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**fakeasdf** · 05-15-2009

System Configuration:

Install Time (Windows 7 7127)

Run Windows Updates & Disable Screen Saver & Power Settings

No Statistics on this information
WEI

Copy all necessary files to do our tests

· Virtual Dub(32 bit and 64 bit)
· Winrar(32 bit and 64 bit)
· Passmark Performance Test 7.0 (32 bit and 64 bit)
· Xvid (32 bit and 64 bit)
· AC3 ACM (32 bit and 64 bit)
· Windows 7 7127 x86 ISO (for use when doing winrar compression and decompression)
· 700 MB - 1:02:35 -AVI file with 8 pixel x 8 pixel constant video stream and Metallica Black album as the audio stream.
· 1:18 clip from Starcraft 2 Battle Report

Virtualdub – Starcraft 2(video compression, No Audio, XVID 1.0 Target Quantizer)

As a side note to this test, 64 bit XVID codecs are not well supported, nor under any major development. Hopefully this can be changed in the future. On the other hand the 64 bit OS running the 32 bit software was still faster than the 32 bit OS running the 32 bit software.

Virtualdub – Metallica (Direct Stream Video, Audio AC3 output 320 Kbps)

Unfortunatley you can’t install 32 bit ACM codecs in a 64 bit Operating System. This isn’t a major deal seeing as the ACM framework is considered legacy. Unfortunatley certain programs are still stuck on that framework.

Passmark Performance Test

32 bit results = 32 bit Operating System
64 os 32bit = 64 bit Operating System running 32 bit version of Software
This Computer = 64 bit Operating System running 64 bit version of Software

Winrar (Extract 7127 x86 ISO)

Winrar (Compress extracted x86 ISO – Compression type: Good)

Conclusion

In every test, except the installation, the 64 bit OS was faster. Even more so, the 32 bit software almost always performed better in the 64 bit OS than in the 32 bit OS (Probably due to the fact that the CPU was 64 bit and the OS runs happier). These test specifically used 3 GB of RAM to show that you don’t need 4 GB of ram to take advantage of the 64 bit OS. Although there are numbers thrown around, the main point is that a 64 bit OS will be happier than a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit CPU despite the RAM size. I will also include my Excel sheet with all of the information that I did along the way...
Other Conclusion

Switch to windows 64 bit OS (Unless of course you don't have a 64 bit CPU or there aren't 64 bit drivers for your hardware) so more software companies will see the light and I can enjoy more benefitsJ