Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 62

Thread: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Beans
    8

    64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    As most of you know, I went ahead and installed Ubuntu on my AMD dual core machine. Now the question arises: Should I install the 64 bit version and take advantage of all 4 gigs of RAM, or should I just cruise with the 32 bit version for a while? Inquiring minds want to know....

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    US
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Beans
    318
    Distro
    Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    what are you doing with the computer? if you are encoding video with ffmpeg or running cedgea (hard core gaming) than the 64-bit maybe a good idea but for most people it makes little difference.

    I like the 32-bit versions better most of the time. the packages for i386 seem more stable to me. I don't know why.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Beans
    8

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    Nearly a year and a half after posting this question, I think that I have gotten my answer. I picked up the Linux Pro magazine Ubuntu special edition, and just for yuks installed the 64 bit version. (For evaluation, don't you know Heavily script dependent applications like google mail load a whole lot faster than they do on the 32 bit version of Ubuntu 8.04.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Ontario, Canada
    Beans
    96
    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

    Smile Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    I recently found a review comparing Ubuntu, Vista and Windows 7 to reach other. One of the cool things they did was compare the x86 (32-bit) to the x86_64 (64-bit) versions. http://www.tuxradar.com/node/33

    I know this is kind of late to be posting this, but for anyone looking for info about 64-bit vs. 32-bit it may help the decision process.
    Scott

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Lebanon
    Beans
    9
    Distro
    Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    honestly from personal experience, i never noticed a performance boost with x64 releases.

    However what bothered me that my x64 bit installation(s) of 9.04 crashed every single time after installing new packages/updates.

    It could be a hardware compatibility problem, but I should mention that I have been using the 32 bit releases and i never faced that particular problem . . .

    For now i advise you to stick to 32-bit releases, you wont be using the 4 GB RAM anyways (most probably), and it'll saves you the painful efforts of finding some nasty hardware drivers (like me web cam for example) - which u can always compile from scratch if u want -.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Beans
    96

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    The reason I want to stick with 32bit (and use PAE) is that about a year ago, I tried the 64bit and the 64bit took more memory than the 32bit. Now the Lucid Alpha3 (dist-upgraded daily) on my C2D T6570 4GB took 42 secs to boot and I was advised to switch to 64bit. Let's see if the 64bit gives me any performance wow in the next few days.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    UK
    Beans
    48
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    I've always used crappy hardware. Recently I got a PowerEdge T110 QuadCore Intel Xeon installed 64bit. Haven't had any problems (touches head).

    In theory - I should have downloaded the intel compiler (or is that bad?) to get the optimisations and compiled everything from scratch. Its so fast anyway and considering I used to watch stuff scroll by compiling gentoo for what felt like days (because it was) - its hardly worth the effort - kudos to the devs for a great generic 64bit package therefore. Perhaps I'd have been just as happy with the 32bit. I haven't done any video editing -yet.

    PRO: Apps open like they were just minimized.

    CON: At work everything feels even slower now.
    Last edited by hollerith; March 30th, 2010 at 10:09 PM. Reason: removed implied profanity

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Asunción, Paraguay
    Beans
    103
    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    If you have > 3GB of RAM, unless you have a specialized hardware for 32 bit, that can addresses more than 3GB (a physical limitation for the i386 architecture, actually if you're lucky you might get between 3.2 and 3.7 GB), then you MUST go with the 64 bit version, otherwise you will be wasting your memory.
    I you only have 2GB, I recommend you install 32 bit version, 64 bit will be much slower (because of several technical reasons about 64 bit architecture).

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Beans
    78
    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: 64 bit vs. 32 bit Ubuntu

    My system recognizes 3.7 GB of my 4GB of ram, to me thats good enough, of course i havent tried the 64 bit version to compare speeds.

Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •