On 2009-10-18 11:32:07 +0200, language_fan <f...@bar.com.invalid> said:
Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:56:44 -0400, Just Visiting thusly wrote:
I won't deny that for certain people 32-bit systems are still perfectly
useful. Just my clients do not share this view for a series of good
reasons. Even their older systems tend to be 64-bit nowadays. Migration
towards 64-bit OSes is under way. There is still 32-bit compatibility if
needed. At the same time certain programs will perform drastically
better when compiled to 64-bit. Replacement thus can be postponed which
is usually the best way to keep CFOs happy.
64-bit programs often also require larger CPU caches to work efficiently,
more disk space (larger binaries), and finally larger memory consumption.
32-bit x86 + PAE still works until you have more than 64 GB of RAM or
processes larger than 2 or 3 GB. So, in desktop use 32-bit feels like the
best way to go unless 64-bit algorithms are provably more efficient in
the chosen task.
on x86 the 64 bit extension added registers, that makes it faster, even
if as you correctly point out a priori just using 64 bit pointers is
just a drawback unless you have lot of memory.
Anyway I also need 64 bit (computational chemistry, speed and memory
hungry), and to that the only thing that I can say is D1 works very
well with 64 bit.
Fawzi
