Why 32bit?

AllanJacques · 28 Mar 2009

Jaqie said:

Then you should not be running a beta os...

Anything straightforward would be an extreme oversimplification to the point of being wrong - therein lies the issue and the reason there is so much misunderstanding about the issues with 32 vs 64.

Wow! did I mention that I like you? Nice answer!!!! I usually like smart people and you seem to be one of them! And yes, I shouldnt be running a beta OS... just cant be held tight enough not to try it anyway...

Fizban · 29 Mar 2009

davehc said:

It should be pointed out, however, that the software (excluding drivers) is not a problem.

It's not a problem for you perhaps, but it certainly can be. Most of my games work on 64 but OS's but there are a few that don't, most notably NeverWinter Nights 2.

z3r010 said:

How many people will be using less than 4gig of ram by 2010 anyway!!

Me. 2 GB is plenty for everything at the moment.

DiamondNRG said:

Windows 8 is going to be x64 only, as windows 7 should have been (AND WAS PLANNED TO BE), they just didn't have the balls to do it.

Not sure they'll have the balls next OS either.

AllanJacques said:

So do you think 2gig is enough to run 64-bit windows 7? I mean, will there be any disadvantages in doing so?

Not at all, my laptop has 2 GB RAM and ran Build 7057 and runs 7068 flawlessly, both are x64.

MrGrim said:

may be slightly slower with only 2Gigs then it would be if you had X86

My laptop on benchmarks is roughly 10-12% faster on various benchmarks running x64 than x86 with 2 GB RAM.

AllanJacques said:

So would you say that it is prefereable to use a 32-bit version with 2gig ram only?

No. You'd be hard pressed to use my laptop and notice that it had 2 GB of RAM and not 4 GB unless you specifically ran dxdiag or another diagnostic tool. 2 GB is plenty for most everything, beyond 2 GB becomes is mostly negligible.

Fliplip · 30 Mar 2009

I tried W7 64bit (my PC is up to the task) but i quickly found problems with applications i needed to run. There only seemed to be 32 bit versions so i quickly went back to 32bit.
I cant see any downside to using it over 64bit but then maybe im not really pushing it much (photo editing and music recording being the two most used tasks).

Dave.

jimbo45 · 30 Mar 2009

Hi guys
Win 7 X-64 works fine even on a tiny laptop with just 1GB of RAM so long as the processor (nearly all of them are today are) is 64 bit enabled.

My advice would be to (whatever the amount of RAM in your system) to use X-64 if your processor supports it.

(Just because your car only has a 45 - 50 Litre Gas tank doesn't mean that you can't fill up from a Gas station which has gas tanks of several thousand litres).

X-32 is essentially dead -- for really old legacy stuff just run it on a Windows XP Virtual machine -- even a 1GB laptop with a dual processor will run a 512MB virtual machine -- more than enough for driving a really old legacy printer / scanner etc.

I really think that W7 will be the last Microsoft OS that comes in 2 flavours. In future it will be only 64 bit with "limited but diminishing" 32 bit support.

For Old infrequently used hardware just use a VM --saves all the hassle of maintaining huge amounts of drivers in a current OS.

In future I also think Virtual Machine support should also be enabled "straight out of the box".

cheers
jimbo

win7 · 30 Mar 2009

z3r010 said:

I just dont get why there is a 32bit Windows 7

are there any 32bit PC's left?

Edit
Just noticed I didn't even get first post on my own forum!!

Check my specs, no x64 machines in my house.

Dzomlija · 30 Mar 2009

eggyuk said:

I think computer sellers are a major part of the problem. My dad is currently looking for a new computer so i've been going round the local independant stores (i avoid pcworld etc at all costs!) getting prices etc and when i ask them if they offer 64 bit they are all saying yes they do but they wouldnt recommend anyone other than technicians get 64 bit due to the issues that may possibly arise. If these sellers don't push 64 bit then its gonna be slow to really enter the mainstream.

Then you should head over to South Africa and hear what the suppliers (the guys who sell only to the retailers) are saying.

Apparently, they won't sell 64-bit Vista OR 7 because (and I quote) : "64-bit is nothing more than a clever marketing gimmick. It'll be forgotten before years end, and nobody will even care. You're throwing away perfectly good money if you spend it on 64-bit junk."

Almost makes me wish I had a voice recorder connected to my phone so I could give proof of the above staement!

Romulinx2 · 30 Mar 2009

Mmmm very interesting! :)

I agree with all of you.

AllanJacques · 30 Mar 2009

Nice, according to WEI, processor and ram were faster under 64-bit than 32-bit...
Any ideas why and if this is true?

torrentg · 30 Mar 2009

64 bit is faster for many things, most notably video encoding.

Fizban · 30 Mar 2009

AllanJacques said:

Nice, according to WEI, processor and ram were faster under 64-bit than 32-bit...
Any ideas why and if this is true?

Odd, I've found my computer faster running x64 on benchmarks, but identical scores on WEI both ways. I suspect the difference is actually a modification to the scoring scale from two different Beta Builds and not the x64 vs. x86 change.