Is 64bit really better than 32bit?

[Brando569]

is 64bit stuff really better than 32bit stuff? from what ive seen the processors are unstable (mainly the AMD 64bit processors, or atleast they were), theres barely any support for them and software vendors dont really seem to be jumping on the 64bit bandwagon. what are the real advantages for the end user? i know it can address more then 4gb of memory (i forget what it actually is somewhere in the terrabyte range, correct?) and im guessing that it processes stuff faster, but is any of this really useful for the home user/small business user?

[prathapml]

64-bit PCs *ARE* a hell of a lot faster. That is, provided you give it the requisite accompaniments like PCI-E, SATA, and so on, to make full use of the architecture.

For starters, Windows XP 64-bit installs in half the time that the 32-bit edition needs..... that's good enough a speed-up initially. And then you start seeing lot of compression apps working a lot faster, and 3D rendering and games.....

[raskren]

Yes, in theory. Currently, in practice, no. We need mature 64-bit drivers and native 64-bit applications to take advantage of the increased address space. Initially these will probably be apps like Photoshop, Lightwave, 3DS Max, Premiere, SQL server, Apache and database apps. Basically programs that have a need to access huge data sets and/or address more than 2GB of RAM at a time. Despite what AMD/Intel/Microsoft want you to think, your broadband connection won't be any faster, you won't get email any more quickly, and 64-bit Word will behave exactly like it did in the 32-bit environment.

Multithreading will provide a much larger performance boost than 64-bit on the right hardware (Pentium with HT or Pentium/Athlon Dual-core). But multithreading some applications is very difficult which is why we have ZERO multithreaded games.

[Astalavista]

I can tell u that i install xp 64 bit on a amd 64 2800+ , 80 SATA, 512MB

in 15 mins

aside from that dont install it!!!

lol

no winrar context menu, that has got to be the worst.

Winfax pro doesn't work,

winzip doesn't work properly too

7zip

Photoshop CS2 works ok pretty fast

firefox is ok

the rest i didn't get to test bec. i can't use winrar using right click.

[Pyr0]

you can use Squeez 5.0b3 x64 as a replacement for winrar, or you could use a 32bit file manager like directory opus, and that will enable you to use the winrar right click context menus

[doom34]

http://www.docp.com/articleprint.htm?article_id=765 explains this i would say maybe in a year will 64 bit be worth while.

[doom34]

hardocp.com/articleprint.htm?article_id=765

[Pyr0]

i just tried to view that article, but the page says 404 not found

[Brando569]

so pretty much 64 bit stuff sucks right now....

[Pyr0]

well it works fine for me, i quite like the extra speed

[soldier1st]

well for the moment 64 bit is worth testing and playing with but give it till next year then use it as your main os as there will be more 64 bit apps around then,but for now stick to 32 bit but 64 bit is quite a bit faster then 32 bit and most 32 bit apps work for it.

[big poppa pump]

well for the moment 64 bit is worth testing and playing with but give it till next year then use it as your main os as there will be more 64 bit apps around then,but for now stick to 32 bit but 64 bit is quite a bit faster then 32 bit and most 32 bit apps work for it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what????

[unrealhippie]

I can tell u that i install xp 64 bit on a amd 64 2800+ , 80 SATA, 512MB

in 15 mins

aside from that dont install it!!!

lol

no winrar context menu, that has got to be the worst.

Winfax pro doesn't work,

winzip doesn't work properly too

7zip

Photoshop CS2 works ok pretty fast

firefox is ok

the rest i didn't get to test bec. i can't use winrar using right click.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why would you want winrar or winzip when theres 7zip? Simply make all rar's and zips open with 7zip, its great!

Only problem I have had is managing to properly patch Uxtheme, I can get file but it doesnt want to patch it correctly!

[unrealhippie]

I can tell u that i install xp 64 bit on a amd 64 2800+ , 80 SATA, 512MB

in 15 mins

aside from that dont install it!!!

lol

no winrar context menu, that has got to be the worst.

Winfax pro doesn't work,

winzip doesn't work properly too

7zip

Photoshop CS2 works ok pretty fast

firefox is ok

the rest i didn't get to test bec. i can't use winrar using right click.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why would you want winrar or winzip when theres 7zip? Simply make all rar's and zips open with 7zip, its great!

Only problem I have had is managing to properly patch Uxtheme, I can get file but it doesnt want to patch it correctly!

[Francesco]

Well only somebody with lot of money to trash would not buy an a64. It's very fast even at 32bit and it overclocks a lot! Mine (3000+) without even changing the dissipator goes at 2400mhz (the same frequency of a 4000+)!!

Also i'm using xp 64bit and it's not unstable like you're saying: i've never got a crash and also with my a64 mb I got all the 64bit drivers and they look quite stable so I had no driver problems for now.

Also 32 bit applications run very fast on windows 64bit even if I thought that windows 32bit emulation would have slowed them down.

Well probably 64bit drivers will not be released for all the hardware you may have (expecially old hardware) and they may not be as stable as their 32bit counterparts for now but because of intel deciding to start selling 64bit p4s too I think that all the hardware manifactures will start to release and improve their 64 drivers soon.

The speed gain may not be noticeable with 32bit applications but with 64 bit applications that do intensive use of cpu (like video codec compressors etc) you'll see that there will be a big difference. A very big difference.

Sorry for my crappy english