Vista 32 vs. Vista 64 shootout – PC Gaming

3DMark06

3DMark06 still remains the number one utility used for a system benchmark. The numbers it produces aren’t indicative of any gameplay in general. We find that it is mostly useful for tracking changes in a single system, which is what we are doing now. There are four “mini-games” that it uses for benchmarking graphics, as well as two CPU tests. The scores are weighed and added together to give an overall number and there is a further breakdown possible with these mini games that we are charting for you.

Here is a scene from one of the four benchmark “mini games” used to benchmark GPU performance. It will give your PC a real workout even though its default resolution is only 1280×1024.

Here are the results of our 3DMark06 benchmark comparison using the benchmark at its default settings:

Here we simply do not see a lot of difference.  It could be well within any margin of error.  Well, now let’s look at the mini-game frame rates:

Here is the identical situation exemplified in the mini-game’s frame rates. ‘Playing’ the 3DMark06 Mini-games on Vista 32 would edge out play on Vista 64 – but not with any practical difference. So, let’s move on to our second synthetic benchmark, Vantage.