To go 64 or not?
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Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
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Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
I'm running full 64-bits since a few years and never had any problem. That said, keep in mind that Windows Server 2008 R2 is 64-bit only, so you might want to run on Windows 7 x64 just to have an almost-identical environment. I don't know how you use your machine, but I have 8 GB and often run out of memory, because I keep multiple instances of VS open, with virtual machines running in background. I will probably add another 8 GB. Also, I often find that browsers, especially Firefox and Chrome, use up to 1 GB of memory... All that said, given how cheap memory is, I would suggest you to go x64, buy plenty of memory and disable the paging file to get improved performance. I don't see any reason to stick with 32-bit. It's the past.
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Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
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Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
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Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
To turn it around, is there any REAL advantage to using the 32 bit edition?
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Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
64 Bit and the extra memory addressing becomes a huge boon if you are running VMs.
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A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
I imagine 64-bit processors are better for memory throughput (e.g., you can play higher quality HD video). And running 32-bit Windows on a 64-bit processor would reduce performance.
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Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
Scales better. Plonk in another few gigs of RAM, and WHOOOSH! The only reasons to avoid x64:
- legacy hardware for which you don't get drivers anymore
- Some shell extensions don't work anymore. (@Max TrayPlayer is the only one for me). Generally, software that struggles with not running as admin is usually harder to debug (due to registry etc. virtualization).
FILETIME to time_t
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy -
Apart from the obvious advantage of addressing memory above 4Gbytes, what is the advantage to using a 64bit OS? I'm not running a high end CAD station or anything really taxing or using loads of memory, so I'm wondering if there is any REAL advantage to using Windows 7 x64 edition as opposed to the 32 bit edition.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
Some software (eg: Office 2007) has some issues running on a 64-bit OS (the OneNote printer driver doesn't work, and there are other issues I can't remember as well). Some peripherals don't have 64-bit drivers - a cheap webcam I bought on ebay only a year ago doesn't (it only cost about £2 though so not that surprised). I'm running 64-bit mostly so I have expansion room if I ever need more RAM (I'm coping fine with 3 GB at the moment though, the only time I ever hit the limits of that are when I have about 3 virtual machines running). On the server versions of Windows extra RAM is supported even on 32-bit (might work with desktop versions too if you hack around with PAE, not sure). A 64-bit OS is needed to virtualize 64-bit guests if your CPU doesn't support VT. I think Server 2008 R2 (not sure about R1) and some other newer servers (later versions of Exchange etc) are only available in 64-bit. I think 64-bit versions of some software may offer a performance improvement but most people probably wouldn't notice any difference there.
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Scales better. Plonk in another few gigs of RAM, and WHOOOSH! The only reasons to avoid x64:
- legacy hardware for which you don't get drivers anymore
- Some shell extensions don't work anymore. (@Max TrayPlayer is the only one for me). Generally, software that struggles with not running as admin is usually harder to debug (due to registry etc. virtualization).
FILETIME to time_t
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchyOh, and IE9 works better on the 32-bit platform, as Microsoft couldn't be bothered to write a 64-bit version of their JavaScript engine. MS have a habit of crapping on people who buy/install the best versions of their O/S. Anyone else remember Vista Ultimate Extras?
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Oh, and IE9 works better on the 32-bit platform, as Microsoft couldn't be bothered to write a 64-bit version of their JavaScript engine. MS have a habit of crapping on people who buy/install the best versions of their O/S. Anyone else remember Vista Ultimate Extras?
A little clarity, the 32-bit version of IE9 works better than the 64-bit version on a 64-bit platform. When you install IE9 to a x64 platform, it will install both versions, just be sure to run the 32-bit version (which is the default anyway, so you should be fine).
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