32 bit and 64 bit??

[Meashka]

what the difference. read this article http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...27/tc_nf/33578

exactly what are the changes from these operating systems?

[Rufus]

64 is supposed to be faster, being that it 'thinks' a different way, and supports more

Very few games are actually compatable with 64. But in the future, 64 should be the big gamer's CPU.

64 bits would also run more processes at once. Remember those 8 bit games with blocked graphics? 32 brought us crystal graphics. 64 might bring us even more.

[micral]

from what i khow that's the size of the registers in the CPU. a 32 bits register can hold a 4 bytes value at a time, and a 64 bits register can hold 8 bytes. the changes from 16 bits to 32 bits were important, because with a 16 bits (2 bytes) register, memory addressing was a pain due to the fact that you cannot describe a memory address using 2 bytes, 16 bits programmers had to make use of an additional register and divide the memory into "sections", making it quite troublesome.

[GODJonez]

64-bit is just a layer on 32-bit system.

Imagine a CD for example. That disc contains some data slots called registers. Programs send requests to alter the state of those registers and the registers then alter other registers by the input. That was the 32-bit thing. Now take another CD, a different one and put it on top of the previous CD, now you got 2*32-bit system: 64-bit system. When 32-bit applications are used, they still direct to those 32-registers that still exist on the lower layer. The 64-bit applications send their requests to the upper layer together with the lower layer. So that means there are more space for the processor to handle the data and the upper layer also works in different way (different kind of registers). That is the way it improves performance.

Well, that was a stupid explanation of 64-bit system using Compact Discs as CPU layers

As for differences between 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems, the 64-bit systems can use those upper layer registers and therefore allow execution of 64-bit programs. So as long as you don't necessarily use 64-bit programs, you don't need 64-bit hardware nor you need 64-bit Operating system.

[Rufus]

I thought 32 bit games couldn't work on 64 bit processors....

[Uncle Evil]

yeah they work fine. and windows x64 still supports all 32bit games and such. and 64 bit allows more memory to be used which expands how well things run.

[Soeru]

64 bit CPU's process faster than than standard 32 bit processors, regardless of clocking speed right? I knew someone who had a dual processor(might've been Intel) that worked at 64bit, and he could do massive video encoding in an hour when it took my Intel P4 @ 2.54Ghz several more(on top of that, his videos didn't skip, unlike mine).

A lot of people still confuse color depth bits with processors. It's probably all of us 1990's kids, back when we had a Sega Genesis(16 bit), N64(64 bits), PSX/Saturn(32 bits), and Dreamcast(128 bit).

128 bit CPU's might be the next big thing in home computers, right? I've noticed that processors haven't gotten any faster over the past year(without overclocking, of course). I've read somewhere that semi-conductor tech has just about reached its limit for CPU's, hence we won't see any major advancement in CPU's until somebody comes up with a better way to build processors...

I don't think I'll ever need anything faster than my CPU, should I ever upgrade anything on this comp, it will be getting a massive hard disk, a newer DVD-RW/whatever drive, more RAM, and most importantly a new video card...

[sniperrfl1011]

well, instead of getting faster, the focus now seems to make dual cores and stuff so it runs smoother. Who really needs 8ghz to run their game? you know? It's a better idea to have two 3ghz processors so that one can run your game and the other to manage background stuff, like firewalls, anti-virus, etc.

32 bit processors can only manage 4gb of memory. 512 of that is reserved for video card ram and stuff. so a 32bit cpu can only manage up to 3.5gb's of ram. That amount of ram is no longer uncommon. 64bit cpus can allow for much more ram to be addressed in a single cpu(forget exactly how much). It is improvements like these that cpu makers are focusing on for now.

[Meashka]

what would be an example of a program that is 64 bit and an example of a 32 bit.

[Uncle Evil]

Actualy AMD has a 5000+ cpu on the way and Intel has one with a major cache on the way. I think after 64bit becomes standard we will get much higher clock speeds. also I think CPU arch has to do with it aswell

[Borman]

Farcry was suppose to have a 64 bit version, not sure if it came out though.

[Panda Man]

they made fun of windows xp-64 on attack of the show by playing solitair, they were talking about how the fast the redeal is and everything

[Josh]

I've read somewhere that semi-conductor tech has just about reached its limit for CPU's, hence we won't see any major advancement in CPU's until somebody comes up with a better way to build processors...

Have you not seen the cell chip? While the x86 processor may be reaching its limits the cell processor is just amazing. 256 Gflops @ 4.8 Ghz on one chip= AMAZING! While people talk about 128 bit processors does anyone know that the PS2 has a true 128 bit processor in it? That's how it can output graphics as good as Xbox if programmed properly.

64-bit is definetly the future of things to come. It's unavoidable.

[Sprung]

Have you not seen the cell chip? While the x86 processor may be reaching its limits the cell processor is just amazing. 256 Gflops @ 4.8 Ghz on one chip= AMAZING! While people talk about 128 bit processors does anyone know that the PS2 has a true 128 bit processor in it? That's how it can output graphics as good as Xbox if programmed properly.

64-bit is definetly the future of things to come. It's unavoidable.

The Dreamcast had a 128 bit graphics processor as well

[Josh]

That is true. That is why you could also see some amazing looking games on it like Shenmue on the supposedly low specs.