Vista - 64 bit programming

Hi all,

I've been reading in some websites saying 64 bit systems can run as twice as fast as 32 bit systems. I'm not able to understand this.

I understand the registers are of 64 bits in size.How come having 64 bits registers increase the system speed as twice as 32 bit? Can some one please explain?

Thanks,
Suresh.

simple term if your cpu is 64bit and you are running a 32bit system you are only using half of the cpu.

Hello Suresh, and welcome to Vista Forums.

The articles at this link can help explain in more detail about 64-bit vs 32-bit to help answer your question better.

64-bit: More than just the RAM

Hope this helps,
Shawn

You forgot the link Shawn

LOL, oops. Sorry, here it is.

64-bit: More than just the RAM

Here's an interesting article on 64 bit vs 32 bit: Your 64-Bit Check List: Potential Issues You Might See : The State Of The 64-Bit Union - Review Tom's Hardware

All,

Thanks for so many useful resoources.But still I'm not able to completely understand how the 64 bit processing speed is increased (or performed twice) when compared to the 32 bit systems. I understand that if we had used 64 bit data types in our programs (say long in C#), the processor can process the whole data in one shot instead of splitting up into 2 (as did by a 32 bit proessor).

Is it fair to say that a 64 system will perform twice as fast as a 32 bit system only when 64 bit data types are used? Or Are there any other reasons for this?

Also, in the following URL
What You Need To Know About The Shift to 64-Bit Computing

It is stated as

"computers process instructions in binary format. Each bit is capable of processing one binary instruction (zero or one) per clock cycle. Most of the PCs that are currently on the market have 32-bit processors, meaning that they can process 32 binary instructions per clock cycle.
Since 64-bit systems can process twice as many instructions per second as a comparable 32-bit system, 64-bit systems are definitely faster than their 32-bit counterparts"

This is highly confusing to me.If I undrestand correctly, each 32 bit processor's instruction has a length 32 bits and the 64 bit processor's instruction has a length 64 bits. I do not understand how each bit is capable of processing a instruction.

Kindly share your thoughts.

Thanks,
Suresh.

No, it definitely won't run twice as fast as a 32 bit system (and this was also the case with the move from 16 bit to 32 bit systems back in the 1990's).

The only "speed" increase to be seen would be if you compared a 64 bit system with 8 gB of RAM to a 32 bit system with 4 gB of RAM - and that only holds true if you're actually using more than 4 gB of RAM in the 64 bit system.

I have 12 gB of RAM in my 64 bit system, and it's no faster than my Vista system with only 4 gB of RAM. The benefit, in my case, is that I can leave lot's of stuff open and not worry about running out of resources - so that's a benefit of the 64 bit system.