32-bit Vista?

Question

I did a quick search with no results, so I'll ask here: What happens when a computer with 64-bit athlon CPU runs on 32-bit Vista(standard)? I read somewhere that Dell only uses 32-bit since many programs that will work on 32-bit won't work on 64-bit.   Is the processor only able to use half of its capacity? What about games? I assume that 64-bit processors would be able to use their full capacity most of the time, or else Dell wouldn't sell Vista-loaded computers with 64-bit processors...   Anyone that could explain this would be a big help.

jerair · Answer

Well, I already know that. My question was if my processor would be able to use all 64 bits at all with the 32 bit OS.   Looks like your system specs are almost the exact same as mine. I just got 1 GB of RAM since Dell's RAM price seemed a little stiff. I'm going to get an additional 2 GB from Crucial for less than Dell's 1 GB.

ae38cb5bb8b0410 · Answer

Dell's for the most part provide Vista x86 (32 bit) operating systems. The cpu's are 64 bit processors. Vista x64 (64 bit) operating systems are available, you must ask for and pay more. Also drivers for 64 bit operating systems are hard to find at this point.

C3PO5 · Answer

Hi I think if you look at task manager it will show you are using both cores of your CPU it does on mine it is a intel CPU . Open task manager  under performance you should see 2 CPU monitors and mine shows usage.on both cores. And the amount of ram it is using also.

jerair · Answer

Well, I figured both cores would be used, but I was really wanting to know about the 64/32-bit hardware/software conflict.   From what I heard, I assume that only 32 of the processor's 64 bits will be used, no matter what, with 32-bit vista?

spectheintro · Answer

Jerair:

The AMD Athlon64 and the Intel Core 2 Duo chips are not 64-bit chips, regardless of the marketing hype you may have read. They have 64-bit extensions programmed into their architecture. The most common way of referring to this is x86-64, meant to denote that they are not true 64-bit architectures, but x86-based (hence 32-bit) architectures with 64-bit extensions. So let me assure you that you're not "only using half" of your computer's processing power when you run a 32-bit version of XP or Vista. You're not really "losing" anything at all.

The only advantage 64-bit addressing affords a computer is the ability to effectively page more than 4GB of RAM at one time. It can help increase computational speed and other computer tasks as well, because the addressing is exponentially higher in a 64-bit environment. However, *very* few programs are written with native 64-bit addressing, so that advantage is seldom used, especially in a home environment. There are true 64-bit chips out there, but you will most likely never use one unless you are involved in very operations-intensive work on a server level. Those chips are designed for extremely large clusters or other enterprise class work, and do not use any variant of Windows you would be familiar with. The chips are also not variants you would recognize: Intel's true 64-bit chip is called the Itanium.

So, to make a long story short, not only are you not losing any processing power by running 32-bit XP or Vista, you're actually gaining quite a bit of productivity, because the 64-bit operating systems are currently very buggy and not well-supported. In a few years, it will be beneficial to switch to a 64-bit OS, assuming Microsoft and other software companies devote their resources to improving their stability.

I hope this helped.

Message Edited by spectheintro on 04-08-2007 04:55 PM

joyabird · Answer

I'm running an Intel Core2 Duo 64-bit processor and 4GB RAM on an E520. It came installed with 32-bit Vista Home Premium. I used it that way for a few weeks and then did a clean install of 64-bit Vista Home Premium. I can tell you the increase in performance was negligible and the headache of getting 64-bit drivers for my modem was not worth the very minor increase in performance. I've since gone back to 32-bit.

Also, my Windows Experience Index was 5.1 on the processor running 32-bit, and only 5 running 64-bit. All the other scores are 5.6 or better and stayed the same.

Hope this helps.

Message Edited by joyabird on 04-08-2007 05:06 PM

jerair · Answer

spectheintro, thanks a lot. I didn't know that; now it all makes sense. It would be helpful if Dell told everyone that when buying a computer with a '64-bit' processor!

querry1 · Answer

I can only say if you try installing a 64 bit operating system on a 32 bit computer...it won't ...i wonder why. Try installing it on a 64 bit computer...hmm ...it installs... guess it must be a 64 Bit computer.   Vista leads to Vienna and Vienna will be 64 bit completely...no more x86.

RealStupid · Answer

as of now, most programs are compiled for 32bit operating systems, but that will change in the near future when everyone migrates to x86-64 CPUs with 64 bit operating systems. If both CPU, the OS and the program you use are all 64bit, then you will see a dramatic impovement in performance.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1959&page=25

Message Edited by RealStupid on 04-12-2007 03:19 AM

querry1 · Answer

Yeah...I think it will be very soon too. I installed 64 bit beta versions of Windows XP and Vista and noticed little change. I don't measure anything for speed or any other value. I just experiment with the program and then re-install. Both beta's were faster.

jerair · Answer

I got my computer the other day and I'm very happy with it. Today I got 2GB of RAM from Crucial which I'm about to install, which will bring it from 1GB to 3. And yes, its exactly like the kind that came with my computer, but half the price as Dell's per GB.

Windows General

32-bit Vista?

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