Removing Support for 32bit Windows?

[Shonumi]

(04-19-2014, 05:12 PM)delroth Wrote:

(04-19-2014, 11:49 AM)Shonumi Wrote:

(04-19-2014, 10:39 AM)JMC47 Wrote: I figure I should add that 32bit has been broken for the past 100 builds and a grand total of one user said anything about it.

Already mentioned earlier in the thread.

Where? I re-checked the thread and couldn't find it. If you're talking about the critical 32 bit bug I mentioned in my post, I was talking about another one from a month ago or so. Yeah, that's two 32 bit bugs that caused all games to crash at startup and were unreported for weeks.

Whatever. Same difference. JMC47's point is still redundant :p

[delroth]

X86 support removal is going to happen, btw. It's pretty much been decided yesterday, see https://ml.dolphin-emu.org/archives/dolphin-dev/2014-April/000101.html for more details.

[oddMLan]

(04-21-2014, 08:27 PM)delroth Wrote: X86 support removal is going to happen, btw. It's pretty much been decided yesterday, see https://ml.dolphin-emu.org/archives/dolphin-dev/2014-April/000101.html for more details.

Aaaand nothing of value was lost
(sorry XP users)

[delroth]

XP was already unsupported.

[kinkinkijkin]

We're losing Windows Vista/7/8 x86, anyone using x86-32 linux, and x86 Mac owners, not XP. XP was already long-gone, as of a few commits after stable 4.0.2.

[delroth]

OS X 32b has been unsupported since at least a year ago, since Lion dropped support for 32b and we've been requiring Lion for a while now.

[Link_to_the_past]

(04-22-2014, 06:11 AM)kinkinkijkin Wrote: We're losing Windows Vista/7/8 x86, anyone using x86-32 linux, and x86 Mac owners, not XP. XP was already long-gone, as of a few commits after stable 4.0.2.

Since there are a lot of big changes after 4.0 the next stable release shouldn't be rushed i suppose to give people a bit more time to adapt and get used to those changes.

[isaacwaller]

I frequently use Dolphin on a Windows 8 tablet. Most Windows 8 tablets (including mine) run the 32-bit version of Windows because the 64-bit version is not compatible with Connected Standby. For more information, see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_Standby

Microsoft has pledged to add Connected Standby to 64-bit Windows soon, but the fact remains that Dolphin-capable computers are still being sold with 32-bit Windows. For this reason I think 32-bit support should not be removed. It seems this decision might have already been made though.

[Shonumi]

No one's forcing you to upgrade. You can use a version of Dolphin that supports 32-bit OSes (whenever Dolphin goes 64-bit only) until MS delivers 64-bit Windows for tablets. The onus really isn't on Dolphin to support a very slim portion of its user base (Windows tablet users) when the advantages (better code/less maintainence, and less hidden issues due to lack of 32-bit testers/issue reporters) will benefit the project now and in the long run.

[MayImilae]

isaacwaller Wrote:I frequently use Dolphin on a Windows 8 tablet. Most Windows 8 tablets (including mine) run the 32-bit version of Windows because the 64-bit version is not compatible with Connected Standby.

Actually you're wrong. The Surface Pro, the shining example of the best of windows tablets, is 64bit. All of the high-end windows tablets out there with CPUs powerful enough to run Dolphin (ivy bridge or haswell) all have 64-bit windows. The ones that are 32bit? Atom based CPUs. Why? Not because of connected standby. Because CHEAP. 32Bit windows allows windows to run fine with very little ram. I know from personal experience: win64 on 2GB of ram SUCKS. But 32bit windows can run on 2GB or even 1GB of ram. Perfect for consumer oriented laptops to compete with the iPad or Nexus 7. So even though losing 32bit would prevent those laptops from running Dolphin... you wouldn't want them to in the first place.

Plus you have the connected standby thing in reverse. It was not that the tablets are 32bit because connected standby is 32bit - connected standby was 32bit because all the tablets that OEMs were buying were 32bit. Drivers are either 32bit or 64bit, and since connected standby has extreme requirements for integrated everything (which ivy bridge and haswell can't fulfill), and atom based CPUs were designed for low end systems with small amounts of ram, so Intel never bothered to bring it to 64bit. Regardless, that situation is now over - http://www.cnet.com/news/finally-here-come-the-64-bit-windows-8-1-tablets/



However, I should point out that even the Surface Pro has limitations with what it can run in Dolphin. 1.7ghz ivy bridge, even the turbo up to 2.6ghz, is not as much as you might think. It takes over 4.5ghz sustained on a ivy bridge CPU to run every game in Dolphin. And even that is not enough for the most demanding game ever, The Last Story. 2.6ghz ivy bridge isn't even enough to run LLE audio!