the difference between 32 and 64bit

[optimistique1]

Hi All
I am still a little confused about the difference between 32 and 64bit.
I have a go at installing 64bit and to be honest there was no difference. I have a 64bit compatible laptop with 4GB of RAM.
However, I could only find a handful of 64bit programs such as iTunes etc.. All the rest were 32bit, such as OPen Office, VLC etc..
I did notice that there were two seperate program file folders. One called programs and one called programs x86.
Does this mean that all the 32bit programs will run ok on the 64bit OS or do I need to get 64bit compatible programs....
Very confusing :sarc:

 

[consume]

Hi All
I am still a little confused about the difference between 32 and 64bit.
I have a go at installing 64bit and to be honest there was no difference. I have a 64bit compatible laptop with 4GB of RAM.
However, I could only find a handful of 64bit programs such as iTunes etc.. All the rest were 32bit, such as OPen Office, VLC etc..
I did notice that there were two seperate program file folders. One called programs and one called programs x86.
Does this mean that all the 32bit programs will run ok on the 64bit OS or do I need to get 64bit compatible programs....
Very confusing :sarc:

You're not really supposed to notice a difference. The whole purpose of having a 64 bit version of windows is because the 32 bit one can't recognize more than 4gb of ram. And you don't need to install 64 bit programs. 32 bit ones work just fine however, if there is a 32 and 64 bit version of a program, you should get the 64 since it's more optimized for the architechure your running on.

 

[zigzag3143]

32 vs 64

Hi All
I am still a little confused about the difference between 32 and 64bit.
I have a go at installing 64bit and to be honest there was no difference. I have a 64bit compatible laptop with 4GB of RAM.
However, I could only find a handful of 64bit programs such as iTunes etc.. All the rest were 32bit, such as OPen Office, VLC etc..
I did notice that there were two seperate program file folders. One called programs and one called programs x86.
Does this mean that all the 32bit programs will run ok on the 64bit OS or do I need to get 64bit compatible programs....
Very confusing :sarc:

hi\

64 bit with 4 gigs of ram usually will be faster. It depends what you are using the computer for. Most 32 bits will run on 64 bit but slower and less efiecntly. and there are more drivers availible for 32 bit.

64 bit is the future. Use it if you can

Hope this helps

ken

 

[Brink]

Hi All
I am still a little confused about the difference between 32 and 64bit.
I have a go at installing 64bit and to be honest there was no difference. I have a 64bit compatible laptop with 4GB of RAM.
However, I could only find a handful of 64bit programs such as iTunes etc.. All the rest were 32bit, such as OPen Office, VLC etc..
I did notice that there were two seperate program file folders. One called programs and one called programs x86.
Does this mean that all the 32bit programs will run ok on the 64bit OS or do I need to get 64bit compatible programs....
Very confusing :sarc:

Hello Optimistique, and welcome to Seven Forums.

The articles at the link below can help give you some more detailed information beween the two.

64-bit: More than just the RAM - Vista Forums

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[optimistique1]

Cool thanks for that guys, starting to make more sense now!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Optimistique. Just let us know if you have any other questions about it.

 

[V8307]

Hi all - I was wondering. I am running 32 bit Win 7 ver 7100 as my OS. I have a fast quad core machine and 4 gig of ram. Can I install the 64 bit versionstraight over the existing 32 bit version? And if so will it need a new key or run using the existing key?

 

[Brink]

Hello V8307, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You can only do a clean install when going from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS, or in reverse.

However, you can still use the same product key number with it. Just be sure that you have 64-bit drivers available for all of your devices first though.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[V8307]

Thanks Brink. Great to be here.

If I upgrade for 32 to 64 bit will I see any improvemnt or is it really not nescessary?

regards

Mark

 

[Antman]

If I upgrade for 32 to 64 bit will I see any improvemnt

Normally, I would advise anyone with the gear and drivers to go 64. No question. This guy suggests that you can't on that machine (since you have 2 vid cards). I am not sure what he means and he seems to be confused, but...

"ATI CrossFire support is tied to Dell's 32-bit Vista driver software, preventing them from using Windows XP in this mode, or even 64-bit versions of Windows Vista"

I did not read anything else on your system. Check with Dell on this issue.

 

[V8307]

Thanks Antman - I will see if I can get any sense from Dell and report back in due course.
Mark

 

[Brink]

Mark,

It really depends on what you are running and if you go above 3.5 GB of RAM for you to see a noticable improvement or not though.

I would recommend 64-bit, but I would check out what Antman reported first though to make sure that you will be able to.

 

[V8307]

I had a dig around the Dell site last night and other than they are going to send out upgrade Vista to Win 7 kits for those that purchased b/w certain dates if the purchaser ordered them (not me) but I couldn't find anything that helped. Didn't even say what was in the kits.