64-bit versions (for dummies) - happiness vs. headaches?

PC Hobbyist

PC Hobbyist

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I've never explored the world of 64-bit processing. Now that I am looking into buying a laptop, I'm curious about it.

What exactly are the pros and cons of having a 64-bit processor now-a-days? I know I can install a 32-bit windows version on it (right?), but of course that defeats the whole purpose of a 64-bit processor. But let's say I saddle up and go for 64 all the way. I'm not a gamer. So, what are my pros and cons? What will make me happy and what will give me headaches?
 
most apps run in 32bit mode anyway so you will basically have a 64bit os running a bunch of 32bit apps. I also understand that finding drivers for such things like printers are a pain in 64bit mode. Personally I think it will be up to you and the programs you use to see if running a 64bit OS will benefit you.
 
driver support in vista x64 is better than xp x64 but it still isnt excellent.

basically 64 bit lets you handle more data and memory. Only really usseful if your a gamer or are doing a lot of number crunching or something
 
64bit also allows you to have a couple of exabytes (million of GB) as RAM, instead of 4 GB RAM (in fact about 3.25 GB) which is the limit in 32bit platform.
 
chibicitiberiu said:
64bit also allows you to have a couple of exabytes (million of GB) as RAM, instead of 4 GB RAM (in fact about 3.25 GB) which is the limit in 32bit platform.
Click to expand...

4GB is right in XP32 XP64 its 8GB

Vista 64 Home is 8GB Home Premium its 16Gb and Business/Ultimate/Enterprise its 128GB
 
thats not a technological limit, thats due to MS wanting more money for people to buy the latest version of datacenter server etc...
 
lol yeah i think 2003 server enterprise 64x has a 2TB limit... that should be enough for me to run oregon trail.
 
If I mainly use my PC for photo editing, video editing, watching TV and movies, and internet (no games at all)..... would I notice a difference with the 64bit platform vs. a 32bit platform if they both have 4GB of RAM? And what about if the 64x had 8GB of RAM?

And, when it says that the MOBO accepts a max of X amount of RAM, is that because of the MOBO itself or is it really because of the Processor type 32 vs 64?
 
yeah right now you are wasting about 800mb of your 4gb of ram if you are running a 64 bit windows desktop system.

and that could be due to either limiting it
 
If they both had 4GB of ram... probably not... unless the program is 64x program
If the 64x had 8GB yeah you would notice a difference just as you would increasing ram in anything.

That's the mobo's limit. BIOS updates in some cases can allow you more memory. The update on the manufacturers website should state that.
 
So, in a 64 bit windows every program I install has to be the 64 bit version of the program (for example - MS Office, Adobe Reader, Photoshop, Firefox... etc... etc...)?
 
No but a 32 bit app wont run in 64bit mode.. make sense?

Also I have never heard of xp32 having a 3.2GB limit I always thought it was 4GB... I have 4GB in my box at home and it reads 4GB in the post and in windows. Can you find an article explaining this?
 
no windows actually has a number of different systems

Windows NT has different subsystems for:

POSIX
OS/2
WIN32
WIN64
DOS

When running a 32 bit app on a 64 bit system you may see the WOW process. Thats the "Windows On Windows" subsystem. It runs it in 32 bit programs in 32 bit mode on a 64 bit system.

Also, windows 32 may report 4gb+ of ram, but it wont use more than 2/3gb for apps, and more than 1/2gb for services. How this is split depends on your boot.ini paramaters and whether its a server/desktop OS.
Using /3gb and /PAE on xp 32 or server 2003 helps give it more headroom in terms of ram, but programs which arent designed for it (basically none apart from SQL server etc...) wont use it
 
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thats exactly what i said. Thats also why 64 bit versions have 2 windows and program files directories and 2 versions of some things like IE.
 
I know you did... I just thought that article went into unneccessary detail that might eliminate further questions for other people.

Did you ever find anything on that 3.2 GB ram limit with xp?
 
as i said, you can tweak the boot.ini to have /pae and/or /3gb switches to change the way ram is divided up, and how much can be used. Most apps wont take advantage of this, only time ive ever seen it documented was in microsoft documentation for SQL server on datacenter servers
 
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