Windows Vista Benchmark: 64-Bit Faster Than 32-Bit

Hi,

I am about to go out and buy windows vista for my Inspiron 6400 (1.66 core duo with 2gb RAM). For performance would you recommend that I install Vista 64 bit or 32 bit?

Thanks

Ollie,

For performance we would recommend Vista 64, but when comes to drivers and software we can not recommend the 64-bit version.

There is not much of 64-bit software for Windows on the market yet. Also, many PC products manufacturers do not support the 64-bit operating systems including 64-bit Vista.

We hope this will change soon.

CORE DUO DONT DO 64 BIT BUDDY

Ollie, Core Duo is 32-bit only, so you can not install 64-bit OS on your laptop, if it has 1.66GHz T2300 processor.

The 64-bit 1.66GHz Intel CPU is Core 2 Duo T5500, so you should check which processor do you have.

Thanks, Yo Mama.

As an avid pc gamer, I’d only want the 64-bit version, that is if there were many 64-bit games available to run on it. It seems games haven’t caught up with the (PC) technology. Also, Windows Vista may end up being a disaster for us gamers. I know it’s early but the heat is on. Anyway, why should Microsoft want us to enjoy games on our PC when they can sell us an XBox 360?

Just my thoughts…I’m going to slee

I would prefer the 64bit version on Intel platform. I have a core 2 duo 2.4Ghz and a Pentium D 3.4 Ghz Machines. Are they compatible? Will 32 bit software still run?

Alex, both Core 2 Duo and Pentium D are 64-bit capable. The 32-bit software runs under 64-bit Vista using emulation. But it depends on a particular software if it will work under 64-bit Vista or under Vista OS at all.

Just a quick question from a noobie, if I have a Core Duo E6400, will it work with the 32bit version of Vista as well? bought that one for my old PC, I want to upgrade now but I heard somewhere that the Core Duo won´t work with the 32 bit version (plus the dell homepage gave me an error when I tried to combine the E6400 with Vista home premium) anyone knows something?

Andreas, E6400 is Core 2 Duo. It’s a 64-bit processor, but it can run 32-bit operating systems, including 32-bit Vista.

The core duo will work fine on 32 and 64 bit o/s

I have a couple of problems with the whole concept of your benchmark:

1. The recommended minimum RAM for Vista 64 is 1Gig. But, you are using 512M for your test. I wonder if Vista 64 would jump ahead of Vista 32 with more RAM?

2. Most current applications are 32 bit right now which means they must thunk down to run at 32 bit on a 64 bit OS - which degrades performance. It doesn’t appear to me that there’s anything in the benchmark that addresses this issue.

Seems like item 1 above has the potential to make Vista 64 look even better but that item 2 is likely to make Vista 64 run slower than indicated in the real world.

*** I am curious about another aspect of this. When a 64 bit machine is running 32 bit Windows or Linuz - how is that done? Back whem OS2 came out and it was a 16bit OS running on a 32bit system, it thunked down to 16bit and ran extremely slowly. Yet, 32 bit OS and apps seem to run fine on 64 bit machines.

Which brings us back to item 2 above: 32 bit apps run fine on a 32 bit OS on 64 bit hardware. But, will running 32 bit apps on a 64 bit OS make the apps run slower?

Im running an Intel Centrino Duo x86 Processor (2000Mhz). Im prety confused with the difference btw 32 and 64 bit Vista. Is it true that i can only run the 32 bit version, being an x86 processor? Please help

Recently I have done a lot of research and I would like to share my findings. I currently own a Pentium 4 2.8 ghz (Prescott, em64t) system sitting on an Intel d101ggc motherboard. The video card is an nvidia 7300gt and a sound blaster live 24-bit sound card. I installed windows vista ultimate x64 on the system. The system runs like a dream. Basically an x64 processor is new type of processor with 64-bit extensions. Amd calls their version amd64 and Intel calls theirs em64t. For simplicity we refer to amd64 and em64t processors as x64 processors. The x64 processors have different modes of operation. They are 16-bit real mode, 32-bit protected mode and 64-bit long mode. The 64-bit long mode is the native mode, the others are legacy mode. So, if you are using a 32-bit operating system on an x64 processor, you are not fully utilizing it. 64-bit long mode has several advantages: it allows the processor to break the 4gb memory barrier and also 64-bit long mode enables twice the number of general purpose registers than in 32-bit mode… which explains why it is faster than a 32-bit processor/mode. As far as vista x64 is concerned, it is really rock solid. All 32-bit applications run on it at full processor speed (thanks to the x64 processor architecture). In running 32-bit processes on a vista x64 there is no emulation involved. Only a few address translations are required which is handled by the wow (windows on windows) layer. The only thing that you should worry about is getting 64-bit drivers for your hardware. 32-bit drives do not work on a 64-bit os. Hence, all 32-bit application that rely on a 32-bit driver , will not work. Also there are no 16-bit subsystems in vista x64. so your old dos and win16 applications will not work. Hope that helps…

Intel Centrino Duo x86 Processor is a x86 only processor. it can run only 32-bit code. hence, it only supports 32-bit oses.

x86 means 32 bits.

this benchmark is not really that good because the main advantage of 64 bit computing is the ability to use more RAM. besides the fact your below the recommended, you could use up to 8 GB(or 16 GB if using home premium).

do it again with more memory as i am curious

the 64 bit is crap get 32bit its much better. i got 64bit but i’m taking it back and getting the 32 bit. if yo do get the 64bit you will be disipionted

64-bit is not only for using more memory. Besides from 64-bit integer heavy applications getting an obvious boost, many more registers are available in the processor in 64-bit mode. This is always a huge advantage, no matter what applications you are running. That said, the benchmark could have been done better. More RAM and also make sure that the benchmark itself is not 32-bit and is being run through the WOW-layer.

Samuel Gomes - good point, well backed up.

Additional note: If you cannot find drivers for windows vista 64bit, you can download Windows XP 64bit drivers, unzip them and install them through the driver manager.
This works nicely.

Donvella.

I have just built my dream machine and have bought vista 64bit. Machine specs.

quad q6600
p35t-qd6 gigabyte board
4 gig ddr3 1333mhz
sli nvidia 8800gts
2 x 500gig sata2 drives.

but i haven’t installed vista 64bit as i am worried that 90% of my existing aps and my broadband are not going to be compatible. What should i do. Should i stick with the vista 32bit as i know that has worked well for me in the past or should i take the chance and install the 64bit.

i agree with Eric!
i had a laptop Inspiron 1501 dual 1.6 Ghz Turion with 1GB of RAM , i installed x86 Vista Ultimate first to see how it works then lately i did a fresh install a x64 Vista Ultimate, so here the resulted :
At x86 (32 bits): It uses more processor than it does with RAM. My CPU meter shows me that with a normal mode (like watching youtube or read the news on firefox) it will used likely 30 to 40% of CPU and about 600 MB of RAM. Works great with softwares under x86.

Now, back to x64 (64 bits) after waiting the OS fully installed in my laptop. I a bit surprise because when the background pop out and some sort of apps start-up. My RAM meter was like turn Red (which means approximate to 75 to 100%)
Lately, i did the same work with x86 (youtube,news stuffs) and i can see: the CPU meter level is so low and stable but the RAM meter is terrible, it will not goes lower 70% (approximate 700 MB) and some times it goes RED ( which means > 750MB)

So now i put the x86 back to the laptop cuz my RAM is too little for a 64 bits. I will install onto my PC AMD Athlon64 3500+ 2.2Ghz with 2GB RAM maybe will works better than x86.

But i kinda like 64 bits even though it has trouble with softwares and drivers. Lot of them right now does not work with 64bits, but i think in 2008 will much better! Remember, Windows XP spends 2 years to replace Win 98, 2000 and Win Me. So, i think Vista will does the same, will take pretty muck time to replace XP!

x86: More CPU less RAM
x64: Less CPU but it will eats your RAM up. I think at least 2 GB RAM mays satisfy the 64 bits OS and > 4GB to do the maximum performance !