Vista Tutorial - 64-bit: More than just the RAM

IMHO What the author of the article has done, has been to set up a straw man and then decide to knock him down. The article itself is excellent but the introduction does not make sense to me in that the forums I have seen tend to give straight answers and certainly would not come out with rubbish like that. Re the comment: "and it's going to die a long, drawn-out death." nobody who knows anything about computers is going to come out with something like that. Personally I tend to be conservative if I find myself in the position of giveing advice, in that if people want to take a risk that's fine but I would not feel comfortable suggesting they do so, that said if somebody is going to retain access to Windows XP in the 32 bit version I allways suggest they go for Vista 64 if they are interested to do so, since the only issue is that one might not be able to obtain a driver for a particular critical peripheral or that a criticial software application might have a problem. As for Windows XP 64, I have a very high regard for that software, and MS deserve praise for the fact that you get the reliability of a server system since it is based on server 2003, the ease of use of Windows XP since it it is front ended with a Windows XP Professional user interface and the ability to run both 32 bit and 64 bit software on a single system. Unfortunatly an issue with Windows XP 64 is that, with the release of Vista the installed base of Windows XP 64 machines will not increase and whilst manufacturers are going to write drivers for Vista 64 for new peripherals and older peripherals still in production, they may not feel the installed base of Windows XP 64 machines warrants the production of drivers to support them.

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

Sorry could you explain, how do you know programs are running twice as fast? like what programs are these that run twice as fast?

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

He's talking about stuff like this...
Maple 12 Professional –Math & Engineering Software – Maplesoft
MATLAB - The Language of Technical Computing

They are for advance math calculations that automate the work of like 10 million people with calculators over a year into an operation that last 1 minute.

If this is any indication that 64-bit is the wave of the future and 32-bit will be “obsolete”…

“There appears to be a shift taking place in the PC industry: the move from 32-bit to 64-bit PCs.
We've been tracking the change by looking at the percentage of 64-bit PCs connecting to Windows Update, and have seen a dramatic increase in recent months. The installed base of 64-bit Windows Vista PCs, as a percentage of all Windows Vista systems, has more than tripled in the U.S. in the last three months, while worldwide adoption has more than doubled during the same period. Another view shows that 20% of new Windows Vista PCs in the U.S. connecting to Windows Update in June were 64-bit PCs, up from just 3% in March. Put more simply, usage of 64-bit Windows Vista is growing much more rapidly than 32-bit. Based on current trends, this growth will accelerate as the retail channel shifts to supplying a rapidly increasing assortment of 64-bit desktops and laptops.”

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/wi...bit-today.aspx

Rasmasyean,

Yep. Just like the old 8 bit and 16 bit is obsolete today, the 32 bit will also be in the future. Now how far into the future this will be is anyone's guess.

I guess when MS decides to decommission 32-bit Vista just like they did to XP.

I find it very hard to belive that a 64bit system is twice as fast as a 32bit system. In the old days when you went from 8bit to 16bit I could understand the computers getting faster quicker because of the maximum amount a varialble can hold in one memory location. The difference between 8 to 16 is more benificial than from 32 to 64 bit. Unless you are dealing with very very large numbers.

Let me explain. The largest number a variable can hold in 8 bit is 255
This is a low number so is used alot. This is why upgrading to 16bit was a good thing, the os doubled in speed because the variables can now handle a number up to 65535. This in its self is a large number.
Now you move to 32bit and the largest number there is 4294967295. This is a very large number and most (not all) programs will get this high.
Now 64 bit can handle numbers up to 18446744073709600000 or there abouts. If a 64bit system wants to use a number bigger than this it will take two clock cycles of cpu time not one. These clock cycles is where the main speed increase is.

Hi rasmasyean thanx, for the detailed heads up, well if they are running twice as fast it is probably because they are native 64 bit programs or they have chunks of 64 bit code in them or they are regular 32 bit programs which because of their specialist nature are able to make use of the added features Vista 64 has. But for the ordinary user that likes to play games and use it for e-mail and stuff like that unless one can get hold of some games specifically designed for 64 bit one is unlikely to see an improvement in speed by using a 64 bit operating system. It is not I am trying to be negative but I think it better not to give people a false impression of Vista 64bit operating systems in that if they are sold to people on the basis they are capable of running 32 bit application software as fast as vista 32bit operating systems, most 32 bit programs will run on the on the Vista 64 bit operating systems and driver support is good but not fully comprehensive and additionally you are buying in to an operating system which can perform significantly better [ than a 32 bit system could run a like 32 bit applications software, with the 32 bit system being unable to run 64 bit applications software full stop ] when paired with native 64 bit applications software, people are going to be happy with their packages, if they come into the thing expecting a doubling of performance from the get go on popular applications software, they are going to be majorly p*ssed off.

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

There is no way that MS will withdraw 32 bit Vista but continue on selling the 64 bit version, what will happen will be that when Vista's replacement comes on the Market both 32 and 64 versions of Vista will be withdrawn from sale like they have done with XP but probably sooner than XP if the Vista replacement is well received and MS will push to get the bulk of sales for the Vista replacement for the 64 bit version so that with the Vista replacement the 64 bit version is the mainstream product and the 32 bit version is the secondary product.

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

You don't have to believe it because it is simply not true. Anyone that says it is true has no idea what they are talking about.

S-