32 Bit or 64 Bit?

[tbird]

Is there a noticeable difference between 32 & 64 using 2GB memory?

Are you asking if there's a performance difference between using 32-bit and 64-bit, all other things being equal? In this case, that being a PC with 2GB of RAM?

While I've not done side-by-side comparisons, I can tell you that Ultimate v1.8 64-bit is undoubtedly the fastest OS I've ever run. To be honest with you, I think you'd have to have two machines sitting side-by-side (one running 64-bit the other 32-bit) to actually SEE the difference; but 64-bit, for me anyway, just seems "smoother" somehow, more responsive I guess. If you're running v1.8 32-bit, I wouldn't counsel you to reformat and reinstall JUST to go to 64-bit instead. Does that help at all?

Not what I meant. I thought that there would not be much of a difference between 32 & 64 with using 2GB ram. The difference would show if 4Gb+ ram was used?

[Baphomet]

Not what I meant. I thought that there would not be much of a difference between 32 & 64 with using 2GB ram. The difference would show if 4Gb+ ram was used?

Oh. That IS a different question. My answer: No. Linux is very low-overhead compared to some other operating systems. In day to day operations I would be surprised if you noticed a difference between using 4GB of RAM or 2GB of RAM with Ultimate.

Now, if you're running a LOT of VERY memory-intensive applications, that's a different story. But a difference in how the OS, how Ultimate behaves with 2GB or 4GB, all by itself? No difference that you'd notice.

My system, right now as I type this, with Rhythmbox playing streaming music (internet radio), Pidgin (IM client), Thunderbird and Firefox open (and I have five tabs right now in Firefox) is using about 500MiB or ~26% of my 2GB of system RAM.

[Sno]

I've been running the 64bit version since 1.8 was released. It does seem to run cleanly and a little better then 1.7 32 did on the same system. The only drawbacks I have found are sometimes you need to force the architecture type on .deb files if they were compiled for 32 bit. Most will still run fine after that. But the main issue I have is that the video codec work for 64 bit does not seem to be up to par with the 32 bit stuff. I get some video corruption watching movies. Especially divx and windows media files. Other then that, it works well.

Just my $.02....

-Sno

[vinca]

Not what I meant. I thought that there would not be much of a difference between 32 & 64 with using 2GB ram. The difference would show if 4Gb+ ram was used?

Oh. That IS a different question. My answer: No. Linux is very low-overhead compared to some other operating systems. In day to day operations I would be surprised if you noticed a difference between using 4GB of RAM or 2GB of RAM with Ultimate.

Now, if you're running a LOT of VERY memory-intensive applications, that's a different story. But a difference in how the OS, how Ultimate behaves with 2GB or 4GB, all by itself? No difference that you'd notice.

My system, right now as I type this, with Rhythmbox playing streaming music (internet radio), Pidgin (IM client), Thunderbird and Firefox open (and I have five tabs right now in Firefox) is using about 500MiB or ~26% of my 2GB of system RAM.

dammit baphomet, how many brains/eyes u got? iming, emailing, posting on the forums, listening to music ....*poof* <-- my brain


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[TheeMahn]

I notice a "huge" gain in using 64 bit (and I use both all the time as I build them), but I have 4 Gig of ram and quad 64 bit processors. 32 bit O/S's can only address ~3.2GB of ram the rest is wasted. I am unsure weather I could see the difference if I was to rip out one of the 2 gig chips.

Some software for example is written specifically to take advantage of 64bit / SMP processors.

For example:

Parallel mksquashfs: Using 4 processors

I also have written software to specifically take advantage of the hardware you possess. I do find x64 to not only be quicker for daily tasks, buy very responsive (currently running Ultimate Edition 1.9 X64, will be released to forum users tomorrow).

I hope this has shed some light.

TheeMahn