Performance loss of a 32bit OS on a 64bit processor

Question

I recently reinstalled my notebook, and my friend laughed at me because I didn't install the 64bit-version of vista instead of the 32bit one.

After which I wondered whether there was a great difference in performance with the 64 OS.

(I've always been sceptical about the 64bit version, because people used to tell me there were a lot of applications which didn't work anymore since they installed the 64bit version.)

So who can clear this up for me? :)

Answer 1

if you don't have to address memory beyond the 4 GB threshold, you're perfectly fine with a 32-bit OS.

Answer 2

Unless you're doing computational intensive tasks then you won't notice a difference between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of your OS. I am running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and haven't had a problem yet in terms of getting something to run. Windows does a great job at running 32-bit software.

Several years ago when Windows XP 64-bit came out there were lots of problems with software/drivers not running properly. However, much progress has been made since then.

Answer 3

From a pure performance perspective, the answer will rely on the apps you're running. The 64-bit instructions are more efficient, but the memory pointers are larger, meaning less code will fit in cache. On average, the two effects cancel each other out, but there are cases where one or the other will dominate.

Since more people are still running 32-bit, the drivers for 32-bit will be easier to find and more thoroughly debugged.

Answer 4

32-bit OS'es, in addition to not being able to use efficiently more than 4GiB of RAM, also can not efficiently mmap() files larger than 4GiB. This last part comes up more often than you'd think.

Answer 5

For a notebook, which has likely less than 4 GB of memory, 64 bit Windows would be overkill. The smart move is to run 32 bit Windows, which also makes it more likely that all drivers work and that most software runs.

Specifically, on e a notebook, you might actually prefer 32 bit Windows' ability to run DOS games.

And yes, 32 bit Windows would actually be faster than 64 bit Windows on most notebook hardware.

Answer 6

As long as you have driver support I would have suggested 64 bit windows as well. You can try it and see if your apps perform any differently. Generally it's been my experience that the 64 bit windows multitasks alot better. I migrated a friend of mine who is a big gamer from 32 to 64 bit and he was able to go from haveing 2 WOW clients open (with framerate issues) to 4 with no issues. Others have changed at my office have had no real difference in performance running office apps.

Answer 7

Your friend is a poor techie. Unless you have more than 3GB of RAM, there's no reason to use 64bit, and your processor will handle 32bit just as well - there's no rule saying 32bit processors are better at 32bit tasks.

If you have more than 4GB of RAM, you should definitely be on 64bit, however, as a 32bit OS will only give you ~3.5gb to play around with out of that. Else, feel free to laugh right back as he faces slightly increased RAM usage from having 64bit pointers* instead of 32bit pointers, with no upside! (unless he has more than 4GB himself)

*A tiny increase, to be sure, but it's potentially DOUBLE the ram usage! In actuality it's barely perceptible, but he's not dealing in fact either :P