32 bit vs 64 bit Comparison

Golden · 05 Nov 2010

That's a well written articel LordBob. Something that I never understood, is what are the effects if any, of installing a 64bit OS onto a 32bit PC?

Lordbob75 · 05 Nov 2010

Golden said:

That's a well written articel LordBob. Something that I never understood, is what are the effects if any, of installing a 64bit OS onto a 32bit PC?

What do you mean by 32 bit PC? They haven't made (for consumer computers) pure 32 bit processors for years...

~Lordbob

Golden · 05 Nov 2010

Thanks LordBob. I was under the impression that there were still 32bit processors out there, but it seems I was wrong. Thanks again for a good article.

zzz2496 · 05 Nov 2010

Little notes:

x64 = x86_64, meaning Intel's x86 based processor with AMD's 64bit extensions. x64 is a shorthand of x86_64.
x86 = x86, meaning vanilla Intel's x86 based processor.

The "x" is referring to Intel's whole long line of many *86 processors, starting from 8086, 80286, 80386 (and of course 80387 math-co processor), 80486 (and 80487 math-co processor), Intel Pentium series (80586 with integrated math-co processor and MMX), and many more. They all have *86 number, thus the x86.

There is no x32. The correct term to refer to the 32bit is "x86". So if you find any software of any kind that is written with x86 (not x86_64) on it, it's 32bit software.

zzz2496

Golden · 05 Nov 2010

zzz2496 said:

Little notes:

There is no x32. The correct term to refer to the 32bit is "x86". So if you find any software of any kind that is written with x86 (not x86_64) on it, it's 32bit software.

zzz2496

Excellent! Very informative. +1

Keiichi25 · 07 Nov 2010

Well, another point is that most programs written for Windows XP are normally 32 bit OS written. It wasn't until Vista and Win 7 that the normal user started seeing x64. There is Windows XP x64, but it wasn't really well supported and only other systems that actually started using x64 bit processing was Windows 2003 and above server level when Servers started needing more and more memory access. But again, there wasn't a lot of x64 based applications or software.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 32-bit is out there for people with some older systems that don't support larger memory addressing. While the processor might support 64 bit processing, the better use of x64 is when you can do more than 4 gigs of RAM and having programs that will actually use 64-bit processing needs, usually heavy number crunching based programs like Adobe Photoshop or rendering based programs that will need larger memory spaces and number crunching.

Lordbob75 · 07 Nov 2010

Keiichi25 said:

Well, another point is that most programs written for Windows XP are normally 32 bit OS written. It wasn't until Vista and Win 7 that the normal user started seeing x64. There is Windows XP x64, but it wasn't really well supported and only other systems that actually started using x64 bit processing was Windows 2003 and above server level when Servers started needing more and more memory access. But again, there wasn't a lot of x64 based applications or software.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 32-bit is out there for people with some older systems that don't support larger memory addressing. While the processor might support 64 bit processing, the better use of x64 is when you can do more than 4 gigs of RAM and having programs that will actually use 64-bit processing needs, usually heavy number crunching based programs like Adobe Photoshop or rendering based programs that will need larger memory spaces and number crunching.

While this is true, modern x64 bit systems support x86 programs (except in rare cases) just fine.

Though I would love to see pure x64 programs (and OS), that just won't happen while MS is writing with backwards compatibility.

~Lordbob

zzz2496 · 08 Nov 2010

Where does this "x32" comes from ??? Lordbob, can we stop using "x32"? There is no "x32" term. x64 term comes from a shorthand form of x86_64 (meaning x86 instructions with AMD's 64 bit extensions). There is no x86_32 ever...

And there are no 80x32 processors on Intel's catalog that I'm aware of... We should use the correct terminology at all times. It's better that way...

zzz2496

Lordbob75 · 08 Nov 2010

zzz2496 said:

Where does this "x32" comes from ??? Lordbob, can we stop using "x32"? There is no "x32" term. x64 term comes from a shorthand form of x86_64 (meaning x86 instructions with AMD's 64 bit extensions). There is no x86_32 ever...

And there are no 80x32 processors on Intel's catalog that I'm aware of... We should use the correct terminology at all times. It's better that way...

zzz2496

The x32 came from 32bit...?

I am more confused about where x86 came from.

However, will do.

~Lordbob

minimeister · 08 Nov 2010

Has anyone failed to notice that MS doesn't really support 64-bit OS? Windows update site only runs on 32-bit, the only reason to have 32bit IE installed by default so you can do updates? Give me a break. If MS is not going to support it, why in the world would you ever get it?