When can we expect FM to be 64bit?

More and more computers are built on 64 bit architecture and software is following suit - Windows 7 64 bit, Mac OS X are just two examples of operating systems.

When can we expect to see FM built as a 64 bit program? The latest it should be IMO is next year's edition.

More and more computers these days are having > 3 GB RAM, and FM isn't making full use of this as a 32bit application - we should be looking to move as the trends move and it is guarenteed that in a few years time 32bit will be well on the way to being a thing of the past.

So having more than 3 GB RAM doesn't make a difference atm and in FM11?

I think the official line is when the install base of 64-bit operating systems is bigger. FM can use up to 4GB of RAM now on a 64-bit OS btw.

Worldwide, there are "only" 80.5m personal computers running Windows 7 64-bit. Large number, but nothing on the estimated 1.1 billion computers in existence...

I imagine SI would consider upgrading FM to 64-bit when something like 300m computers operate on 64-bit OSes, considering that most of the first to be upgraded will be in the most developed nations, which make up a large amount of SI's sales.

I'd reckon they prefer to have the numbers on FM players' computers, not the worldwide thing. The number you gave surely is minimal, but the fact is that if you consider FM buyers' computer, who knows what the percentage would be, and that's what SI should be looking at...

I'd reckon they prefer to have the numbers on FM players' computers, not the worldwide thing. The number you gave surely is minimal, but the fact is that if you consider FM buyers' computer, who knows what the percentage would be, and that's what SI should be looking at...

But you see, a lot of SIs customers are people who are not computer savvy and wouldn't have the best computer or the latest OS, etc. Quite a few don't even run any other games on their rig. It is one of the main reasons why SI try to keep their spec requirements down, as they know they'll lose a lot of their market if they go too quick on the requirements.

I'd reckon they prefer to have the numbers on FM players' computers, not the worldwide thing. The number you gave surely is minimal, but the fact is that if you consider FM buyers' computer, who knows what the percentage would be, and that's what SI should be looking at...

I think it will be similar to the real percentage, to be honest. Mathemaqtically, it should be, as "FM players" are pretty representative of "computer users", perhaps with a slight bias to developed side.

Can we get an official word on where we are currently with end user system specs?

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/144978-A-blog-about-the-data-we-collect-and-how-we-use-it. This tells us that you have the data, so what percentage of users have a 32bit OS and what percentage have a system with more than 3GB RAM?

You can do a poll on the forum if you like.

This has been asked previously, iirc official information was that they were going to take 3 or 4 editions of Fm before getting 64 support (and that answer was for FM2010)

About 2015 would be the ideal time I reckon, simple matter of fact is whilst operating systems are 64 bit, very small amounts of the software on them is also 64 bit. The only 64 bit applications I have are: CPUZ, DivX and my ATI gfx card drivers & Catalyst Control Centre. There is also some of the default windows stuff, but that is all I have that is 64 bit. Some may have more, but with 4GB of RAM in my system. The truth of the matter is, the game doesn't need to go 64 bit. Very few users can get the most from their systems right now due to poor builds usually by shops - you could go to PC world tomorrow spend 2 grand on a PC and it still wouldn't run FM all that fast because of poor RAM choices or motherboard choices, having components which throttle system performance rather than aid it smoothly.

I play my FM save with 150,000 players on very smoothly, as in it takes about 15 - 20 seconds to progress a day. When I did a save with about 12,000 players I think it took 9 minutes to holiday a season. FM10 works perfectly fine and well on a decent system and I can't imagine it being 64 bit would really make it any better.

It will happen when your average punter can go to PC world, Dell, Comet or whatever, and their standard computer packages are 64bit rather than 32bit.

Its not realy entirely vital that FM switches to 64 bit right now as it simply doesnt need more memory, dont get me wrong... it would help in some instances but for practicaly 99% of the time its not going to matter.