Home » General Discussions » General Discussion » 64bit vs 32bit
 64bit vs 32bit [message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 05:08  |
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trooprm02
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General (3 Stars) |
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| Which do you use?[ 27 votes ] |
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x86 |
 19 / 70% |
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x64 |
8 / 30% |
Ok, so recently ive decided to purchase a laptop. Ive found one with an AMD Turion 64 X2, and 4GB of ram, meaning I will have to be running Vista Home Premium 64bit edition. My current computer can run 64bit but since I have 2GB of ram I have never bothered. Meaning that I have never used that kind of system before so I am unsure of a few things. I know its related to the size of bits the CPU can read/write (?), but here are my quesitons:
1)Will I need different x64 programs? Or can I use x86 installers and would it work? If I did that, would it be running in capatability mode?
2)Is x64 backwards compatiblity? In that tab would I be able to choose to run it in 32bit mode?
3)Would I have any potential hardware issues? (possibly related to drivers?)
4)What about software, games, etc, would all my regular stuff work, or is there good availibilty of x64 stuff?
5)I did read a few stuff is not supported on vista x64 bit edition at all, is this still true?
^^And overall, for anyone who has a 64bit system, how does it compare in performance/compatibility with your previous 32bit system and whether it is worth the switch?
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337219 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 07:02  |
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sadukar09
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64Bit supports more RAM, which is always a good thing. The new games coming out will surely support 64, else gaming communities will make it.
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337225 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 07:29 |
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Dave Anderson
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I have have heard that with Vista SP1 you can have up to 8GB of memory on a 32-bit system, but I don't know how true that is.
David Anderson
Founder, Software Consultant
DCOM Productions
Microsoft Partner (MSP)
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337226 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 07:34 |
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Ghostshaw
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The onyl 32-bit code thats not compatible with 64-bit windows would be drivers. Besides that all windows 32-bits programs run on 64-bits. So it really depends on yuour hardware. But in general going 64-bit is not really that usefull. Your processor is theoretically faster for big calculations and it supports thoeretically more ram (although PAE also gives you quite a bit of extra ram in 32-bits), but for desktop use its not really that usefull tbh. Especially when it comes to Vista, cause the 64-bit driver support for that is really horrible.
BlackIntel Administrator
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337227 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 07:46 |
StealthEye
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1) Most programs should work, there is some sort of virtual/emulatino/whatever mode to support 32 bit programs.
2) See 1, most existing 32bit programs should run on a 64bit system due to backwards compatability
3) Drivers are not compatible afaik. You need 64bit drivers. I am not sure how good driver support is for 64bit systems.
4) Old things should work. (see 1&2  )
5) What?
I don't have a 64bit system myself, but worked with it since our server is a 64bit server.
64bit basically stands for the amount of data the processor can process in one processor instruction. Apart from that, it also indicates (for the x64 architecture anyway) the maximum amount of addressable memory, which was only 4 GB for 32 bits systems, and is virtually unlimited for current memory amounts with a 64bit system (16 exbibyte).
Apart from that, it offers a few other things, such as more general purpose registers. That kind of functionality will only be used by actual 64bit programs though, I don't think it will have any effect on 32bit emulated programs.
Hope that cleared something up about what x64 really is 
BlackIntel admin/founder/coder
Please visit http://www.blackintel.org/
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337235 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 08:51 |
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trooprm02
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Thanks for the input, especially the technical stuff. But what is confusing me is programs, there is downloads for x64 but also x86, so either or would work, but my system would only truly benefit in performance from programs programmed to specifically run on 64bit?
Also, back when Vista was new is why im sort of hesitant reading up on those problems, to be honest, I love vista, but things like EA saying (at that time, don't know if it changed) that C&C 3 was not supported on Vista 64bit, and stuff like that, is availability for 64bit (especially vista stuff) improved?
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337245 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 10:02 |
Romaner
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i have vista 64 bit, have had it for about 6 months now. i can install 32bit programs on it just fine, with no problems.
and obviously they work after i install them lol. vista creates "program files" and "x86 program files" or something like that. basically it seperates the 32bit programs from the 64bit ones. and FYI i have been playing C&C 3 on my computer.
ren was a little glitchy at first, but now runs ok. otherwise i have not had many problems with games as of late, meaning after sp1. only thing i would suggest to watch out for are the drivers, more specifically the video drivers, and even more specifically nvidia drivers. they suck for vista. have had to update/roll back/ reinstall and update quite a few times. and now im using beta ones lol.
but your laptop probably has on board, which might be different. but from my personal experience, never again will i go with nvidia. ATI will have my money from now on.
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337247 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 10:54 |
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trooprm02
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Ive read ATI has even more trouble (with drivers ingeneral) but more specifically with Vista. Well, you are using a desktop and HP wouldn't roll out a x64 laptop if all the drivers for it weren't supported, so im not worried about that. So compatibility is better than I thought it would be which is good to hear, but if you see a x64 download and a x86 one, which do you get?
x64 because it can take advantage of the performance upgrade?
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[Updated on: Tue, 24 June 2008 10:54] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337250 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 11:27 |
Romaner
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yes, plus i got windows x64 so i would not get anything other that that. unless its one of those downloads that say "win vista"... then i mean you really got no choice...
but usually if there is a selection between the two it will not let you install the x84 one.
it will tell you to use the x64
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337255 is a reply to message #337207] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 11:47 |
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Chuck Norris
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Here's a decent read I also suggest you read much more around about this. The better prepared and ready you are, the better it should (hopefully) go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit
By the way, I'm using 4GB of RAM in a 32-bit environment. I'm seeing 3.25GB of it.
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337261 is a reply to message #337247] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 12:28 |
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sadukar09
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| trooprm02 wrote on Tue, 24 June 2008 13:54 |
Ive read ATI has even more trouble (with drivers ingeneral) but more specifically with Vista. Well, you are using a desktop and HP wouldn't roll out a x64 laptop if all the drivers for it weren't supported, so im not worried about that. So compatibility is better than I thought it would be which is good to hear, but if you see a x64 download and a x86 one, which do you get?
x64 because it can take advantage of the performance upgrade?
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That's actually true, I installed ATI's Catalyst drivers on my Vista machine, I had X1550 at the time, instead it detected as X1300, I've done nothing wrong fyi.
| Quote: |
[19:16:48] <APBBR> @ryan3k: THE ENFIELD DEFIES THE LAWS OF PHYSICS BECAUSE THE BULLETS INSTANTLY HIT THEIR TARGETS LOL
[19:16:52] <APBBR> @ryan3k: CHRONO TECHNOLOGY IN TEH BULLETS
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| Quote: |
[22:48]<APBBR> @V0LK0V: AOL COMING UR WAI K
[22:48] <APBBR> Host: Quitting due to Westwood Online connection loss.
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337274 is a reply to message #337261] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 14:41 |
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trooprm02
Messages: 3266
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| sadukar09 wrote on Tue, 24 June 2008 14:28 |
| trooprm02 wrote on Tue, 24 June 2008 13:54 |
Ive read ATI has even more trouble (with drivers ingeneral) but more specifically with Vista. Well, you are using a desktop and HP wouldn't roll out a x64 laptop if all the drivers for it weren't supported, so im not worried about that. So compatibility is better than I thought it would be which is good to hear, but if you see a x64 download and a x86 one, which do you get?
x64 because it can take advantage of the performance upgrade?
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That's actually true, I installed ATI's Catalyst drivers on my Vista machine, I had X1550 at the time, instead it detected as X1300, I've done nothing wrong fyi.
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ATI had plans (if not done already) to make their drivers open source so 3rd party people can deal with driver issues for their video cards, let alone the issues brought about by vista. I personally never considered a ATI laptop, this one has 1071mb Geforce 7 Mobile video card (integrated tho).
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| Re: 64bit vs 32bit [message #337368 is a reply to message #337261] |
Wed, 25 June 2008 02:29 |
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Chuck Norris
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| sadukar09 wrote on Tue, 24 June 2008 14:28 |
That's actually true, I installed ATI's Catalyst drivers on my Vista machine, I had X1550 at the time, instead it detected as X1300, I've done nothing wrong fyi.
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There is nothing wrong. The X1550 series IS the X1300 series. They took the X1300 and renamed it X1550 to make it sound better. That's it.
http://www.dvhardware.net/article15141.html
On my parents Vista computer with an X1300, the drivers say ATi Radeon X1300/X1550 series or something like that if I remember right.
When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
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