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#1
Please clarify a couple points of basic windows 64-bit
Up until recently I've always used 32 bit operating systems. After my quad core system went poof I obtained and older Pentium D duo 64-bit machine and installed windows 7 home premium 64. Also using spare parts installed for one gigabyte RAM modules and an extra hard drive. Everything was working fine until I installed and ran Pro Tools which overheated the whole thing and now this computer no longer works. This got me to wonder about compatibility issues and things like that so I took to the internet. Most discussions were older of course, and started out with basic questions such as pros and cons but often changed into the more technical details that I really didn't need to know. I was already aware of the 32-bit architecture and how the operating system reserved a certain portion of the 4 gigs of ram in only saw and used three or maybe a little more. But just when I thought I had a good understanding of the basics someone would interject a new point setting me back to square one. Here are the points as I understand them now. I would appreciate any clarification of these points.
1. Windows 7 64 bit can run 32bit applications but requires 64-bit device drivers.
2. The operating system can take advantage of additional RAM above 4 gigabytes in order to have more programs open at a time. But it is unclear whether or not Windows is able to use this additional RAM for other operating system tasks. My experience is that the operating system seem to run faster and smoother in general but my guess is that this is due to the 64-bit processor more than the RAM. So the question here is if I had say 8 gigs of RAM installed what I notice any additional increase in operating system performance?
3. Applications written for 64-bit definitely have the ability to take advantage of additional RAM thus performing better in all aspects.
4. 32-bit applications basically don't perform any better on a 64 bit system. This is because each 32-bit program is only able to use a certain amount of available physical RAM. The amount of this RAM from what I've read was different from website to website but the main point remained that the four gigabyte limit could not be exceeded, or rather the three + gigabyte limit. The question here is if the program for some reason needed additional RAM would it resort to the page file before using physical RAM even if that room was available? My guess is yes.
5. Question, one thing I read indicated the quad core computers are used may have actually been 64-bit. But since they shipped with 32 bit Windows I just assumed they were 32 bit processors. Can anyone recommend a utility that can actually show the type of processor as well as what is going on with the course as well as with the installed RAM in real time?
Thank you for any help and advice anyone can provide.
PS - is there a mobile version of this site? I'm using an Android phone and usually and directed to the mobile versions automatically. I even tried to enter the M. Prefix before the domain name but that did not produce hey working page.