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I have an AMD Turion and do not know what to choose between these two versions to install Arch Linux. Thank you.

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possible duplicate of Difference between x86_64 and i386 – Sathya♦ Jan 27 '11 at 14:10

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 26 '11 at 16:14

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It is the 32 or 64-bit version of the OS.

The 64-bit version will scale with memory better, particularly for workloads like large databases which need to use lots of ram in the same process. Do not consider running a (significant) database server on a 32-bit machine.

However, for most other things the 32-bit version is ok. 32-bit code uses up less memory, so you'll have more for other things. The limit on the memory the OS can use is not different, just the memory per process.

So it really depends what you want to use it for. If you're planning on developing software for large servers, or running large servers, use 64-bit. Otherwise use 32.

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All clear now. So 32bit should do quite well for me. – Claudiu T. Jan 27 '11 at 11:25
If 4GB of RAM or less, you should not install 64-bit OSes. If you have more than 4GB of RAM, you should install a 64-bit OS. Otherwise you will not be able to access all the RAM. – d-_-b Oct 5 '12 at 3:28
@toor I disagree, 1) 32-bit OSs are able to use more than 4G of ram with PAE etc, which are now standard and 2) Not all of a process's address space may be mapped to (distinct) physical RAM, so it can be useful to have a 64-bit OS even if you have (slightly) less than 4G of ram. – MarkR Oct 5 '12 at 15:01
@MarkR. I was just giving a rule of thumb, but of course it depends on the OS. I'd be interested in hearing the advantages of running a 64bit OS with less that 4GB of RAM. – d-_-b Oct 6 '12 at 6:32
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@toor Certainly if you want to run a single process with 2-3 Gb of private anonymous pages, it gets difficult on a 32-bit OS. Address-space depletion is seriously a problem on such a system, rather than running out of (virtual) memory. However, switching to a 64-bit kernel and userspace is likely to cause the task to consume a lot more ram, perhaps exceeding your target. Maybe in some situations 64-bit kernel, 32-bit userspace is good. – MarkR Oct 6 '12 at 21:07
up vote 24 down vote

Short answer:

i686 = 32-bit Intel x86 arch 
x86_64 = 64-bit Intel x86 arch
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This answer is most useful to me, especially when I am already aware the 32bit vs 64bit. The part that threw me off was "i686". Typically, I would expect just simply x86 – Antony May 29 '12 at 18:23
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And why x86_64 contains "86" part? – mmdemirbas Jun 20 '12 at 15:21
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Good question about why "86". Had to look that up my self. serverfault.com/questions/188177/… – thrag Aug 9 '12 at 4:09
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To generalize "386", "486", "586", "686" - nicknames for the architecture - going back to chips like the "80386", "80486", etc. – Brad Aug 9 '12 at 13:10
up vote 18 down vote

ix86 is an indication of the processor instruction set by generation of processor. For example: Intel Pentium, Intel Core2Duo, AMD K6. ix86 has been around for many years, if you have a processor made after 2000, it probably at least has the i686 instruction set. The absence of other indicators hints that this would be the 32 bit version.

x86_64 is indicating use of 64 bit registers and address space. Only choose this if you have a 64 bit processor and you want to use the 64 bit version of the operating system.

The choice is yours. I believe all AMD Turion processors have 64 bit support. You just need to decide if you want the 64 bit version or the 32 bit version of Arch Linux.

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