Given 3gb of ram, 32 bit or 64 bit os?

JonJ678 · 12 Mar 2009 at 19:06

Hey. I know a a very similar question to this is asked frequently, but for once the answer isn't "buy more ram". This is for a virtualbox machine, which will be allowed at most 3gb of ram, but possibly less.

So, I would like to know if there are any actual benefits to using the 64 bit os over the 32. In use both appear close to identical, with 32 bit slightly easier for compatability. I suspect under identical conditions, 64 bit code is slower than 32 bit, but I do not know this.

Whats the general opinion?
Cheers

Corasik · 13 Mar 2009 at 18:23

Depends what you want out of it, a 32bit Os will use less ram, but on a LAMP server for example some 64bit builds of apache are better at handling large numbers of open files.

64Bit MySQL can outperform 32bit on large databases, even with 3gig ram limits. So really it does depend on what OS and applications your going to be running.

JonJ678 · 14 Mar 2009 at 11:51

Windows would be running some computer aided design progeams and some antique games. 3D CAD work in virtualbox is probably the biggest potential problem, and I suspect I'm going to have to test that.

Linux will be gnome, firefox, text documents. Nothing numerically intense. A lot of programs running at once, but none of them difficult to run individually.

Both open at once, so need to be both 32 bit or both 64 bit. Linux probably doesn't matter, so I may be judging it solely on which windows version copes best with solid edge.

(Strange question I know. I'm trying to move from two computers down to one while still running both operating systems)

Cheers Corasik

Corasik · 14 Mar 2009 at 11:58

For virtualbox, if you want to run a 64bit OS, the host OS (be it windows/solaris or linux) will need to be 64bit, However you can run any mix and match of 64bit/32bit client OS's within the virtualboxes.

For example, if the host PC has Vista64, and 8GB ram, you could easily have a 64bit linux with 3Gb, and a 32bit windows with 3Gb as well. (although if you only need 2 OS, then the Host OS can be used as normal anyway).

With windows in a 3GB virtualbox, you might as well stick with 32bit, it will be faster and more efficient with its memory useage.