Re: 4GB and 32 Bit Vista Business

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

"Steve Thackery" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:%23DJJTT3RJHA.4772@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I keep seeing people saying this. All the benchmark results I've seen are inconclusive.

I'm happy to take your word for it. I'm repeating what I've read in the computer press.

SteveT


I think many things come into play here. Early in Vista's life, 64 bit drivers were hard to find and often buggy or slower than the the 32 bit driver for the same hardware. A few early testers found that with some benchmarks 32 bit was slightly faster than 64 bit. I think the poor drivers contributed to this. I also think that few benchmarks simulate multi tasking well. These early benchmark results have been repeated often enough on various blogs that it has become an Internet "truth" that Vista x64 is slower than Vista x86 when running 32 bit programs. My experience is that I can't really notice any difference running single programs. As soon as I start running multiple programs I find Vista more responsive. If the tasks themselves are actually running any faster or slower I don't know. I suspect some are faster, some are slower depending on how they are programmed. There is a huge difference when you get up to around 8GB. Vista (and Linux) are way nicer to use with that much RAM. Price wise more RAM and a 64 bit OS is by far the best bang for the buck when upgrading a computer.

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/
http://vistahelpca.blogspot.com/



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