Windows 7: 64-bit or 32-bit? Memory and performance

In response to the comment that was left that pertains to this, “what is the recommended of hardware i need to install windows 7 64 bit and i want that he is not stuck to me and go slowley”, from Barak.

Well, that’s a tough one really, depends on what you are going to use that Windows 7 x64 edition computer for?

If it’s games, you should go with Intel, I know there are a lot of AMD fanboys and girls out there, as I am one as well but there comes a time when the statistics speak for themselves. AMD has been lagging behind in performance per GHz and per Watt for a little while now.

Well, if you need absolute speed and power, a tradition motherboard manufacturer would come to mind either SuperMicro or EVGA. I would learn toward the EVGA Classified SR-1 motherboard if you need Intel Dual Xeon multi-core processors, 6-cores a piece, so you have 12 cores but 24 hardware threads. Of course, that system when fully built is effing expensive. That’s what you get for a good workstation.

However, you could get by with an i7 motherboard from EVGA or Asus ROG certified series if you are a gamer. It all boils down to how much you can spend on the overall system. The Windows 7 x64 is slightly heavily load than Windows XP x64.

Note: If you want a fast system you should look at getting a big beefy PSU that doesn’t skimp on the accessory power rails because that is where many computer manufacturers try to cheat people, which is dangerous for their reputation.

This sounds like an off the wall power rating but since the systems are eating more and more power each time they come up with a faster CPU and memory technology. 900 Watts minimum is not out of the question. By the way, not all power supply units (PSUs) are the same, some have more or less current on certain voltages.

If I knew more of what you are going to use this thing for in terms of maximal use, Barak, I could give you a better idea of what to look for and the possible price range.

simran singh says:
December 15, 2012 at 3:52 am

i have a core 2 duo processor with 2.93ghz, 4gb of RAM. and 320+160gb of hard disk. Is window 7 64bit is suitable for my pc??
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Yes, you can use it but depending on what you are going to use it for, you might be better off using the 32-bit version of Win 7. Put it this way, very few applications actually use 6-bit binaries / executables. The only time I actually recommend you use 64-bit Win 7 or other OSes is that if you have a 64-bit CPU and can expand past 4 GB of RAM, some system boards or laptops / notebooks / netbooks only allow a max of 2 ~ 4 GB of RAM despite having a 64-bit CPU. The 64-bit OSes from Microsoft also require slightly more RAM to run so if you are limited in that aspect, stick with 32-bit.

There is another thing that needs to be addressed, the software that uses say the COMM ports, Parallel Ports (LPT) are handled differently in 64-bit mode on the CPU and in the BIOS than when it’s running in 32-bit mode. Case and point, the older 32-bit terminal emulation applications that are unaware of the change in the BIOS will try to call a real mode from the x86 BIOS and will return as an error, it won’t be able to access the hardware in that regard because the 32-bit BIOS which also supports 8 and 16 bit calls are not supported in the 64-bit BIOS, also it’s written completely different.

Now, the thing is this, Microsoft has official dropped 8 and 16-bit support but you can still install a 3rd party application to handle this if you are in 32-bit mode on a 64-bit CPU and give you access to that. If you want access to that capability you need to install a hardware emulator package in 64-bit, what it does is convert from 64-bit mapping and code on the physical OS and 32-bit on the virtual addresses, the software running inside this won’t know anything different than if were running natively. If you need the application names to do this very thing, just drop a note here.

Another thing, games that use the older DirectX 9.0c support libraries all use less than 4 GB of RAM, the DirectX 9.0c run-times are 32-bit, granted there is a special developers’ edition of DX9 that is 64-bit but that never made it to the mainstream as being used on the open market.

Something else to remember, most games are CPU / GPU and memory hogs but adding more memory to the system doesn’t always make it faster even if you have a 64-bit system and more than 4 GB of RAM installed. 64-bit bit Win 7 is slightly slower in execution of 32-bit games. If this is what you are going to use it for, games,
I would recommend 32-bit Win7 if you are going to use it for production of games, big data (data mining), surfing and playing games at the same time (don’t recommend on a portable) than do 64-bit.

It’s all about what and how you use your computer that will determine if you have a “need” for 64-bit Win 7 and how far your can physically expand your RAM. Hope this gives you a little help.

Oh by the way, most DX10, DX10.1, (Win Vista) DX11 (Win Vista & 7) and the new DX11.1 (Win8) games are still, only 32-bit, can only see up to 4 GB of RAM.

It shows that I’m running Windows 7 32 bit but my computer shows that I have 8GB of RAM. I want to know why it shows that much memory and can I install a 64Bit OS?

Does 64bit boost the game performance??

Hi, Iam using Intel Xeon server , speed 2ghz (64 bit), Ram 2gb DDR2.. Ram slot available 4. I need to increase the Ram upto 16gb, wheter it is possible to increase the ram for this server.whether motherboard & processor will support for 16gb ram.