I'm excited for the effect this can have on preloading. While this won't have much effect on initial loading of content, it can have a tremendous impact on preventing or reducing load necessary between levels or areas. Take a game like Portal 2, for example (not DICE, I know, just a good example here). It's divided into test chambers, and there are some rather irritating load times between them. But if the game had been designed to use more RAM, the game could theoretically play one level and fetch the next in the background, essentially eliminating all but the first load screen in a play session. It's unfortunate that the Source engine can't do this (and unlikely that it ever will; Source is finally starting to show its age), but I strongly suspect that's the direction that DICE is headed in here.
It will be a pain for 32-bit users at first, but they're quickly shrinking in numbers. Not only has Windows 7 brought with it huge improvements in 64-bit drivers and compatibility, but Windows 8 is right around the corner and likely to bring another wave of converts with it. And with Adobe strongly pushing 64-bit in their latest software (Photoshop and Illustrator support it, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Encore require it), people who use their PCs for work are far more likely to have it as well. Add the fact that prefab PCs from Dell, HP, etc are finally becoming readily available with 64-bit Windows by default...
Let's just say that 32-bit operating systems are on their way out, and it won't be long before this isn't an issue anyway. I don't know how soon DICE plans on requiring 64-bit, but anybody with the hardware to play the games of 2014 is probably going to have a 64-bit OS to go with it anyway, so it's not going to be an issue.
P.S. Thanks
