to 64 bit. There would be no reason to, for the majority of us.

None of Microsoft's residential 32-bit OSes can access more than ~3.2GB of memory. Microsoft hard-coded this limitation via MMIO memory reservations because many applications are poorly-written and automatically place their memory footprint inside the first 3GB of addressing space. These applications will crash if attempting to place or load their information outside of that boundary, and could compromise the overall stability of the system.

That is why, for the sake of broader stability, Microsoft chose to cap physical memory at 4GB for home OSes. There is no other reason.

Thank you Thrax, for your response on this issue. I hope that it proves the point to anyone who thinks that they can get over 4GB support on a home computer running 32 bit. The reasons you stated are valid without any doubts. If you need or want to use 4 or more GB's of RAM, you need to move forward with a 64 bit computer to do so. Or rebuild one with the proper parts, if you have the money and knowledge to do so.

Good points all. The things to take away are:
1) 32 bit OS's can easily address more than 4GB, if you have not followed my links, do so now to see some reasons 64 bit computing has not been needed. Windows 7 will not address more than 4 GB memory in its 32 bit version and that is our subject here, the other OS's are mentioned for comparison.
2) The stability of a 32 bit OS addressing more than 4GB memory can be compromised by sloppy programming although Microsoft and Apple have been successful since 2000 with their 32 bit OS's addressing up to 64 GB RAM. This is also a problem for 32 bit programs running under 64 bit OS's.
3) There is a ton of ignorance on this subject. Much of it caused by poor articles by "experts", which I am not.

http://www.start64.com/index.php?opt...190&Itemid=116

Has a short list of native 64bit games and a write up concerning 64bit operating systems.

Good post, note that it was made in 2006. Not much has changed since then. I doubt any of us here are running systems incapable of 64 bit Win7; the question is should we. http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2...4-bit-windows/ is still good advice - Windows 32 bit is often the better choice. The Mac on the other hand is a hands down win for its 64 bit OS. Being a closed system Apple went 64 bit years ago and told the 32 bit developers to get with it. Microsoft will not do that. http://www.viddler.com/explore/GeekOfComedy/videos/6/ shows how much faster the Mac 64 bit OS is than its 32 bit equivalent. Win7 32 vs 64 does not show that improvement. I believe that is due to its extensive use/support of 32 bit drivers.