On Apr 5, 2011, at 3:45 AM, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
I suppose it would enable one to manipulate large video files, and to have a huge in-memory databases. What else? Is there a significant speed gain for running native 64-bit?
There is a significant speed increase for running 64-bit vs the same program in 32-bit mode. Especially when manipulating graphics, calculating large spreadsheets, or similar functions. Recoding an avi file into mp4 in 64-bit mode is significantly faster than the same process in 32-bit mode. It also makes existing video decoding much faster, thereby providing a cleaner video output. I personally care little for these things, since I can't see the stupid video myself, but others have commented on how much faster things show up on screen, and how much crisper the video looks when it does so. Creating large compressed archives is faster too, though I'm not sure why, I didn't think rar or arj or zip used any 64-bit code, perhaps it's just because larger hunks of memory can be moved at once, and that provides faster compression times. I'm sure that in time, other benefits will show up as folks experiment with 32/64-bit manipulations. One person was highly impressed with the amount of time it took a dvd package to create the final product in 64-bit mode over it's 32-bit execution times, but I didn't get numbers, so don't know what the actual times were, though they certainly appeared to be significant. I'd wager anything relying on math, algorithms, or encryption will run faster regardless of whether it's coded specifically for 64-bit mode or not, since the cpu can bite off larger chunks.
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