Choosing 32Bit vs 64Bit Please Read before asking.

32Bit vs. 64Bit - A little guide

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The following has been compiled on information accumulated over the time here on Notebookreview and additional reading.
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A thanks to all who contributed information here and there.
With time, this will possibly be refined more an more.

More and more often the question, 32 or 64Bit crops up on this forum.

What is important is, that in the end no member on this forum can make that decision for you.
Whenever you see a comment like “take that and get over with it” –it’ll do little to help.

This post which will grow with time is supposed to give some basic guidiance on which version you should choose.

Scroll down for the following:
a)OS - 32Bit/64Bit - what's the difference
b)Software
c)Harware & Drivers
d)How to get it & Links on 64Bit "stuff"

OS What’s the difference:

What’s the difference – for the “normal user” absolutely none.
For your standard word editing and maybe the odd picture & film here and there it will make no difference at all whether you run 32 or 64Bit.
In fact – the best recommendation for a “normal user” is “get what your manufacturer supplies”.

But what about the users who want to know more:
A 32Bit OS can address 2^32 Bytes of address space, a 64Bit OS can address 2^64 Bytes of address space (theoretically).

2^32 Bytes are exactly 4GB – but these include hardware aside from RAM – therefore a 32Bit OS cannot (normally) address 4GB of RAM – generally about 3-3,5GB of address space remain for RAM and are used to address RAM – meaning you can use about 3-3,5GB.
However, if you have a 32Bit OS with 4GB of RAM – the “unused RAM” (the space not addressed by the OS) can be used by the graphics card – one example is 3GB of RAM for the OS and 1GB of RAM for an integrated graphics card.

A 64Bit OS can theoretically address 2^64 Bytes of address space, but not at the moment, due to hardware limitations and limitations in the actual code in the OS.

What is this in layman’s terms:
Up to 4GB of RAM 32Bit
4GB or more of RAM 64Bit.

Regarding performance, some people have noticed increases in performance on a 64Bit OS, other’s haven’t.

What is the recommendation:
(Read on)
Based purely on the OS, with up to 4GB of physical RAM it is debateable if it is useful to install a 64Bit OS without the actual “need” for it.
A 64Bit OS only offers a real advantage from 4GB of physical RAM onwards, whether you need this is debateable, excluding certain specialist applications and servers.

The actual installation:
(Thanks Wishmaker & permka & coolguy)

The actual 64Bit installation of Windows will take up more space than a 32Bit installtion.
What do you get from the "lost space"?
The 64Bit installation will have 32 & 64Bit drivers as well as two installation directories - one for 32Bit applications and one for 64Bit applications.
During the installation process the software will "decide" in which directory to instal.

A specific example from a fellow forum member (Wishmaker):
1. C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4
2. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)

This may cause an issue on "smaller drives" - specifically SSD at the moment, as "empty space" will fill up quicker.

How to instal a x64 OS on an x86 system or vice versa:
To change from 32Bit to 64Bit or vice versa one has to format the drive and instal the OS from scratch.
One cannot "update" an existing system - like say from Vista Home Premium to Vista Ultimate.


Software:
Generally software that is 32Bit will run on 64Bit too – generally.
Some specialist 32Bit software will not run under a 64Bit OS.
16Bit applications will not run under a 64Bit OS.

In a true 64Bit environment - e.g. Itanium-64 (thank you Hep!)
32Bit applications have to be translated into 64Bit.
Vista being a hybrid with 32Bit libraries even though it is a 64Bit OS – won't be too affected by this.
Still, while some people experienced performance increases, others have noticed no change.

Top fully utilize the advantages of a 64Bit OS you need software that is truly 64Bit – one example for this is Adobe’s Photoshop CS suite which is available in 64Bit to take full advantage of the additional computing power available.

It is advisable to do some research into applications one plans to run on a potential 64Bit OS to find out whether any complications may arise.

Update (5thNov2009):
As Windows 7 will now mainly be sold as a 64Bit OS, it is safe to assume that all new applications will support 64Bit – however, some developers may be lazy and chose to run them as 32Bit applications under a 64Bit OS as this is still possible.
If you have any “obscure” specialized application it may be worthwhile to research it to ensure it is fully compatible.
End Update.

Software that is available as 64Bit:
Antivirus – more and more is available

Adobe – definitely Photoshop CS suite, don’ know about others
From fellow forum member Wishmaker:
1. C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4
2. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)

Office 2007 will run under 64Bit too even if its 32Bit software according to users here on NBR.

The following software is available as 64Bit according to follow NBR users:
(source: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=360881 )

Internet Explorer
7-Zip (like you mentioned)
Fraps
K-Lite Codec Pack
Mozilla Minefield (64-bit version of Firefox)
Norton 360 (installs into Program Files x86, but has the ability to use 64-bit engine)
iTunes
O&O Defrag
Vista Codec Package
Alcohol 120%
MagicDisc
comodo firewall
autocad x64
3d max x64

Hardware & Drivers:
One of the key downfalls of a 64Bit OS in its infant days was drivers – nowadays 64Bit drivers have become well supported from the hardware manufacturer’s side.
Most computer owners will be able to find 64Bit drivers for their hardware – but please check before you start to install your new OS.

Update (6th Nov 09):
Since Windows 7 the move is towards 64Bit applications one can expect driver support for 64Bit for all newer periphal devices. Business tools like the BlackBerry will most likely see 64Bit support for older phones too if/when companies move to 64Bit – consumer products may be dropped.
End Update.


Another "hardware aspect" is periphal devices - many devices like mobile phones, scanners etc. do not ship with 64Bit drivers - and sometimes the manufacturer will not provide them.
This will be a problem if devices are not natively supported by Vista - for example, a computer mouse - any mouse will work as a basic mouse wen plugged into Vista - some may need addtional "software support" for extra buttons (anything apart from let & right mouse button and scrol-wheel) - this software may then not be available in 64Bit.

A short list of examples of such devices from a fellow member:
cellphones
printers
scanners
digicams
obscure soundcards for djing
midi-to-usb adapters
ide/sata-to-usb adapters
video-cameras
external disks

(Please note, this doesn't display all pieces of hardware, and while one company's video camera may work another may not)
(thanks davepermen)

Also:
Some manufacturers are worse than others, what does this mean.
Take Sony – a company whose products I adore – getting a 64Bit OS to run is easy on a Vaio, getting all the “stuff” to run like Fn keys is difficult, what happened.
Sony in this case decided to use specialist drivers and libraries to unlock their laptops full potential, these are only available in 32Bit (Yes, the FW has been sold with 64Bit and then the appropriate 64Bit support, but drivers are locked to specific models) – Sony will not help you with a 64Bit OS and while it can be done (see the Vaio forum) it generally won’t be worth the trouble.

Laptops that do not need “specialist drivers” (like my old Medion) will be the easiest to “upgrade”, as all you need to do is download the drivers from the manufacturer’s site, once you have all you are ready to go.

In the long run 64Bit will replace 32Bit – when 32Bit will have been replaced fully is unknown – it will still be available on Windows 7.

According to laststop311 Win7 will be the last version of Windows which is32Bit - leaving vitualisation for 16Bit support - from a technical standpoint this would make sense - however, I have not got a source for this information.


Also, 32Bit drivers continue to exist on a 64Bit installation as drivers on a 64Bit OS are 32 & 64Bit at the same time.
(thanks davepermen)

Hardware:
Most new Hardware will support 64Bit - if you have a laptop runnin a Core 2 Duo Processor (that is the Centrino 1 & 2 Platform) your laptop should technically support a 64Bit OS.
Certain models of the Intel Atom will also be able to use a 64Bit OS - however not all - and the most common Atom processor won't be able to use a 64Bit OS.(thanks Drummer101 & Hep!)

The key aspect is though, it is the architecture which determines whther a system can run a 64Bit OS or not.

How to get it:
Contact your manufacturer or Microsoft to obtain a disc with the 64Bit version of your OS – the 32Bit key will work with it.
It seems that your computer manufacturer is the primary supplier of 64 Bit software.

Links with great information:
Please contribute – I will have a look at them, and will possibly give them a rough classification into “layman terms” vs. “very technical”.

1) Very comprehensive site on 64Bit OSes:
http://www.start64.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

2) Another big 64 Bit information source:
http://www.64xsoft.com/

3) Explanation of 64Bit:
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2007/10/16/64-bit_more_than_just_the_ram/1

4) On memory on a 32Bit system:
http://www.geoffchappell.com/viewer.htm?doc=notes/windows/license/memory.htm

 

One Space reserved in case I need to shift stuff – do post informative comments, links.
Thank you to all who have helped – this guide will need much more information – and I shall continue to work on it depending on my time “allowances” and mood as well a bit, this shall be a start.

 

Very good post and info, but would look a lot better as one large post like the other stickies.

 

32bit sees ~3.5GB ram, I am not sure what the max is.

Most current cpus can run 64bit, even single core. Even the atom can run a 64 bit OS (not sure why you would want to), but it has nothing to do with the number of cores but only with the architecture.

I dont know much about 32bit emulators but a little more elaboration about that would be nice.



Over all a very good over view, this should clear up a lot of confusion.

 

Hmm... I thought this would be easier to maintain - I also need to format it properly.

Thanks - here openly
I also have a site I have to have a good luck at - a recommended link.

 

I haven't tried this one, M&M. How is it?

 

32 bit has exactly 4GB of address space. First that space goes to other hardware, and once all of it is addressed, the remaining goes to RAM. This can range from 2 to 3.5 GB depending on computer hardware.

Most atoms are not 64 bit, just the flavors put in nettops do at this time. Not the 270, which is in almost all netbooks.

 

Office works fine.
Vista x64 has two Program Files folders.
One for 64 bit programs and one for 32 bit. Vista automatically selects where to install each program.

Until now everything I have installed has gone in the 32 bit folder and everything works fine. Until now!

 

Some programs appear to be installed under the Program files X86, but will have working 64 bit drivers. All offfice programs are native 32 bit.

 

Detlev, nice guide but I don't agree on some points .


Oh and...CS4 Master installs two versions of Photoshop under a 64 bit enviroment.

1. C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4
2. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)

 

Thanks:
Well, if you don't agree please post your opinion - and I can incorporate it - I should update it a bit too...

Thanks for the info

 

one thing you could note is, the os installation is bigger in 64bit, as it has the libraries for 32bit and 64bit around (and most drivers will be 2x the size, too, i think).

this is of no issue for people with big hdd's. but in notebooks, not everyone has a big hdd. and people who like 64bit os are often high-end people, who like to have an ssd, too. there, space is premium, and 64bit may not be that useful because of that.

else, so far so good

 

Might want to get a Mod to change the title to "Choosing" instead of "Chosing"

 

How else would you run WoW? Not everything is 64 ....yet.

 

Will let you know .

 

Thank you people
I updated my posts a little bit - fixed the typo in my headings - still need the main one...
(This is where it shows tha English isn't my native language )

 

hi DetlevCM
i ve got vaio aw11sb and vista 64 working pretty well and that their buttons works great what is not working properly is CF card slot its not automatic only manual
i have 4gb ram and task manager showing me 4062 not 4096
and showing me sooo many 32bit aplications running

 

Nice Peto.

Little question - was your AW "64Bit supported" by Sony?

The 4GB RAM - the mising MB - I had the same on my old Medion - not 1024 but 1017MB - so I don't think that's a problem.

 

Any chance I could get more info from you people??

PS: You could rate the thread too.

 

Like what? You have to ask a question for an answer.

I just did.

 

I'll give you a 5 as soon as those posts get consolidated

 

Do you mean into a single post?

That would be horrible to edit - although I have to agree on readability...

 

Awesome info, thanks DetlevCM!

 

You're welcome I got fed up with 64 Bit posts - so I wrote this.

Little update:
Reorganized into a single post.

 

Very informative, I see you've spent time writing it, so I will bother to rep you

 

Two things:

Umm... what? Unless you mean Itanium-64, true 64 bit OS, I am 99% sure this isn't true. Hybrid systems like Vista X64 have 32 bit libraries, so 32 bit apps will run natively.

This one's minor, but should probably be "To fully utilize[or another word] the advantages..."

 

Thank you Manik ( )

Thank you Hep! I shall change it

Edit: Changes applied

 

You should get a confirmation that I'm correct before posting it as fact

 

With 4000 posts and 23 Rep points? Also, it does concur with what others have said.

 

Does it mean W7 64 is much more faster Vista 64, then W7 32 faster Vista 32?

 

That would depend on the exact architecture of Windows 7.

We have had a lot of reports of performance increases here on NBR and elsewhere.

So in terms of speed it looks like W7 is faster than Vista.

How noticeable the changes will be between Windows 7 in 32Bit and64Bit is difficult to say.

But I do believe Windows 7 64Bit continues to support 32Bit applications - so it will need dual libraries like the ones in Vista.

 

Don't know how I managed to miss this thread before, but great work DetlevCM.

 

64-bit is good given that you can find all drivers for your hardware.

 

Thank you very much Shyster1

Which as far as I know is no problem for most new hardware - say anything made since 2008 ?
Its rather that you'll have problems with certain manufacturer specific applications (like Sony's shared libraries - needed for Fn keys on keyboard) than with a driver.

 

Problem is not the HW of your notebook, but your external hw. you may have stuff lying around that won't work, then.

cellphones
printers
scanners
digicams
obscure soundcards for djing
midi-to-usb adapters
ide/sata-to-usb adapters
video-cameras
external disks

there's no real guarantee of any of those to have most actual drivers. that's true for any new os (finding xp drivers, finding vista drivers, finding 64bit drivers).

my dj soundcards f.e. have 64bit drivers since, uhm, january?

my older scanner won't ever work as it's producing company got sold 3 times

 

Actually - that's a good point Dave bug me top update my post when I'm home.
I'm at university at the moment.

(possibly home late afternoon, early evening)

 

Hm, I was trying to install 64 on the partition. My current OS is 32. But I got some random letters on the screen. DO I need to format my whole HDD to install 64? Or was it just bad instalation dvd?

 

Well, changing from 32 to 64Bit means replacing the OS - so you'll have to do some sort of format, either a full one or a quick one on the partition you try to instal your OS on.

If you have several partitions you should be able to instal a 64Bit OS on an empty partition that does not yet contain an OS.

 

I get it, I'm just not able to start instalation. When I open setup, it says my current OS doesn't support it, try on reboot. When I reboot with dvd in, I just got one gibberish word on the black screen and that's it. Probably, bad dvd...

 

Possible - try a different one then. Did you google the word? (just incase its some other language - just in case, although I doubt it)

 

You have to let the computer know to look for boot menu on dvd, that is go into setup and change the boot order. putting cd/dvd drive before harddrive in boot order. Once it boots to install screen, you will have the option to install, keeping your old os in windows.old file, or you can format the disc and do fresh install. If you can afford it, buy you another harddrive and do a fresh install on it. But first, locate the x64 drivers for all your hardware, and put on cd, dvd, sd or something. I suggest putting them on cd because you may have to install sd driver, lan and or wan drivers to get on the internet to retrieve drivers on hardware's manufacturers site. I have successfully installed x64 vista, x64 windows 7, and got everything to work flawlessly.

 

IMHO it seem a lot of people get confused between physical address space and virtual address space, you might want to explain the difference and change this statement accordingly rather than just saying "the space".

I have already shown it is possible in XP SP1 to be able to use 4GB in a previous post from some time ago and I have sucessfully been able to utilize 4092MB of RAM in 32-bit Vista SP1 by increasing the physical address space above 4GB, without any driver problems. Normally 32-bit versions of XP SP2/3, Vista and W7 limit the physical address space to 4GB which is why even with hardware that supports 4GB or more of RAM we only get to utilize somewhere around ~3GB.

 

I'll look into rewriting the first statement.

About using more than 3GB in a 32Bit OS - I think I've read it too somewhere - it includes changing files, etc.
I think, while it may be possible - and judging from your statement is - it isn't necessarily adviseable to tell people how to "hack" their own OS to use more RAM. If you desperately wanted to tell us - if you post the link, I could put it at the end with a warning.

 

"desperately" ? lol. My own advise would be to use 64-bit if your able to.

The interesting thing with Vista 32-bit is that all Microsoft would have to do to enable more than 4GB of physical address space is to change a registry entry and if they wanted to allow more than 4GB of RAM a second registry entry. The actual change to see if using more than 4GB of physical address space would cause problems can be done by using a second entry in the bcdedit configuration thereby not compromising the original system.

The credit goes to a guy by the name of Geoff Chappel, if nothing else it makes interesting reading. http://www.geoffchappell.com/notes/windows/license/memory.htm

 

Thank you for the link

I think I'll add it at the end

(+ Rep)

 

I did that , too. But still got same gibberish. I, actually, downloaded the iso from you-know-what. But it was clean, without any hacks.

 

Well... as if you could know if someone mesed with the file.

If you have a legal 32Bit key contact your OEM supplier, or if he does not supply a 64Bit disc contact Mincrosoft.

You should be able to purchase it for a few dollars (US).

 

WHY 64bit slower than in 32bit @ log in and shutdown but faster inside operation.............

also rating is higher in 64.....

 

Sorry?
What exactly are you asking?

Are you asking why the 64Bit version logs in slower than 32Bit and shuts dow slower but is faster during normal usage?

If you do - I have to say that I couldn't say. If I may speculate.

RAM usage has been reporte to be higher in 64Bit - i.e. there is more to load. Another aspect - 32Bit support in 64Bit.

The speed up during operations has been observed by some people and not by others. If you notice it, thn only when woring with lare files, perfoming resource intensive tasks.

 

internal operation of copying,restore internet pages from history are slightly faster in 64bit.

but i observed it hang (vista&speed 64bit) especially when installing drivers.