For a very long time, players of the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Guild Wars 2 could get the game in one flavor: 32-bit. However, many people currently run on systems and OSes that can support 64 bit—in fact, according to a report over 92 percent of all new PCs sold worldwide and running Windows are powered by 64-bit architectures.

This week, ArenaNet LLC, developer of Guild Wars 2, announced the availability of a 64-bit beta client. The company hopes that this change will assist with players who have experienced game degradation and crashes due to memory issues. Take a look at the 64-bit client FAQ for further details.

With the recent release of the first expansion to Guild Wars 2 “Heart of Thorns,” ArenaNet revealed the game had sold more than 5 million copies to-date. Combined with the figure above regarding Windows PCs with 64-bit architectures this means that a significant number of GW2 players could benefit from this update.

The beta 64-bit client is currently only available for Windows OS users.

Easy as going to the “Download Client” page and clicking the button.

Installation

To get it, players merely need to go onto their account page and download the new .exe file.

Installation is easy: place Gw2-64.exe in the same directory as Gw2.exe. On most Windows 7 installations this will be “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2”. (This may vary.) Then launch the Gw2-64.exe application. It will update itself and any of the files in the standard GW2 install itself, there is no need to download the entire install again.

So you don’t forget, add a shortcut to Gw2-64.exe to your desktop and/or your start menu so that you launch that instead of the 32-bit version while you’re testing it.

Why use the 64-bit client?

As mentioned above, there are some benefits to using the 64-bit client and if you happen to have a 64-bit OS it can support both 32-bit and 64-bit programs. In the case of Guild Wars 2 the new client works identically to the 32-bit client but should provide an added benefit against certain types of crashes.

According to the FAQ: “64-bit applications have a significantly higher limit on how much memory they are able to use compared to 32-bit applications. Due to this, the main benefit is significantly less ‘out of memory’ crashes.”

The two clients are not mutually exclusive and users can choose to run one or the other at any time. The only caveat is that the two clients will only update themselves. This means that players who spend a lot of time in the 64-bit client and go back to the 32-bit client may need to wait a minute or two for the old client to update. Both clients will update the standard install normally, so patches will work the same way with either.

Players should not expect a noticeable performance difference between the two clients. While the 64-bit client may run slightly better, the performance increase will be imperceptible—the biggest benefit will be the larger address space and the reduced chances of experiencing a crash.

The 64-bit client is for Windows OS only and no 64-bit client for OSX has been planned.

More information is available in the 64-bit client FAQ and to download it players should visit their Guild Wars 2 account page.

Featured image credit: Screenshot Guild Wars 2 courtesy ArenaNet, LLC via Kyt Dotson