Compatibility with AMD64?

[genesisrage]

im in the market for a new laptop (that isnt 8 years old). the one i have my eyes set on comes with an AMD Turion 64-bit cpu.
my question is would i need to get a special version of windows or would the 32-bit version work. and also would i need to recompile irrlicht for 64-bit (dont know if this can be done yet), or will it simply run it as a 32-bit application (if it has backward compatibility)

i know the easiest answers are get a 32-bit intel laptop and be happy, but as ive used my current laptop for 8 years, i need something that 'might' be able to handle later OSs like Vista.

[Guest]

No, Amd64 (with a 32 bit Operating System) is exactly like running on a 32bit cpu as far as software is concerned, *UNLESS* you install windowsxp 64 bit(which you don't have to).

WinXP (32) standard usual run of the mill OS works fine with 64bit cpus - it just doesn't make use of the extra power but does work faster anyway in certain cases.

I have a laptop with amd64 3400+ and you can be sure everything works fine with it, and irrlicht compiles ok on it. It is only truely "64bit" when you run the specific OS (winXp64) and that is when you need to look at the differences.

And if you want to make use of 64 bit versions of games, you will need to install 64bit xp but do a dual boot so you can keep all your "cutting edge" stuff on it's own while keeping regular mode for compat and irrlicht.

[genesisrage]

sweet, thanks alot... i thought that was the case but didnt want to end up getting it and finding out "$%&@ it doesnt work!"

(now i just need to find the money lol)

[sRc]

to answer your question about compiling the AMD64, if you ever do instal XP64 on it then yes on both questions (I dual boot XP Home and Pro x64 on both my desktop and my notebook). You can compile it just fine for 64-bit and run it as a 64-bit DLL, or compile it for 32-bit and run it as a 32-bit DLL.

[Spintz]

You can compile AMD64 and 64 bit application on 32 bit windows ( you just can't run them )