64-bit client still in beta, more information coming soon
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 31st 2012 at 10:52AM
If you don't know what a 64-bit client is or have no idea in general what I'm talking about, Mat McCurley wrote a good piece on what this is all about earlier in the month.
Jurannok (Support Forums)
People with 64bit systems will be able to run the 32bit client perfectly fine.
The 64bit client is entirely optional. It's also still going to be in beta after it's released to the live realms with 4.3.2. We'll still be working on it further after the patch.
The 64bit client is entirely optional. It's also still going to be in beta after it's released to the live realms with 4.3.2. We'll still be working on it further after the patch.
Jurannok (Support Fourms)
After the patch there will be more information about how to install it [the 64 bit client] and set it up.
So the 64-bit client wasn't contained in the patch you all just downloaded; it's still in beta. The client that's available to download from the PTR forums right now doesn't work with the live and patched servers -- it throws the "Unable to validate game version" error. We're unsure exactly if Blizzard will be releasing a beta 64-bit client to use on the live realms today, but we've reached out to ask and will update if and when we hear back.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
niko Jan 31st 2012 11:11AM
This will be great for those of us that have >4GB RAM in a Win7 x64 world.
Can't wait!
Mugutu Jan 31st 2012 1:34PM
It'll probably be great for everyone that uses a 64 bit OS, actually
razion Jan 31st 2012 11:12AM
I'm *so* excited for the 64-bit client--I don't think I've ever anticipated a feature this much since the announcement of the Dungeon Finder in Wrath.
Ichigo Jan 31st 2012 11:29AM
Ugh, really? This was the thing I was most excited about seeing in the new patch.
Tatts Jan 31st 2012 11:38AM
I'd like to see it too. But the 32bit client will utilize 3gb of ram on a 64 bit OS as is. You're gonna be lucky if you see MAYBE a 10% increase in performance in game.
I hope to see it do more but it's highly unlikely.
Xpyre Jan 31st 2012 11:48AM
How do you figure 10%? My system is running 12gb triple channel. Currently I use a quarter of my ram, I think I'll get more than 10%.
archer75 Jan 31st 2012 12:06PM
Because performance numbers are showing up to 10% performance increase. And just because you have lots of ram doesn't mean an app or game will use all of it.
Ostentaneous Jan 31st 2012 12:07PM
3gb is the maximum amount of ram that a 32 bit sytem can handle. I seriously doubt that WoW uses all of it, I'd expect more like half.
Ostentaneous Jan 31st 2012 12:11PM
Oh wait, I see my error, nvm.
Tatts Jan 31st 2012 3:16PM
Exactly archer75
Castor27 Jan 31st 2012 11:45AM
I remember seeing a post, either an old forum post or something off MMO-Champ where Blizz said the updated client wouldn't be released until after maintenance. The post referenced the maintenance from last week that didn't happen. My assumption is it will still hold true for this week and we will possibly see a working client later in the day.
craftyguild Jan 31st 2012 11:51AM
One caveat to keep in mind -- as is often the case when switching from a 32-bit to a 64-bit program, it can also mean you need 64-bit versions of all the plug-ins. In this case, I'm talking about add-ons, of course. Whether this will be true for WoW or not, I don't know. But if you use any add-ons, be sure to read the documentation fully before downloading and installing the new client.
Ryan.akens Jan 31st 2012 11:57AM
Not true crafty. The add ons will not care what version you are running since there are no executable files, just scripts.
Vanterax Jan 31st 2012 12:08PM
You mean like how current Addons care if your WoW is on a PC or a Mac? :/
VioletArrows Jan 31st 2012 12:26PM
I don't use too many, and I didn't test any raid ones, but none of the ones I used gave me any trouble or even cared that it was 64-bit.
-Altoholic
-Archy
-Auctionator
-Autoloot Toggle (data broker)
-BadBoy/Levels
-Bagnon
-Carbonite (yes I know, I don't care. :p )
-DBM (though this might need more testing, I only got through one dungeon on PTR and not for lack of trying.)
-Dominos
-Fontifier
-Gatherer
-GupPet
-Lightheaded (needs updating anyway)
-MultiShot
-NoDuel
-OmniCC (I had to reconfigure this, everything was so fast numbers didn't line up anymore)
-Prat
-Shadowed UF
-Skada (again, needs more testing)
-TidyPlates
-Titan Broker
-XLoot
slim1256 Jan 31st 2012 12:45PM
@ Violet -
Heh - I use Carbonite too, picked it up while I was still leveling my first toon because I liked the map mod and quest helper.
That said - to this day, I still run it, because of ONE feature. The "Punks" feature.
If I could find a capable addon to duplicate that one feature, I'd probably dump it and get individual addons for doing the things that it does...
VioletArrows Jan 31st 2012 1:12PM
I'm a sucker for that specialized resizable zooming map. If I could just get that map in it's own addon, I'd be willing to drop all that other bloat.
VioletArrows Jan 31st 2012 12:19PM
Game was so fast and just... *crisp* when I tested it. I love the 64-bit client.
That whole OM NOM ALL TEH MEMORIES has to worked on though. I have 8GB and it never got into any kind of danger zone, but it just steadily climbing even when I really wasn't doing anything worried me a bit.
Ominous Jan 31st 2012 12:46PM
Please keep us up to date, with 64-bit client info!
Thanks.
Peter Jan 31st 2012 1:51PM
Where this gets interesting is when you start considering things like texture cache management. If they're no longer squeezed by virtual address space limits then all sorts of interesting things open up. eg: much more view detail for distant objects etc. The game has to load all these graphics textures into ram for the rendering libraries to push off to the graphics card.
But.. the 64 bit client is more of a straight port at this point. Its probably more about gaining experience with 64 bit applications so they have accumulated enough experience to make MoP take advantage of it.