32 Bit VS 64?

wentalong · 3 Apr 2011 at 16:46

Hey guys, about to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 so im copying all my crap onto some spare HDD'S

ive gotwindows 7 here but its 32 bit and i have 4GB ram, although my PC recognises 3.25GB of it, would you reccomend i go out and buy a 64 bit version of windows 7? is there a performance boot over 32 big or something? whats the difference??

Many Thanks!

andrewdodd13 · 3 Apr 2011 at 16:48

wentalong said:
Hey guys, about to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 so im copying all my crap onto some spare HDD'S

ive gotwindows 7 here but its 32 bit and i have 4GB ram, although my PC recognises 3.25GB of it, would you reccomend i go out and buy a 64 bit version of windows 7? is there a performance boot over 32 big or something? whats the difference??

Many Thanks!

You can use a 32-bit serial number with a 64-bit copy of Windows. Either email Microsoft and ask them to send you a link to the 64-bit version to download or find it yourself.

It's probably worth going with 64-bit now, especially since you have the 4GB but there are also other advantages as well.

wentalong · 3 Apr 2011 at 16:57

ahhh great

but the thing is im wondering if a lot of my programs will be 64 bit compatable, also i have adobe master cs5 and if its not 64bit compatable i dont wanna have to dwnload it all again xD

Peerzy · 3 Apr 2011 at 17:08

If a program is 32bit it will still work on a 64bit OS, just running at 32bit speed.

wentalong · 3 Apr 2011 at 17:10

hmm, so 64bit runs at a faster speed than 32?

Peerzy · 3 Apr 2011 at 17:12

I'm not really an expert but my understanding was yes. I don't think it's 'double' as quick even though the figures are double.

The biggest gains seem to be with 64bit versions of things like Windows and hardware drivers.

It would be silly to build a new PC now without going 64bit, all hardware now has to have 64bit and 32bit drivers for MS to sign it off, and any programs that are 32bit just work as if they were on a 32bit OS. It's now effectively totally back compatable with all the 32bit stuff and gives you the added speed increase of 64bit applications.

Although seeing as you already own a 32bit OS, I'd have a go at emailing MS as a poster above said, and if it is true grab yourself the ISO off of an MSDN or whatever method suits you.

orderoftheflame · 3 Apr 2011 at 17:14

wentalong said:
hmm, so 64bit runs at a faster speed than 32?

It's not speed as such. A 32 bit processor handles 32 bits at once, a 64 bit handles 64 bits at once. Using 64 bit versions of programs would usually be faster though.

You're also able to utilise more than the 4gb total limit of RAM that 32 bit has. As you're above that already, you should look at 64 bit if you're upgrading to Windows 7.

wentalong · 3 Apr 2011 at 17:16

ohh okay then will doo!

thanks guys

topdog@OC · 3 Apr 2011 at 17:28

The app speed doesn't really change; your system may run better under 64-bit just because of the extra freedom it has in addressing memory (it can use all of the 4GB now without sharing the top-end addresses with non-RAM stuff and losing acess to them, and you can upgrade above and beyond 4GB).

32-bit apps are by and large still unable to address more than 2GB each per process, so getting 64-bit versions of the apps can make them run better if they can load more data into RAM rather than having to stream it off disk.

That along with potentially having to less paging to disk, will be why it appears to run faster.

There are also some games that utilise DirectX in a way that DX will offload some of its work to other cores, so even a single core application could get a performance boost in Vista or Windows 7 over using XP (I don't believe the DX changes are active there that allow this), but that is due to the differences in OS version and DX, not between 32-bit and 64-bit.

Shadz · 4 Apr 2011 at 13:50

andrewdodd13 said:
You can use a 32-bit serial number with a 64-bit copy of Windows. Either email Microsoft and ask them to send you a link to the 64-bit version to download or find it yourself.

It's probably worth going with 64-bit now, especially since you have the 4GB but there are also other advantages as well.

Can this be done with OEM versions of the OS as well as I have Windows7 32bit
and I really need to upgrade the OD to 64bit due to the fact I have 4 gig of memory
in my system and then a additional 1gig on my gfx card so not all my memory
is being used and my hardware is 64bit as well.

Thanks

Ordokai · 4 Apr 2011 at 14:17

The speed boost is esoteric, but you could get it for the RAM. A clean install will do good anyway, likely more so than the actual jump from 32 to 64 and an extra bit of memory tbh.

- Ordokai

DJ_Hughesy · 4 Apr 2011 at 15:06

Shadz said:
Can this be done with OEM versions of the OS as well as I have Windows7 32bit
and I really need to upgrade the OD to 64bit due to the fact I have 4 gig of memory
in my system and then a additional 1gig on my gfx card so not all my memory
is being used and my hardware is 64bit as well.

Thanks

nope unfortunatley.. 32bit oem licence is only valid on 32bit installs... and the whole no tranfering to another pc lark..
always better to buy retail rather than oem if u can..