64- or 32- bit with 4gb RAM on CoreI5?
View Poll Results: Would you use 32- or 64-bit on 4gb RAM?
- Voters
- 38. You may not vote on this poll
-
32-bit
-
64-bit
-
Both 32-bit and 64-bit
-
64- or 32- bit with 4gb RAM on CoreI5?
As a rule of thumb I normally install 32-bit on 4gb of RAM or less since some is apportioned to hardware anyway - check how much on Memory tab in Resource Monitor.
I've seen others say to go with 64-bit on 4gb or even 2gb RAM since it's capable, but am curious how that would perform. All I've compared is the bloated factory preinstall of 64-bit just before I reinstall 32-bit on 4gb RAM.
For normal usage with web browsing, Quickbooks, Office spreadsheets, ITunes, etc. is installing 32 bit on 4gb RAM cheating user of any performance advantage? Isn't 64-bit really only needed for some video editors or PhotoShop-type uses?
Thanks for the feedback on this to build a consensus.
-
-
Greg:
I used 32-bit with 4 GB of RAM for a while because one of my apps would not install with 64-bit.
I later replaced the app with a version that is 64-bit compatible and switched to 64-bit Windows shortly thereafter.
It was mostly a case of "why not"---I don't notice any performance differences and very rarely use more than 3 GB of RAM.
I'd certainly have stayed with 32-bit without a doubt if I had any particular reason to do so--such as application incompatibility.
But I don't see any over-riding reason to go with 32-bit just because you have 4 GB of RAM.
-
There's no real reason why you shouldn't use a 64-bit system, but having used both (32-bit & 64-bit) I haven't noticed any discernible difference in performance between them.
My main reason for choosing a 64-bit operating system is that I use Adobe Design Premium CS5, which has both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Photoshop CS5 Extended. Photoshop's performance is definitely better using the 64-bit system.
Other than that, I'd agree with gregrocker's premise that a 32-bit system with 4Gb of RAM is just fine for everyday use.
-
-
My understanding is that 64 bit refers to the data path (bus), particularly between RAM and the processor. Put simply, a 64 bit system will use whatever amount of RAM is installed 'faster' than a 32 bit system and with (theoretically) fewer bottlenecks.
The deciding factor for me is whether or not the rig has a 64 bit processor or not. Not the amount of RAM.
-
I've got a PC with 4 GB Ram and Win 7 32-bit & 64-bit installed.
The 64-bit OS uses 1 MB Ram for Hardware Reserved
The 32-bit OS uses 513 MB Ram for Hardware Reserved
I lose .5 GB using 32-bit Windows.
-
I have run both 32 bit and 64 bit on my HP laptop with 4 GBs of RAM and the only difference I have noticed is that the 32 bit version is about 8 GBs smaller in size on the HDD.
-
-
At 4GB total system RAM, there's no reason not to use the 64 bit OS. If you had only 2GB then my reply would be different.
-
Maybe I'm comparing apples and strawberries, since I am not running an identical machine to the spec in the poll. I bought this Acer about a year ago with the understanding that it was shipping with both 32 and 64 bit versions of Win 7.
Well it wasn't shipping with both (surprising mis-info from NewEgg). It was 32 bits with 4Gb DDR3, period; and I used the machine that way until last month when a trojan downloaded with a Mozilla You Tube downloader "Add-On" and pretty soon the system software was wrecked.
A restore from the rescue partition got things runing again, but since the malware had de-validated my Photoshop license and the restore had wiped all my installed apps, I decided to upgrade to x64 and see what it'd be like to use all the ram.
Now... whether the stock Acer Win 7 was loaded with system-draining bloatware and that's why a clean install of x64 has been a dramatic improvement, or whether the 64 bit OS just worked better with the machine's archetecture, I have no way of knowing.
There is no comparison though, between the performance I'm getting with the x64 now and the x32 then. And since I do use the machine for video editing and photo processing, I added 4 more Gigs of (really inexpensive now) RAM, and wish I had done this on day one.
This is an Acer Veriton business machine, Intel i3 running at 3.07 GHz, with a dual-head EVGA video card 1Gb video RAM @ DDR3.
DocB
-
The real question you should be asking is this. Will I need to increase my RAM in the future? If the answer is yes then go 64bit otherwise 32bit.
-
I've added the option and voted for both, since I have 4GB and I have both 32-bit and 64-bit OSes installed.