windows 7 32bit or 64?

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  1. Posts : 173
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64
       #11

    Two years from now, we won't be having this discussion.

    "What?! You only have 4 GB of memory? What programs can you run on your machine?"
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,074
    Windows 7 Profession 64-bit
       #12

    I think if you're ever going to want more than 3Gb of system memory, you'll need to have a 64-Bit version of windows. Not sure about Windows 7, but I think 32-Bit Vista only supports up to 3Gb. (Although I've also read that 32-bit can also support up to 4Gb, not sure which is accurate)
    It's not a matter of XP, Vista, Win7, MacOS, or Linux or whatever. 32-bit is limited by the Laws of Physics and math to 4Gb (2^32 = 4,294,967,296), although you will not see the full 4Gb due to overhead - typically you will see between 2.8 and 3.5Gb, depending on your graphics card and how it "shares" your RAM.

    Did I mention Drivers + 64-bit software support?
    Maybe once or twice, as did I in my first post above, and as SURF alluded to with his 7 year old printer example. But to reiterate, if you want to move to 64-bit, make sure 64-bit drivers for all your hardware devices are available first.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 7
    W7 RC
       #13

    satchmo said:
    Two years from now, we won't be having this discussion.

    "What?! You only have 4 GB of memory? What programs can you run on your machine?"
    You've got a point there. Depends on what you do, I suppose. For me, I use the map editor for Half-Life 2. When you get to loading a ton of different textures, etc, it's nice to have all the memory you can get. I'm glad I have the room to upgrade if I so desire.

    I've been using 64-Bit for about a year. I haven't had any issues that I can recall, so I'd recommend it. But all in all, I suppose there's no real push for average every-day user to use anything other than 32 at the moment. Is there?
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  4. Posts : 7,683
    Windows 10 Pro
       #14

    satchmo said:
    Two years from now, we won't be having this discussion.

    "What?! You only have 4 GB of memory? What programs can you run on your machine?"
    Two years from now our systems could be obsolete...so do we wait two years?
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1,074
    Windows 7 Profession 64-bit
       #15

    Two years we WILL be having these discussions - perhaps even 4 years from now. Look how long the floppy has lingered on. SATA drives have been around for years and still most new motherboards come with EIDE (PATA) connectors.

    Understand 64-bit is nothing new - 64-bit XP has been around for 7 years!
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  6. Posts : 2,685
    Windows 7 Ultimate x86-64
       #16

    64-bit Linux has been around longer.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,039
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 (Build 6.1.7601)
       #17

    Tews said:
    If you plan on running windows 7 64bit, you should upgrade your ram to 4gb.... while it would probably run on only 2gb, the experience would be less than satisfactory...
    I'm running 7 with 2gb atm and it runs fine even with 4gb u will only use 2.4gb I have never seen it go over 3gb off ram, as for the speed difference you cant really notice it unless you are playing games.
      My Computer


 
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