RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

blackout23 · 2012-02-11 14:47:33

Hello,

my laptop only has 1 Gig of RAM which is 70% full during my normal day use ( Chrome with some Tabs, VLC, some Terminals and Instant Messengers).
If I reinstall Arch with 64 Bit support would that excactly double the ram usage? The maximum my motherboard can handle is 2 Gig so there is not
much room for upgrades. Would you recommend upgrading to 2 Gigs and switching to x86_64?

Regards,

blackout24

cybertorture · 2012-02-11 15:00:28

I believe for x64 requrements are 1GB, but it is not recommended since , yes it have some overheat, but not as double .
with 2 gigs of ram you'll be happy with i686 (determened by tasks you describe above) , unless you have some reason to go to x64, but after all it's all about choice... YOUR choice.
Personally I go for x64 at any platform that supports it

graysky · 2012-02-11 15:17:30

I see little if advantage for you switching. To my the whole point of x86_64 is the ability to address >4 G.

karol · 2012-02-11 15:23:00

I would switch if there's a distro that provides only 64-bit packages or some package I use all the time is available as 64-bits only (or the 32-bit version doesn't work, is much slower etc.).

.:B:. · 2012-02-11 15:28:18

There is no sane reason to go x86_64 if you don't have 3 GB RAM or more. Linux (Arch Linux) will only eat more of your RAM.

If your typical usage is 70% of your actual RAM than going x86_64 on that box is suicide.

blackout23 · 2012-02-11 15:58:21

Thanks for the input. I think the precieved performance of the system is more dependend on my harddrive speed than on the architecture. None of
the programs that I use are particually heavy on CPU usage, where there might be some performance gain between 32 and 64 bit.

I have heard that running wine on 64 bit and trying to run 32 bit windows software can also be a bit tricky.

Last edited by blackout23 (2012-02-11 15:58:46)

thetrivialstuff · 2012-02-11 18:01:48

blackout23 wrote:

I have heard that running wine on 64 bit and trying to run 32 bit windows software can also be a bit tricky.

That certainly used to be true, because I think for a while you had to do some trickery with 32-bit libraries manually to get the AUR version of wine to work on x64 -- but now that the multilib repository exists (you might have to uncomment it in pacman.conf), all you have to do is pacman -S wine.

I haven't tried it with any big games yet, but it seems to work just as well as on 32-bit for the apps I have tried.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-11 14:47:33

RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

#2 2012-02-11 15:00:28

Re: RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

#3 2012-02-11 15:17:30

Re: RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

#4 2012-02-11 15:23:00

Re: RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

#5 2012-02-11 15:28:18

Re: RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

#6 2012-02-11 15:58:21

Re: RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

#7 2012-02-11 18:01:48

Re: RAM requirement for x86_64 architecture

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