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View Full Version : What are the advantages of going for a 64-bit hardware instead of 32-bit?


Extreme Coder
June 15th, 2007, 06:20 PM
Just wondering, since I may upgrade one of my PCs to 64-bit. My question is what will I
gain from making such an upgrade? Speed improvements? Only? And what about Linux support for 64-bit? Is it good? Will most software work?


Thanks.
tgm4883
June 15th, 2007, 06:26 PM
Just wondering, since I may upgrade one of my PCs to 64-bit. My question is what will I
gain from making such an upgrade? Speed improvements? Only? And what about Linux support for 64-bit? Is it good? Will most software work?


Thanks.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=368607

Number crunching apps can see up to a 30% speed improvement. Linux support is good for 64-bit, most apps on 32-bit are only on 64-bit (I think the difference is about 1%). Also, the few apps that are 32-bit only can usually be made to run on 64-bit
a12ctic
June 15th, 2007, 06:28 PM
The difference isn't noticable, but they don't make any 32bit processors as fast as the 64bit processors anymore.
tgm4883
June 15th, 2007, 06:34 PM
I almost forgot, that an advantage of having 64-bit hardware is that everything is migrating towards 64-bit. So getting 64-bit hardware won't put you in the last generation
prizrak
June 15th, 2007, 06:42 PM
Linux 64bit support is excellent with all the open source software. Binary stuff may either not work or have to be chroot'ed into a 32 bit environment.

As far as speed goes, there isn't a whole lot of improvement that you will see in day to day tasks. Even FLOSS that is 64 bit recompiled is not actually written to take advantage of it. If you are looking to get a system for the next couple of years then go with 64. Well actually you won't really be able to find a 32 bit CPU right now unless you go for some of the older ones or laptops.
Extreme Coder
June 15th, 2007, 07:08 PM
Are the Intel Core 2 Duo's 64-bit? Or are they 32-bit?
And is AMD better for 64-bit hardware?
prizrak
June 15th, 2007, 07:14 PM
Core 2 Duo is 64bit. Core Duo is 32 bit. Currently best CPU is the Core 2 Duo, both AMD and Intel use the same exact x86-64 instruction sets.
BarfBag
June 15th, 2007, 07:20 PM
Day to day tasks are the same. It's when you do something like edit an image or use Beryl that you see it shine. All open source applications can be compiled to work in 64 bit. The only problem is proprietary applications like Flash, Opera, etc.