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DessertDog
02-08-2009, 08:30 AM
I have the above on a 64 bit Abit mobo do i have to run xp in 64bit mode ?its running 32 bit at the moment.Also are there any benefits running 64bit mode.
thanks for looking

Chimaera
02-08-2009, 08:59 AM
It depends what your gonna do DD

I have athlon 64 as well and i vary between 32bit and 64bit

the only time it really makes a difference is the applications you run on it, if you have a 64bit application that requires the extra to make it run properly then use 64bit.

If your just doing normal stuff the run either

little_pob
02-08-2009, 12:37 PM
A 64bit OS running 64bit (and some 32bit) programms is quicker than a 32bit OS running 32bit programms, but it is unlikely to make a noticable difference to the 'average' home user.

It only really comes into its own when you are editing/creating huge files (i.e. 2GB+), or have multiple, RAM heavy programs open at the same time as you can use more than 3GB of RAM in your system...

Whilst 32bit OS can see 'upto 4GB' of memory address space all the system buses (PCI, USB, graphics etc) have to be accounted for from that space as well as the RAM. So it is not unusuall to see '4GB' 32bit systems seeing 3.5GB or less when ≥512MB graphics cards. 32bit versions of Windows also reserve 1GB of system memory at all times. So even if you only had 3GB of RAM installed, there would only be 2GB of RAM available to programs.

It's not all the fault of the OS though, whilst 32bit programs work fine on 64bit operating systems they can only use 3GB of RAM. So it is well worth seeing if a 64bit version of the program is available in 4GB+ setups.

Probably your best bet would be to dual boot both for a while, but do check you can get the 64bit drivers for your hardware (wireless is a particular problem at the moment for getting 64bit windows drivers).

If you want to try 64bit I'd recommend going straight to Win7.

(Word of warning to the cable guys, apparenlty there are no 64bit drivers for most/all of the USB to serial devices you use.)

Sicilian
02-08-2009, 02:41 PM
(Word of warning to the cable guys, apparenlty there are no 64bit drivers for most/all of the USB to serial devices you use.)

These devices rarely work anyways.

Chimaera
02-08-2009, 03:03 PM
If you want to try 64bit I'd recommend going straight to Win7.


yep thats what i will be doing once a decent 64 bit retail emerges


back on topic though

you only get the use out of 64 if you have the large scale programs neededing tons of processing power,if your a surfer and a occaisonal gamer its doubtfull it would even wake up.

pob mentioned it can be a little bit quicker i cant say ive noticed much of a difference tbh