WinXP Pro x64 better for Dual-Cores?

[dizman]

I breifly read this somewhere (maybe even in these forums), but someone mentioned that a dual-core processor worked a lot better/faster with the x64 Windows than normal XP Pro.

Just wondering if anyone else had heard this or thing this may be true? I'm curious cause I'm looking to build a dual-core system in the next week or so (can't decide if the extra $$$ for the 4400 would be worth it over the 3800)

 

[doublehelix]

Most programs, with the exception of a few, are still programmed for 32bit. So, in effect, you won't have many advantages using the 64bit processor if the program limits to 32...

 

[Heyyou27]

I'm currently running Windows XP Media Center edition, and Windows XP 64-bit edition. On 64-bit, everything that's programmed for it runs a lot faster. Windows also starts up faster on 64-bit.

 

[K8MAN]

WinXP64 feels faster in general and the boot time is incredible. The little blue bar on the winxp screen gets almost 1/2 way across the now on a 6 month old install of windows. My GF's computer in comparison has the bar go across the screen @ least 3-4 times on her AXP system with normal winxp.

 

[choirbass]

yeah, in general, everything pretty much runs faster over winXP x64, compared to winXP x86... ive got a dual boot configuration with both x64 and x86 versions of windows xp pro. with the x64 version, boot times are faster, and the system in general is just more responsive, not to mention disk defragmenting alone is tons faster if you have a heavily fragmented disk... of coarse, depending on what applications you run, the differences per application can range from nominally faster under 32 bit code, to noticably faster under 64 bit code... the only drawbacks ive found using it, are more limited driver support for some hardware compared to the x86 version (slowly changing though, but be sure to check if the manufacturer offers 64bit drivers for your hardware, otherwise the OS wont know what the specific hardware is, and youll have to do without it), and some games tend to be more unstable... but other than that, its a win/win situation, with most applications running better overall

i now use it as my primary OS over the x86 version of windows xp, just because of how much more responsive and stable it is (and feels), even though most of my apps are only 32 bit, (WOW64 being a huge reason for that)

when i want to game, i just boot into the other OS... its slower, but no games crash lol 😛

in regards to driver support, there are some sites, such as http://www.64bit-world.com, which offer 64 bit driver downloads. and also, searching on google, you can sometimes find drivers people have modded to work with various chipsets (such as my soundcard, which the manufacturer does not offer 64 bit drivers for, but i found a modded driver for the same chipset, that works perfectly anyhow)