Does 32bit windows still make sense?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
@cji win 7 runs better than xp, i really didnt see that coming, wat edition, ultimate, basic, home?

@jitpublisher
thats wat iwas saying, most people havent even seen the need to replace their xp 32bit computers, so why did they bother with 32bit win7, but if it runs that good on a netbook, then i guess i understand, i hope the next gen atoms support x64, and even if you dont need an x64 os that dosent mean you cant use one, or that you wont see benefits from using one.
 
I use Vista 64 bit and Window 7 RC 64 bit in all of my builds, however they all have 4- 8 gb of ram installed. If I didn't need the Ram, and only had a system with 2 gb I would go with 32 bit. I have not noticed any problems with drivers at all for Vista 64 bit or Windows 7 64 bit.
 
Exactly. If all you're doing is surfing and email, you don't even need a computer with 2GB of RAM. However, just because you don't need it, doesn't mean it isn't nice to have it. There are other benefits to x64 Windows than just increased address space and addressable RAM.
 
for a machine that is <= 2GB memory i use 32bit (my laptop doesn't support 4GB, it uses linux though)

for machines with >2GB memory i would say go for 64bit (or machines that can easily support 8-16GB of memory that only have 2GB)

though, my main reason is pointers, any program that uses pointers will take more memory to run (64bit point is 2x a 32bit pointer), its not a lot but it adds up if the program uses extensive pointer use

though for most people, i think they could easily go for a 32bit version of windows and 2GB of memory, most people only need office, internet (either firefox or ie), bitorrent client (hopefully not vuze, usually limewire, ick), itunes or some other media player

EDIT: my keyboard seems to want to drop keystrokes and making me mis-spell words
 
Another vote for 64 - Unless you have some hardware that can't easily be replaced, IMHO, there's no reason to stay x86 any more.
Click to expand...
I'v been running x64 OSes since 2006 on my main gaming/CAD PCs. And yes, I run XP x64, Vista. x64 and now Win 7 x64. I also run Fedora/SUSE x64 ( I don't know why, but I don't like Ubuntu)
 
Just curious, how much does it cost an OEM to have a x64 license vs x86 one?

Also note, with the exception of the Atom 230 and the 330, the entire Atom line up is 32bit only. With an almost exclusively 32bit line up for Netbooks, I wonder if Win 8 will have a Netbook specific release.
 


i thought larabee was made for gpgpu?
if it is that larabee will only be able to process 32bit data, which i doubt,
then i must ask, why is intel holding the world back?

are stream and cuda able to process x64 code?

it seems to me that microsoft was aiming to please businesses and netbook users with win7 x86, but i must ask, if the atoms were able to handle x64, would they have bothered releasing win7 x86?
 

It started as ultimate, but I stripped it down somewhat with vlite.
 



I didn't mean to make it sound like it would run worse, I agree I would rather have the 64 bit.
 
if win 7 ultimate runs better than xp on 1gb of ram, then i better stop calling 7, vista with some improvements, i installed vista once on a socket a with 512 mb of ram, and the result was slightly bearable, but i wouldnt recommend it. intel needs to stop leaving its lower end clients in the past!!!!
 
If Microsoft made Win 7 64-bit only, then Intel would have no choice but to have a 64-bit Atom least it risk such a rising market to AMD. 64-bit OSs still support 32-bit programs, usually, but it would mean that any crappy programs still using any old 16-bit parts (you'd be surprised how many are using the old 16-bit OWL stuff), would just have to go.

After all, Win 7 was originally suppose to be 64-bit only, but people who resisted change prevailed and convinced MS they need a 32-bit version, you know so people could use them on their old 32-bit P4s and Athlon XPs. Yeah that makes alot of sense. Resistance to change like that (from whiny little !@#&$ ) is what crippled Open GL 3.0
 
I would bet quite a bit that XP will be basically dead in 10 years. You can claim people will stick with it all you want, but even right now, XP is quickly being replaced by Vista (and shortly 7) in most consumers' systems. Besides, XP 64 is quite a difficult OS to use, with far less driver support and stability than either Vista or 7 x64.
 
Some people still drive Studebakers... In 10 years there may be some people still running XP, but it's going to be a similar proportion as the people running Windows 98 today - a very small amount. It will be very useful and important for those people, but for the vast majority of us it will be no more than one of those fond memories...
 

In 10 years, XP will be almost as old as Windows 3.0 (and older than windows 3.1) is today. How many people do you see still using Windows 3.1? Windows 98 is only a bit over 3 years older than XP, so it isn't really a valid comparison. Even if you go by the date of the final service pack, that puts XP in 10 years on par with Windows 95 today. Once again, that's an OS that is almost completely dead. Nice try though.
 
XP was around for as long as it was because MS was delayed in releasing the successor (primarily due to some of the viruses and issues that led to the release of SP2). Nothing more than that. XP doesn't support DX10 (and later), XP's 64 bit support is mediocre at best, and XP is not as fast as 7. In addition, people tend to like eye candy, and 7 is far ahead of XP in that department.
 


amd only rescently released its atom compeditor, most netbooks are still being built with 32bit atoms, but im guessing msoft is just trying to zone out xp, most netbooks sold today, come with xp, and im guessing that msoft dosent want to continue supporting 3 operating systems simultaneously.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom