Windows 7: Performance: Win7 32-bit vs 64-bit

Tried a search on this first -- said nothing found ... so here goes ...

Had to build a new Windows 7 Pro system a month ago due to old system PSU burning up the motherboard. So, built a new system with AMD 1090t 6-core processor and 4GB of 1333 memory. Was a lot of work doing that -- and it works OK.

But having done that, I had all the makings of switching over to 64-bit. So, I installed Windows 7 Pro 64-bit from scratch and have been installing my apps, one by one.

Also converted the drive access to AHCI in the process.

The plan was to switch over to 64-bit once I was finished to reap the benefits of improved performance.

Problem is ... I don't see any.

Given the same hardware, the same apps, the "real-time" performance experience is the same, whether using 32-bit or 64-bit.

I suspect that purchasing another 4GB of 1333 memory may improve the 64-bit performance -- but I'm hesitant to spend the money since, if it doesn't, I then HAVE to switch over to 64-bit or have an extra 4GB of memory sitting there unusable under 32-bit.

So, is there something I'm missing? I actually thought that 64-bit would be faster performance.

You won't notice any major speed improvements unless you use native 64-bit applications such as Photoshop x64 or any other heavy programs


The performance increase won't even be noticeable if you upgrade to 1333

The numbers say otherwise, but I myself have never noticed a significant difference between 32 and 64 bit applications in day to day type use. If data were moving down a highway, the bit marker would determine how many lanes that highway had. Theoretically more lanes means more traffic and less congestion, it's probably a bit more noticeable in very high data applications, say video conversion. For your normal office apps and internet browsers, I just don't think it has a chance to really show a noticeable difference.

That's my personal take though, as with many things, other people's experience may vary.

I switched and don't see any performance improvements and didn't expect to.

I used 4 gigs of RAM on 32 bit and am using 4 gigs on 64 bit.

As far as I know, the differences are supposed to be fairly subtle and not particularly related to "speed".

I'm another member who noticed no performance increase at all between 32-bit and 64-bit based on the software and such that I use. The "only" reason that I run 64-bit is because I have 8GB of RAM for running virtual machines.

Hey ... great. Thanks for all the feedback, folks.

So, to ask the question a different way, is there any downside (other than having to contact MS to reactivate) to staying with 64-bit? I'm asking because, since I only have one copy of Windows 7 Pro, once I activate the 64-bit, ther's basically no going back.

The significant issue would be whether or not the programs you use will install and run properly on 64 bit.

Nearly all will.

A few won't.

It's up to you to sort that out through experimentation, Google, etc.

I have not run into any apps that won't install in win 7 x64 , though I did have that problem with xp and vista 64. Granted I have moved on from most of the older software I was using back then as well and found newer, better replacements.

Unless you still use 16-bit apps for some reason, there's pretty much no reason to not use 64-bit Windows 7 if your system can handle it.

+=1 You may need that extra memory in the future. I need it for Photoshop.

One performance gain you get with 64 bit + greater than 4GB of memory is that more of your programs and data can be cached in memory and hence start up basically instantaneously second+ time round (or you can keep them open).

Unless you have 16 bit apps there is no reason to live in the past

I wonder if superfetch takes into account the amount of RAM you have. Anyone know?