Capture NX2 and Windows 7

[Martial]

Bonjour
My name is Martial a french canadian living in Montreal area ,Canada
This is my first thread on this forum I sign in after i have read all the excellent tutorials on this site


I am using now Capture NX2 on Windows Vista 64 bits for post production of Nef files (raw) from my nikon D90
Nikon say that it don't support 64 bits with Capture Nx2 buit i can see it working well with 64 bits os
My question: i plan to install Windows 7 64 bits when it will become available around november this year
I know that many people have installed Win 7 beta or REC:someone have tested if Capture NX2 working on Win7 ??
Thanks

[Colin Southern]

Microsoft have said that the architecture of Windows 7 is similar enough to Vista that any program written for the former should work on the latter - so at least there's hope.

Sorry that I can't give you a more definitive answer.

[McQ]

If you are using Capture NX2 with Windows Vista 64 bit, then I'd be 95% certain it will work just fine in Windows 7 64 bit as well. I know of a number of people who have run the beta and RTM, and they've had zero compatibility problems with software that worked fine in Vista 64. Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom work just fine, amongst others. As Colin pointed out, the Windows 7 driver system is backward compatible with Vista drivers.

PS: I just did a quick Google on the topic; others have reportedly had no problem with compatibility between Capture NX2 and Windows 7

[Martial]

Thanks for yours comments

[prx187]

Nikon say that it don't support 64 bits with Capture Nx2 buit i can see it working well with 64 bits os

Hello, just to clarify this:

Nikon Capture NX2 is a 32bit program and Nikon says they don't have a specific 64bits version. It means you can "normally" always run any 32bits program under a 64bits OS but this program will not be able to use more than 3.5 Gb RAM even the Windows 64bits OS can see all the RAM if >than 3.5 Gb. It is a compatibility mode not to have only the 64bits programs (they are too fews)

I think it is a pity to says a professional photo editing program is not able to use the 100% memory potential, specially now with the increasing of the megapixels (RAW size getting bigger and bigger)

Kind regards
Prx

[Colin Southern]

this program will not be able to use more than 3.5 Gb RAM even the Windows 64bits OS can see all the RAM if >than 3.5 Gb.

Just a small correction - the most RAM that any 32 bit application can use on a 64 bit OS is 3GB (2GB on a 32 Bit OS unless the /3GB switch is set in the boot.ini file).

[KentDub]

Just a small correction - the most RAM that any 32 bit application can use on a 64 bit OS is 3GB (2GB on a 32 Bit OS unless the /3GB switch is set in the boot.ini file).

That's not entirely true... If you use the /PAE (Physical Address Extension) it effectively turns windows into a 48-bit operating system. We have servers at work that have 10gb of ram (odd number, I know) and are running 32-bit operating systems, and they reconize all of the memory. With the /PAE switch any single application can potentially use all the way up to 4gb of ram. This, however, can potentially create problems with "shared memory" between applications.

Having applications use that amount of ram on the otherhand is rare. I've never seen photoshop consume that much. Adobe Aftereffects on the other hand, I've gotten that to over 14gb in a matter of minutes. Because of this, the /3gb switch is usually a bad thing if your computer has only 4gb of RAM. You want the OS to have the additional room for file caching, which drastically speeds up the system. The /3gb switch is optimal if you have a single-purpose computer, such as a database server.

Edit: On a 32-bit operating system with >=4gb RAM, the RAM the operating system reconizes is 4gb - (minus) address spacing for hardware. That is why a lot of systems with 4gb of ram show up as 3.5gb. My older system had 4gb of ram, two video cards, and two RAID controllers -- I dropped to 2.75gb of ram because the hardware was eating up address space. Again, there are switches/modes to correct this, but at the risk of stability for some applications.

Edit 2: Back to prx178. Canon dosn't have a 64-bit raw driver either. You can still work with their files and applications with no issue, even though they are 32-bit. What the 64-bit version would do, is show thumbnails in Windows Explorer (when in 64-bit mode, as default on a 64-bit os). This is because of a requirement that 64-bit applications must have 64-bit "plugins". Some people, like me, don't always like having to open something like Bridge to view their photos.

[Colin Southern]

That's not entirely true... If you use the /PAE (Physical Address Extension) it effectively turns windows into a 48-bit operating system.

It depends on the processor - effectively 36 bit addressing on x86 platforms (64GB Total), and 64 bit on x64 platforms - but - limited to 40 bits (128GB) to restrict the size of the PFN Database (Microsoft Windows System Internals, 4th Edition, page 436 refers )

Personally I'll be glad when all traces of 32 bit programs have finally left the planet.