Solved Win7 x64/x32bit? Which one?

[Plan B]

I have 4GB of RAM memory in my PC. Now what I wanted to know, will there be any difference between using Win7 x64bit or x32bit? Because when I'm on x32bit in System it says "4.00 GB (3.25 GB usable)" and when I'm on x64bit it says only "4.00 GB" ... does that mean that x64bit uses all 4GB of memory and x32bit only 3.25? Which means it's better to run on x64bit?

Someone mind explaning me this? xD

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You've got it about right. If you have 64 bit, you can use that extra .75 GB of RAM.

If you installed a total of 8 GB of RAM, you could use all of it with 64 bit, but only about 3.25 if you had 32 bit.

64 bit has some advantages other than the amount of RAM you can use, but you aren't likely to notice the difference in day to day operation as long as you don't need that extra RAM.

Most people wouldn't re-install if they have only 4 GB of RAM, but they might if they had more than 4 GB and some reason to believe they actually used more than 4.

I have 4 GB and have used both 32 bit and 64 bit and can't tell the difference.

Most programs will install and run on either 32 bit or 64 bit.

If you are reinstalling Windows anyway, you may as well use 64 bit.

 

[Alejandro85]

It's normal to see that and effectively that means that the 32 bits version is wasting some memory.

The reason is that 32 bits client Windows versions are arbitrarily limited to use up to 4GB of memory, while the rest is being assigned to hardware and therefore not usable (hence what you see). The 64 bits version works properly and hasn't this ridiculous limitation and fully utilizes the whole amount.

In terms of memory then yes, it's better to use 64 bits. In overall system performance there is little to no perceptible difference for many practical applications.

 

[gregrocker]

If you observe the Resource Monitors in 32 bit you'll see that they are not utilizing 32bit as efficiently or fully as 64bit with 4gb RAM - even if the additional .75gb RAM is reserved by hardware as shown on Resource Monitor>Memory tab.

For this reason I no longer recommend 32 bit with 4gb RAM, but only for 3gb or below.

You can Clean Reinstall Windows 7 and will likely see better performance with 64 bit as have I, providing you follow the other steps, tools and methods that work best in Win7.

Please let us know the results after testing performance for some time.

 

[AddRAM]

With 4 GB of ram and a 64 bit capable cpu, install 64 bit.

 

[sgage]

The only reason I can think of to use 32-bit instead of 64-bit is if you have some ancient 16-bit program that you need to run. 32-bit Windows will run just about any old thing you throw at it, going back to the 90's. 64-bit, you get an error message on attempting to install them.

Other than that, 64-bit is absolutely the way to go.