Windows Vista 32bit/64bit Help Please!!!!!

Hello, I've been researching laptops for a while now but one question I always end up having is what is the real difference between:

Windows Vista Premium 32bit with 3GBs of RAM

or

Windows Vista Premium 64bit with 4GBs of RAM

 

Can you be more specific? It's like asking what is the real difference between two cars.

Do you want to run certain software that is coded for 64 bit?

I guess not cause otherwise you would have said something about it.

So I will answer in a really general sense.

From the Microsoft website here is the super simple definition of 64 bit.

32-bit and 64-bit Windows: frequently asked questions

"The terms 32-bit and 64-bit refer to the way a computer's processor (also called a CPU), handles information. The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows are designed for use in computers with 32-bit or 64-bit processors, respectively.

The 64-bit versions of Windows can utilize more memory than 32-bit versions of Windows. This helps minimize the time spent swapping processes in and out of memory by storing more of those processes in Random access memory (RAM) rather than on the hard disk. This, in turn, can increase overall program performance. For more details, go to A description of the differences between 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista online."

As far as I can tell after having read many many posts, articles etc and having used 32 bit Vista since RC1 and now planning to start using 64 bit there are two main factors

1. Real World Performance = no difference to minimal difference to a good bit of difference depending on what you are running - slightly snappier performance on the desktop and apps coded for 64 bit registers.

2. Drivers and compatibility = some slight incompatibilities with some software but basically 99% of 32bit software will work fine.16 bit software won't work. Some installer programs don't work. Some 32 bit programmes use 16 bit installers so the installer won't work. Make sure you can get 64 bit drivers for all your devices eg scanners, printers, cameras etc as they must be "digitally" signed.

I'm about to go 64 bit and am looking forward to it but in all honesty I'm not expecting much difference to my 32 bit vista experience. By that I mean lots of OS crappiness and some annoying gotchas but I'll work through them and live with it. I still have 2 desktops running XP Pro SP3 and a notebook running Vista 32 bit and 2 desktops running Vista 32 bit so I always have an OS handy that can do something for me that I need done that the other might not do. I have 32 bit Vista and 4GB on my main PC and my PC sees 3.6GB of it. I'm going 64 bit on a new notebook.

There are 361,000 hits for the search

"main differences between vista 64 bit and 32 bit"

in google

I thought these might help a bit

What’s holding you back from going down the 64-bit road?

Adventures with Vista 64-bit - Part 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista

There are stacks more...

Hope that helps - sorry if it doesn't.

Good luck.

 

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