What's the advantage of using 64-bit?

Besides being able to use more than 3GB of ram, what's the advantage
of 64 bit over 32 bit windows?

 

Nothing. (The extra memory for the OS may be handy though, as my GT725 is only addressing 3070MB.)

 

http://www.notebookreview.com/searc...000000;GFNT:666666;GIMP:666666;FORID:11&hl=en

honestly.

 

I was going to get 2 2GB sticks but then I had to upgrade to 64bit...
and I know some of my programs don't support it ><

 

it is more secure because the drivers must all be signed and tested for 64bit whereas the 32bit version you can bypass this and installed unsigned drivers.

 

64-bit can use more memory. Every piece of memory needs an address, and with 64-bit, you've got like a bazillion* more addresses, so you can use more memory.

4Gb (or even 2Gb) is plenty for the average user right now. But a power user might want more, running VMs or something, so they would favour 64-bit.

Also, as GPUs get bigger in memory size, they will reserve a lot of addresses, and basically 'eat into' the maximum ram that is useable in a 32-bit system. It is not much of an issue for low-end systems, but as you start using 1Gb cards or SLI setups, 64-bit makes more and more sense.

*okay, not a bazillion. but a lot

 

thanks all for the replies, I think I will stick to 32bit for now as I
am just an average user =)

 

3070=3GB of RAM installed. Make sure you got what you paid for.

 

Well... That's what happens when you have 4 GB installed on a 32 Bit system... It only addresses 3070 MB! (It's been discussed already!).

However, if you have Vista SP1 then you can see the whole 4 GB in the Control Panel/System screen, but still only 3070 MB are available to play with.

 

64 bit architecture handles cpu data processing more efficiently.

But unless you are doing some incredibly intensive data work....it wont matter much.

 

Everyones hardware and personal experiences may vary, but i would never run 32 bit vista on any of my personal machines (I even want to wipe that piece of trash from my corporate laptop). I find it to be incredibly sluggish compared to x64 vista. It's truly a night and day experience (at least for me).

I guess I've been lucky too. There is no s/w I use that won't run on x64 vista. I did have to trash an older printer though because of the lack of drivers. But I was ok with that.

Other versions of Windows or Linux I have no problem with a 32 bit OS.

 

As I understand it based on my novice research into the matter 64 bit is quite promising but a lack of driver support and antivirus or firewall support coupled with a willy nilly compatibility with 32 bit apps you may have already and many say there really isnt any point to a 64 bit OS if you are not using at least 8 gigs of ram.

While some laptops do support that much ram now Im fairly certain the cost is prohibitive.

Perhaps initial ventures into a 64bit realm would best be explored on a good desktop.

 

The Microsoft 64bit desktop operating systems have been a work in progress, in my opinion, for years now. Windows 7 will be the time when 64bit goes mainstream. This is mainly due to the cost of memory. You can get 4gb of laptop ram for ridiculously little these days.

Anyways, I ended up running Vista 64 and turned off the required driver signing. For me, the only point of 64 is to access the extra ram.

 

Actually if you are running a 32bit distribution of Linux it can support up to 64GB of ram using PAE (Physical Address Extension) The 3GB + Vidcard is a limitation of the default retail Microsoft products only, (meaning you can enable it by adding the following .

Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000:
To enable PAE, use the /PAE switch in the Boot.ini file.
To disable PAE, use the /NOPAE switch.

For all the rest (vista, etc do this):

To enable PAE, use the BCDEdit /set command to set the pae boot entry option.

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