Do people still game on 32-bit systems?

[Damion]

I haven't had a 32-bit system in nearly 20 years, so I have to wonder if anyone playing modern games actually (can) play them on 32-bit systems. There are options in the game menus of games I can't imagine playing in a pre-core2due age, but they ask if you want to play 32 or 64 bit; why?!

[GOTSpectrum]

What games to do you asking you for 32/64bit. 

 

Also, afaik 32bit applications actually require less memory to run, but this is almost always out weighed by the fact that 32bit systems are limited to 4gb of RAM. 

[Wh0_Am_1]

Well you got to remember that until recently ARM was actually 32 bit, there are actually a fair amount of reasonably fast and capable 32bit systems floating around that can be used for light gaming, and of course their are just those people who can't afford or have simply neglected to purchase anything made in the last 15 years, and many fairly modern game are rather backwards compatible to an extent. (I used to be one of those people up until a few years ago, the fastest computer I had regular access to was powered by a notorious Pentium D which I got for free)

[danomicar]

1 hour ago, Damion said:

I haven't had a 32-bit system in nearly 20 years, so I have to wonder if anyone playing modern games actually (can) play them on 32-bit systems. There are options in the game menus of games I can't imagine playing in a pre-core2due age, but they ask if you want to play 32 or 64 bit; why?!

I'm sure there are plenty of people on budget builds that are able to play (somewhat) modern games on a 32bit operating system.

[GDRRiley]

1 minute ago, danomicar said:

I'm sure there are plenty of people on budget builds that are able to play (somewhat) modern games on a 32bit operating system.

who even installs 32bit OS any more other than mobile?

You are about 10-15 years late, almost everyone during windows 7 moved to 64bit given 64bit windows was an option in everything above starter.

less than  10% of people who have taken the steam hardware survey have 4gb of ram or less and 15% have less than 8gb

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

[danomicar]

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

who even installs 32bit OS any more other than mobile?

You are about 10-15 years late, almost everyone during windows 7 moved to 64bit given 64bit windows was an option in everything above starter.

less than  10% of people who have taken the steam hardware survey have 4gb of ram or less and 15% have less than 8gb

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Sure, but I think you need to account for the fact that ~10% of Steam's user base is still millions of users, many of whom are conceivably using a 32 bit operating system. 

[JZStudios]

Most programs looking forward are dropping 32 bit support. I know off the top of my head Blender a while ago dropped 32 bit, as well as BeamNG. Arma 3 apparently launched as a 32, with an update to 64 at some point, but either way the game runs pretty poorly and has issues.

[GDRRiley]

7 minutes ago, danomicar said:

Sure, but I think you need to account for the fact that ~10% of Steam's user base is still millions of users, many of whom are conceivably using a 32 bit operating system. 

I talked about ram which maybe an indication or more likely they are using a laptop or desktop based on a DDR2 system which means 4gb Sodium and 2gb desktop dims aren't super cheap or easy to find compared to similar sized DDR3 dims.

only .55 are listed as not running a 64bit OS

[GalacticRuler]

You have to remember that the 64-bit applications used on PCs are based on the x86-64 architecture developed by AMD. The entire reason behind why the architecture was adopted was because it is an extension of 32-bit architecture, compared to the failure of Intel's Itanium processors which were exclusively 64-bit processors and kept none of the compatibility. Because of the architecture, 64-bit applications are also based on an extension of 32-bit applications, making it relatively easy for applications to offer 32-bit compatibility.

 

It's not so much about the necessity of offering support to 32-bit processors, but the fact that it's very simple to offer compatibility and there isn't much reason for applications to not offer it.

[SansVarnic]

Commander Keen!

32 bit gaming.