64 Bit Versus 32 Bit, A Forum For The Differences

[Norwood]

Which do you prefer Windows 7 64bit or 32bit, and why?

I personally like my 64 bit machine better than my 32 bit machine because, well, it just handles things better. Maybe it's my imagination because some of my colleagues don't care for the 64 bit version at all.

What say you, kind folk?

 

[bigmck]

I have both and can't tell any difference.

 

[Norwood]

Yeah, there isn't much noticable difference between the two in terms of actual visual results like, say, doubling your RAM.

But with a good CPU I think 64bit can crunch a lot more numbers...

 

[jadinolf]

Let's see, max memory for 64 bit is 192 Gigabytes.

I like that.

 

[bigmck]

Yeah, there isn't much noticable difference between the two in terms of actual visual results like, say, doubling your RAM.

But with a good CPU I think 64bit can crunch a lot more numbers...

I have a i5 CPU 64-bit. It has 6 GB of RAM and a HDD. == My other PC is a i3 CPU 32-bit. It has 4 GB of RAM but has a SSD. The i3 is much faster than the i5. The CPU and RAM are not the only thing that gives a machine speed.

 

[Norwood]

The CPU and RAM are not the only thing that gives a machine speed.

Thanks for the lesson, but yes I know.

North and south bridges, buses etc.

I had an i5 and upgraded to the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W quad with the ASUS M4A77TD AM3 (770) ATX AMD Motherboard

6MB L3 Cache is a huge boost from the...what does the i5 have? 4? 133 mhz FSB? Deneb has 4000 mhz plus 512KB L2 cachex4.

Throw ina shit-ton of G.Skill Ripjaws and a 750 watt power supply with an OCZ Vertex SSD for a system drive and I've got a nice speedy OS experience.

But yeah, I'm aware a proc and ram aren't the only things that give a machine speed. I just mentioned it in passing as two of the areas from which most people plan out a build.
:focus:

 

[Norwood]

I have both and can't tell any difference.

What are you using to benchmark that shows you now difference at all?

 

[Norwood]

Let's see, max memory for 64 bit is 192 Gigabytes.

I like that.

Hell yeah dude...I mean...knowing you can just gleefully toss RAM over RAM over RAM into that tower is like...well, being able to use a helluva lot of awesome RAM!

 

[Manigue]

Well I paid for 64 bits, might as well use them whenever possible.

 

[gregrocker]

You can use either bit-version you want with each license.

I prefer 32 bit on 4 gb RAM or less for better performance and less problems.

However 64 bit has become so common in recent years that there may be no difference now since drivers are easily available for both versions. I've never seen a reinstall come up short of a driver for either that cannot be found. 95% are in the Windows Installer or via Optional Updates.

 

[DustSailor]

Perhaps obviously, the difference comes out more when you are doing graphic intensive things with more RAM (large tv for movies, gaming, Photoshop...). If you don't, there may be little difference.

Using 64bit may be the better option if ever you think you desire to upgrade to more than 4GB RAM. 4GB RAM is pretty common in standard machines, and I've noticed that software becomes unbearably slow when using 2GB RAM. Although installing SSDs will give you a huge boost in speed that may be more noticeable.

Let's put it this way: There is no reason not to use 64bit. And by the way the poll is going, I think most will agree

 

[LMiller7]

The biggest difference, and the one why 64 bit systems were developed, is that 64 bit systems provide a much larger private virtual address space to native applications. That is 8192 GB instead of 2 GB. This is an enormous advantage for some types of applications. And that 8192 GB is a limit imposed because of practical considerations. This could be increased in future 64 bit systems.

Please understand that all of the above is completely independent of how much RAM you have.

 

[bigmck]

Throw ina shit-ton of G.Skill Ripjaws and a 750 watt power supply with an OCZ Vertex SSD for a system drive and I've got a nice speedy OS experience.

I know that you are very cool and all of that, but please keep the language clean. This is a family forum.

 

[Vegas]

Normally have 5-10 apps open all the time plus some remote desktop sessions.
Running Autodesk Inventor (CAD). 6-7GB of ram used at any given time is normal.

64 bit and never look back.

 

[Nemix]

I've always found the 32-bit version runs faster for general tasks like email, web surfing and videos on systems with less than 4GB ram; Windows 32-bit plays better with 32-bit native software (which accounts for 99.9% of software available).

Windows 64-bit is better for multitasking, newer games (even though most games are 32-bit native), photo/video editing and software that have 64-bit native counterparts on systems that have a 64-bit capable CPU and more than 4GB ram.

 

[bawldiggle]

As a commercial/industrial user, I have had some programs not compatible with x64. All other 5 PCs are x32.
The x64 is about to be downgraded (or upgraded, depending on your take) to x32.
My problem is that some of my specialist programs cost an arm and a leg. (5 figures)
If it works why fix it ?
Free Revouninstaller cannot "see" x64 programs, so falling back onto Windows add/remove leaves a lot of junk on the PC.
Maybe for gamers x64 does matter, I wouldn't know.

 

[DustSailor]

There are some compatibility issues between office 32 and 64 bit (especially older versions), but using 64 bit office on a like computer may improve performance quite a bit. I would guess that eventually we won't have compatibility issues when everything is running 64 bit. Seems everything is moving toward 64 bit, so if you are using legacy programs, you may have to spend that extra gold to upgrade soon anyway. I would say that perhaps there is no reason to rush to it, though.

 

[Norwood]

Throw ina shit-ton of G.Skill Ripjaws and a 750 watt power supply with an OCZ Vertex SSD for a system drive and I've got a nice speedy OS experience.

I know that you are very cool and all of that, but please keep the language clean. This is a family forum.

The terrible graphic language aside, what are you taking a shot at me for?

 

[bigmck]

Throw ina shit-ton of G.Skill Ripjaws and a 750 watt power supply with an OCZ Vertex SSD for a system drive and I've got a nice speedy OS experience.

I know that you are very cool and all of that, but please keep the language clean. This is a family forum.

The terrible graphic language aside, what are you taking a shot at me for?

My point exactly..................

 

[scr]

I ended up with 64 bit because I thought that it was the up and coming thing, not really.

To be completely honest I wanted the fastest computer I could afford. It just happened to be 64 bit with 5 gigs of RAM - 4.75 usable, a dual AMD processor at 3.4GHz.

To me it is lightening fast as I moved up from a 10 year old 32 bit XP OS machine with 1 gig of RAM running at 1.8 GHz.

Of course it's nothing compared to some of the systems talked about on these forums. But I'm happy, at least for now.