64 bit or 32 bit PC?

[Aphex_Twin]

What are the current advantages of owning a 64 bit computer as opposed to an old 32 bit? If there are incompatibilities and/or other issues...

 

[MarineCorps]

Fo right now there isn't much of an advantage. They are still working on the lakc of drivers and there aren't many games or programs that are 64 bit now. I myself am waiting for longhorn to come out with 64 bit support.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

I'm not talking about the technical issues. Theoretically, what are the advantages of 64 bits?

I know memory adressing is made easier (paging becomes unnecessary) and that concurrent running apps would benefit.

What about system registers? What other kind of optimisations can be made on 64 bits?

Edit:

I myself am waiting for longhorn to come out with 64 bit support.

That piece of vaporware laden with "Trusted Computing" traps. Well, to each his own...

 

[Strider]

I have a 64-bit PC. The only thing I really want out of it is 64-bit color quality, instead of the old 32-bit.

 

[Zelig]

I have a 64-bit PC. The only thing I really want out of it is 64-bit color quality, instead of the old 32-bit.

Heh, too bad there's no normal video cards that support that.

 

[Strider]

Heh, too bad there's no normal video cards that support that.

They've gotta wait for a 64-bit operating system first.

 

[Padma]

There *ARE* 64-bit OSes available. Have been for over a year. Google for 64-bit Linux. Why wait for vaporware from Gates?


Of course, most hardware manufacturers don't give any Linux support. Although nVidea and ATI do provide drivers for most of their cards.

 

[Strider]

There *ARE* 64-bit OSes available. Have been for over a year. Google for 64-bit Linux. Why wait for vaporware from Gates?


Of course, most hardware manufacturers don't give any Linux support. Although nVidea and ATI do provide drivers for most of their cards.

ATI is making 64-bit drivers, so your ATI graphics card won't run in a 64-bit environment yet (if you do have one).

If I'm thinking correctly, ATI has released *one* 64-bit driver.

 

[Grisu]

can the human eye even see the difference? I mean 32-bit is already one heck of a lot of different colors.

 

[vbraun]

Here's a good article on 64bit: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111508,00.asp

Here's some of the main excerpts:

Let's put it this way: If you think today's computers are fast, wait until they make the leap from 32 bits to 64 bits. This isn't about more megahertz--it's about actually doubling the amount of data a CPU can process per clock cycle. Servers and high-end workstation have been reaping the technology's benefits for years.

The 64-bit CPUs can handle more memory and larger files. "The advantage of 64 bits is it gives you a larger address space, which means it lets you address more memory," Krewell says. Today's 32-bit Intel and AMD chips can address up to 4GB of memory (an Apple G4 unit can address 2GB). In Windows-based machines, that 4GB is split between the operating system and the applications. That means the most memory any given application can access is 2GB.

"That limit is not a big deal now, but it could be down the road--particularly in video-editing applications and the like," he adds.

A 64-bit processor, on the other hand, can address up to 16 exabytes of memory (that's over 16 billion gigabytes).

I use a 64 bit operating system. I can't really notice a change mainly becasue most of the programs aren't designed to take advantage of it. Actually I have noticed that I can search my entire Linux Computer in less then 1 minute for files.

I can't wait to see the 64bit version of Blender and YafRay, that would make rendering so much faster.

Also I use an ATI card. I think some people actually sit down and make drivers for Linux for free and realease it as free software.

 

[Padma]

Also I use an ATI card. I think some people actually sit down and make drivers for Linux for free and realease it as free software.

That they do. FWIW, the "free" radeon drivers work better for my card than the "official" ati drivers.