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#26 2008-11-21 20:04:19

Ranguvar
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Registered: 2008-08-12
Posts: 2,545

Re: Whether installing 64bit OS is better than 32bit in a 64 bit PC?

Much of the speed boost gained from going from i686 to x86_64 is because GCC can compile with many more instruction sets, since it doesn't need to support as old CPUs - MMX, SSE, and SSE2 I believe. So, you now have packages that take better advantage of your CPU. If you use pacbuilder or similar already, this doesn't mean anything, since you've likely already set GCC options to your CPU specifically. Well, 64-bit SSE and SSE2 are supposed to be faster. There's also eight new registers, which should provide some boost.

x264 is an example where x86_64 really shines - 15% performance improvement, and that's with all instruction sets available enabled on both 32-bit and 64-bit.

IMO, there's no reason not to use x86_64 if you can. Support's only going to get better. Unless, of course, you use FreeBSD, in which case the official NVIDIA drivers do not have a 64-bit version...

Last edited by Ranguvar (2008-11-21 20:25:26)

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#27 2008-11-21 20:24:49

ozar
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From: USA
Registered: 2005-02-18
Posts: 1,686

Re: Whether installing 64bit OS is better than 32bit in a 64 bit PC?

iBertus wrote:

True, but most of the issues with using 64-bit on the desktop have gone away in the past year.

Agreed... and I've certainly not read anything indicating that 64-bit is being developed only for use on servers.  I've been happily using 64-bit for the last four months on my own desktop box and see no reason to drop back to 32-bit.

Last edited by ozar (2008-11-21 20:25:33)


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#28 2008-11-21 23:17:01

elmer_42
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From: /na/usa/ca
Registered: 2008-10-11
Posts: 427

Re: Whether installing 64bit OS is better than 32bit in a 64 bit PC?

ozar wrote:

I've been happily using 64-bit for the last four months on my own desktop

I've only recently switched over to 64 bit (actually, I did this when I switched to Arch), but I have had no problems. I haven't had to use any sites that have Java yet, but I'll definitely be looking into OpenJDK. And with native 64 bit flash, I don't see a reason not to use 64 bit if you can.


[ lamy + pilot ] [ arch64 | wmii ] [ ati + amd ]

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#29 2008-11-22 03:12:50

Ranguvar
Member
Registered: 2008-08-12
Posts: 2,545

Re: Whether installing 64bit OS is better than 32bit in a 64 bit PC?

Is it possible to use OpenJDK's plugin without the rest of OpenJDK? smile

I love open source, duh, but my Computer Science course teaches Java, and I'd rather avoid issues.

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#30 2008-11-29 03:08:03

LTSmash
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From: Aguascalientes - Mexico
Registered: 2008-01-02
Posts: 348
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Re: Whether installing 64bit OS is better than 32bit in a 64 bit PC?

I've got a question:

What about 32 bit apps running under a 64 bit system: will they have their memory limited to 4GB for each or will it be shared? I mean, if I have the 32 bit libs under my 64 bit system, then I run three 32 bit apps, will they have their memory limited to 4 GB each, or will they use 4GB for shared 32 bit apps use?


Proud Ex-Arch user.
Still an ArchLinux lover though.

Currently on Kubuntu 9.10

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#31 2008-11-29 17:00:38

R00KIE
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From: Between a computer and a chair
Registered: 2008-09-14
Posts: 4,734

Re: Whether installing 64bit OS is better than 32bit in a 64 bit PC?

I have both Arch 32bit and Arch 64bit installed and the 64bit flavor seems a bit more responsive. So far I'm not using Arch 64 everyday but I've used a 64bit Ubuntu very often before and I didn't have much trouble. I guess 64bit is the way to go for people with 4GB+ of RAM, if you have 3GB or less not worth the possible trouble I guess.


R00KIE
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#32 2008-12-01 18:06:10

webframp
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Registered: 2008-11-15
Posts: 35
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Re: Whether installing 64bit OS is better than 32bit in a 64 bit PC?

The previous argument was perhaps bad flash support, but even that is weak now thanks to 64 bit libflashplayer. As an example of an area that I was surprised is affected is hibernate, or suspend to disk. Previously arch32 took close to a minute to resume from suspend to disk, now it is 30 seconds or less. I've had 0 troubles, since installing arch64 and I'd say there's no reason not to if you have a system that supports it.

Last edited by webframp (2008-12-02 00:36:55)

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