Is there an actual performance difference between x86 and x64?

[Huntsman]

Hi guys,

I have a cheap, Packard Bell EasyNote TE laptop which is work orientated. It has 2GB DD3 RAM, Intel 1005M CPU, Intel HD Graphics, 400GB of HDD space. I run Windows 10 on it relatively fine (Windows 7 was terrible on this laptop though, it could hardly run). It works very well when focusing on one task, however, as soon as you start multi-tasking, it starts working slower, but really not as slow as you'd expect from a computer of such price.

I have Windows 10 64bit installed, and I am wondering - would my computer run faster if I had 32 bit OS installed instead? Does it make any difference? I want to squeeze the most out of it

[Marcel]

The main difference in performance when it comes to x86 versus x64 is that x64 supports more than 4GB of RAM.

You will notice even more performance increase when you use programs that are designed to work with x64, such as applications and drivers. You also get stuff like Kernel Patch Protection, support for hardware-backed data execution protection, mandatory driver signing when you use x64.

If you have a x64 processor, I can highly recommend using a x64 Operating System as well, due to faster application performance if the program is designed to work with x64 (most stuff nowadays is).

[Teddy]

Is this a joke?

[Link9rly]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/taking-the-mystery-out-of-64-bit-windows

This day in age, everybody should have 4+ GBs of RAM.

[Huntsman]

Is this a joke?

No, I was genuinly puzzled about the entire x86 x64 thing. I know its funny, as I make some side money by fixing computers

The main difference in performance when it comes to x86 versus x64 is that x64 supports more than 4GB of RAM.

You will notice even more performance increase when you use programs that are designed to work with x64, such as applications and drivers. You also get stuff like Kernel Patch Protection, support for hardware-backed data execution protection, mandatory driver signing when you use x64.

If you have a x64 processor, I can highly recommend using a x64 Operating System as well, due to faster application performance if the program is designed to work with x64 (most stuff nowadays is).

Thank you for your explanation.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/taking-the-mystery-out-of-64-bit-windows

This day in age, everybody should have 4+ GBs of RAM.

Well, Windows 10 runs sufficiently well on lower RAM as it's not as resource intensive. Besides, that laptop is not my main computer and is orientated to be able to work on the go, not play games or do resource intensive stuff, so I'm fine .

[Julio.]

I know exactly what you're asking, and if I'm honest, it's not a stupid question at all.

The answer is yes, theoretically if you sat two identical laptops together with less than ~3.5GB RAM, one had a 32 bit OS and one had a 64 bit OS, the idle memory usage would be slightly lower, but only slightly...

In terms of WHY you're asking the question (improving the laptop performance):
My open browser of Firefox with 6 tabs open is using 500MB RAM by itself. You're not going to notice any difference between 32 bit and 64 bit, as the memory usage difference between the two is minimal. Programs you open up on your laptop use up far more resources than the different between 32 bit and 64 bit will provide.

You could try disabling some visual themes, this tends to save a fair bit of memory.

If RAM usage is an issue, then upgrading to 4GB will make a world of difference. I'm assuming your laptop has two 1GB sticks at the moment, so in that case you'd need to buy two 2GB sticks and replace the old RAM. If your laptop currently has one 2GB stick, check the model of the RAM and try to match the speed + timings... though I would recommend buying a pair together in any case.

With RAM, you only feel the upgrade if you *need* it, I went from 6GB to 16GB on my personal laptop and day-to-day I feel no difference... but as I develop and test code, it gives me headroom that if I've made a mistake and there's a memory leak, I get more time to shut the program down before it shuts my computer down!

[Teddy]

My open browser of Firefox with 6 tabs open is using 500MB RAM by itself. You're not going to notice any difference between 32 bit and 64 bit, as the memory usage difference between the two is minimal. Programs you open up on your laptop use up far more resources than the different between 32 bit and 64 bit will provide.

This is not exactly true. Since 64bit is a larger 'space' for memory it can handle multi-tasking far better than 32bit can. If you are running a single application, or just a small few low-resource applications on 32bit you won't notice the difference. However if you try to do a good amount of multi-tasking (you know like most humans) you'll start to get a slower experience as there's not enough 'space' (trying to not be overly technical) to process the data quick enough. However, 64bit has a higher capacity so you'll notice better multitasking performance. 64bit can process bigger chunks of data; thus is quicker in this sense.

[Julio.]

Sorry, I think my explanation came out wrong.

I meant that, for example, idle RAM usage of 32 bit is 1GB and 64 bit is 1.1GB (this is theoretical, no idea what it actually is). I'm saying that the amount of RAM you'd save at idle, going from 64 bit to 32 bit would be minimal (100MB), so it's not worth doing, even Firefox can use loads more than that (was using 1GB today).

[Teddy]

I think the better question is why do you use Firefox? Chrome is masterrace.

[FARQ3X]

I think the better question is why do you use Firefox? Chrome is masterrace.

Android Flagship, Google Chrome and PC seems like a True PC Master Race member all thats left is a GTX 1080 

[Huntsman]

I think the better question is why do you use Firefox? Chrome is masterrace.

Opera here 

[Jelle_Snijder]

Hi guys,

I have a cheap, Packard Bell EasyNote TE laptop which is work orientated. It has 2GB DD3 RAM, Intel 1005M CPU, Intel HD Graphics, 400GB of HDD space. I run Windows 10 on it relatively fine (Windows 7 was terrible on this laptop though, it could hardly run). It works very well when focusing on one task, however, as soon as you start multi-tasking, it starts working slower, but really not as slow as you'd expect from a computer of such price.

I have Windows 10 64bit installed, and I am wondering - would my computer run faster if I had 32 bit OS installed instead? Does it make any difference? I want to squeeze the most out of it

As your processor is a Celeron I'd suggest you changing the OS to 32 bit. If you Right click on Computer in the start menu > Properties it shows if your hardware is compatible for a 64 bit version of windows.

[Teddy]

Opera here 

No wonder we don't get along.

[Julio.]

The new versions of Opera are based on the same engine anyway... but with less support than Chrome... so if you're using Opera it makes more sense to switch to the superior browser (Chrome).

[Salmonella]

As your processor is a Celeron I'd suggest you changing the OS to 32 bit. If you Right click on Computer in the start menu > Properties it shows if your hardware is compatible for a 64 bit version of windows.

Hey Jelle cool to see you around again, was wondering what happened to you :P