different between 32bit and 64bit

Question

im getting a laptop from dell and was giving 32bit vista home premium version but whats the different between a 32bit and 64bit vista version? wat i know is 64bit is optimized for gaming and entertainment any advice?

Airblazer · Answer

64bit means that Vista/XP can address more than 4GB of memory. If you have 4 gigs in your 32bit operating system it will only read approx 3.2GB due to the 32bit limit. With 64bit the OS will read the entire 4gigs. However you need to ensure that all your peripherals have 64bit drivers available as otherwise they won't work. TBH I don't think anyone is going to have more than 4gigs in a laptop for the foreseeable future so you'd be grand with 32bit. Plus not all games will run on 64bit.

lbjailer · Answer

This is where i am confused as well. I thought 64 is twice 32 which would mean 'faster'. Specially for multimedia stuff, burning DVDs and Cds etc.. So is there any advantage to 64bit besides ability to use more memory?

gdwrnch3 · Answer

When 64 bit programs become available, there will be an advantage to 64 bit OS's. At present, I don't believe there is any benifit to running a 64 bit OS. I am typing this on Vista x64, but before I use my activation code, I will go back to 32 bit.

Airblazer · Answer

Yes 64bit would be faster. However there's always been the problem of getting signed drivers for it. However now with Vista we should see a massive improvement. Steam already runs at 64bit and will automatically convert your games(HL2etc) to run at this when it detects that you are running it. This results in a faster fps for HL2 etc.

Windows General

different between 32bit and 64bit

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