32-bit VS 64-bit Vista / XP?

A

audiobahn1000

Member
I was told that the difference between 32 and 64 bit OS's is that 64 bit OS's use both CPU cores on a dual core CPU and 32 bit OS's use just one core. Is this true? If not whats the difference between the two?

Also judgeing by the computer in my signature will I benifit changeing out to 64 bit Vista over 32 bit Vista? I use the comp mainly for gameing.
 
This is untrue. You will be able to run both cores regardless of using a 32 or 64 bit operating system. In fact you can have 64 bit operating systems on one core processors. The difference between 64 bit and 32 bit processors is fairly broad but 64 bit processors allow for some advantages such as gains in speed in intensive operations such as video editing. If I am correct you can also use more ram with a 64 bit processor if it is paired with a 64 bit OS as opposed to the maximum amount of ram allowed with an x86 configuration.
 
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Yeah thats not true, 32bit uses both cores ;). Right now at this point in time there is no need to run a 64bit os. The difference is that in the future they will come out with apps that require a 64bit operating systems and on 64bit vista you can have 16gb of memory instead of the 4gb limit on the 32bit version.
 
ThatGuy16 said:
Yeah thats not true, 32bit uses both cores ;). Right now at this point in time there is no need to run a 64bit os. The difference is that in the future they will come out with apps that require a 64bit operating systems and on 64bit vista you can have 16gb of memory instead of the 4gb limit on the 32bit version.
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I also second everything that he said. And thanks ill have to keep the mem limits in my head now, didnt know them before.
 
the amount of ram allowable also depends on the manufacturer of the mobo and also if the processor can handle it 4 gig isnt a standard check the specs first. i was told i could upgrade mine to 4gigs also and i went and checked the support page for my computer and 2 is the max, with a dual core x64 processor with x32 vista home prem.
 
I was told that the difference between 32 and 64 bit OS's is that 64 bit OS's use both CPU cores on a dual core CPU and 32 bit OS's use just one core. Is this true? If not whats the difference between the two?
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Completely untrue, both 32 and 64 bit versions can support all the cores on a CPU. For starters, the 64 but OS's can support up to 128GB of RAM, while the 32 bit versions can only support ~3GB.

Also judgeing by the computer in my signature will I benifit changeing out to 64 bit Vista over 32 bit Vista? I use the comp mainly for gameing.
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You wont notice a difference, mainly because 64 bit games and apps are a long ways away from becoming standard.
 
I found this on Microsoft's site:

A 64-bit computer can process twice as much information as a 32-bit computer, and can have significantly more random access memory (RAM). This makes a 64-bit computer a good choice if you're working with video, large database searches, or games and other programs that require complex calculations and a lot of memory.

So are the lieing basicaly? Or what? There is not a single game that will benifit from haveing more then 4 gigs of RAM. I havent even ever seen one that needs more then two gigs.
 
but in the future... :) always best to plan ahead, if your doing a major upgrade now might as well go for it, saves spending money later
 
To be exact, 32 bit can only support 3.75gb RAM. For gaming, you won't need any more but you should have nothing less than 2gbs if you want to run new and upcoming games like Rainbow Six Vegas, Dirt, Lost Planet, Crysis, Unreal 2007 etc. with confidence. (I bet you anything that Crysis will need 4gb of RAM to run at max settings even though the rumor is 1.5)
 
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To be even more exact. It can handle a memory address space of 4GB. How much room there is for RAM depends on the specific hardware setup
 
audiobahn1000 said:
I found this on Microsoft's site:

A 64-bit computer can process twice as much information as a 32-bit computer, and can have significantly more random access memory (RAM). This makes a 64-bit computer a good choice if you're working with video, large database searches, or games and other programs that require complex calculations and a lot of memory.

So are the lieing basicaly? Or what? There is not a single game that will benifit from haveing more then 4 gigs of RAM. I havent even ever seen one that needs more then two gigs.
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Thats true, but current games and apps are programmed for 32-bit, so you wont see twice the performance by using a 64-bit OS and CPU.
 
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