Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

[Uranium-235]

So I have a customer who I upgraded his compaq CQ50 (which other than the screen looks like it could survive a two story drop-with an sSD anyways)

I've dealt with this model years ago before but with just virus removal

I've been doing a full upgrade, including a celeron to C2D 6670 (updated bios ahead of time and this works great, also a good ebay deal for $14)

i'm soon going to be doing a fresh install, and I'm curious, I've done 32-bit installs with low memory that get better performance due to the lack of WOW

Now that I'm going over the max for 32-bit windows, would I get better performance with 4GB and WOW? Or like, the 3.5gb max that 32-bit gets?

already got an SSD so that isn't a problem

[stj]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

depends on use - a lot of software now is 64bit only.
although a surprising amount of drivers and libraries even in the uefi bioses are still 32 and even 16bit!

[Uranium-235]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

WOrd and browsing AFAICT. The CQ50 is old, originally had vista on it

[TechGeek]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

If you're running any recent versions of Word on it, bite the bullet and go x64. Max the RAM if you can while you're in there.

[jiroy]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

Some CPUs are not compatible with 64Bit , that's all I can say ... You can always check for a complete list concerning this issue .

[Uranium-235]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

Some CPUs are not compatible with 64Bit , that's all I can say ... You can always check for a complete list concerning this issue .

core 2 duo 6670 is 64-bit compatible

[jiroy]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

core 2 duo 6670 is 64-bit compatible

100% .. I meant older ones , of course . Well , when I have spare time , I'll seek a complete list and put it in this thread , it could be useful ..
By the way , I've got this new idea right now , could any cpus not compatible with 32 bit .. lol ..

[piernov]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

On the Intel side, excluding early Atom-based CPUs, everything starting from Core 2 generation (mid-2006) has 64-bit support. Pentium D and some late desktop Pentium 4 support it too. Note that Windows 8.1 64-bit and newer won't boot on some CPUs (e.g. Pentium D 8xx and most 90nm Pentium 4) even though they have 64-bit due to the lack of some additional instructions.

For Atom CPU it's a little bit more complicated, but the ones you'll mostly have to worry about not supporting 64-bit are N270/N280, as well as the Z500/Z600/E600/Z2000 series. Note that even if the CPU supports 64-bit, some Atom platforms (mainly Bay Trail) were released with 32-bit only UEFI which prevents many OS from booting.

On AMD side, excluding most socket 754 Sempron (except later desktop ones), everything starting from socket 754 supports 64-bit (around 2004, but there were still a bunch of the older generation socket 462 being sold at the same time, without support for 64-bit). Note that socket 754 and 939 CPUs do not support Windows 8.1 and newer.

You can check the various lists on Wikipedia for details.

If the machine supports 64-bit I'd personally choose a 64-bit OS, the only reason I'd have to keep 32-bit is if some hardware doesn't have 64-bit drivers available. I'd choose Linux over Windows for older machines too.

[momaka]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

On a machine with 4 GB of RAM or less, I always go with 32-bit Windows. Apps seem to be a little less memory-intensive this way, at least IME. On the few PCs with 4 GB of RAM that I have that are Windows 7 x64, RAM seems to run out pretty quickly with browsing (using latest Firefox Quantum.) Similar machines with 32-bit Win 7 seem to take longer before I start hitting swap file.

Also, consider this: if the laptop you have has an ATI or nVidia IGP that uses system memory as video RAM, then less from that 4 GB will go to waste, as you can usually dedicate up to 512 MB for the video RAM (not that this much would ever be needed from an onboard GPU anyways) and then let the OS use the rest.

[stj]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

all the info is already sorted at http://www.cpu-world.com/

[u666sa]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

64-bit..!

Whether you install 64-bit or 32-bit OS is not decisive factor in your machine. The decisive factor is whether you have HDD or SSD. With HDD machine will seem slow and sluggish, especially after you install office. An SSD will make that machine fly.

Another thing that can make it fly is Linux, perhaps Manjaro with XFCE. So long as Microsoft Word and Excel are not needed, it's good.

I have Q8300 machine with 2gb RAM and SSD, office installed, it is fast. Same config with HDD will be unbearable.


P.S. machines this old are approaching their age limit, ceramic caps do let go and become resistors, so you might come across situation where machine boots, BIOS is accessible, upgradable, but when you boot into Windows, or Linux, machine turns off, with no error codes what so ever, not even on post card.

[lti]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

The problem with having that little RAM is wear on the SSD with virtual memory usage (or swap file in Linux).

If you can still get 32-bit browsers, try it. I haven't run a modern 32-bit OS, so I don't know if there is a difference in resource usage.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

I still sort of maintain 32-bit Linux (Gentoo) along with my 64-bit Linux. I can easily get by with 2GB in Gentoo with 32-bit binaries but a 2GB 64-bit install is pretty much an exercise in futility, swaps way too much.
Firefox is still supported on 32-bit as long as the cpu supports SSE2. My 1.6GHz Pentium-M and Atom-1.6GHz run latest ESR Firefox just fine, just that many pages are simply too slow - but they'll eventually render...

[Uranium-235]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

Ugh in 32-it (current OS) after upgrading the ram it lowered the available ram to 2.9GB

[jiroy]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

Well , If any people still interested in those systems like me ; most of the time , you can upgrade the CPU , from a strictly 32 Bit one to a compatible 64 bit one . Actually , it was a hobby for me to always get the highest compatible CPU for a system , in respect of course to the system device's manufacturer list of CPUs compatibility and the type of socket (very important) . So it's not the end yet , if you get the "not compatile CPU message" , just check first for the possible 64 bit compatible CPUs for the same device .

Last one I upgraded from 32 bit (strictly) to a 64 bit compatible one , was replacing one of my two original Dells Latitude D520 CPUs , to a T5600 Intel core 2 one , 1.83 GHZ , 1.83 GHZ . I still may do another CPU upgrade anyway , just for fun ; The second one I left it like it is , just for using a 32 TV PCMCI socket device .
With 4 GB ddr2 , it made an amazing performance ( 3.2 on windows index ) and still running till now .. It's a good built that probably we won't see much anymore .

I always wanted to raise its memory (better say test as I'm not sure) to 8 GB ddr2 (2 x 4 GB ddr2) , like I did successfully with another one of my laptops , a Toshiba L500-1EG , but I didn't had time , plus , those (2x4 GB ddr2) were very rare to find back then and also very expensive .

I believe many people do not know that . So , With 8 GB ddr2 , your device is still competitive and If equipped with SSD , well ...

[momaka]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

Ugh in 32-it (current OS) after upgrading the ram it lowered the available ram to 2.9GB

OK, now that's just sad.

Maybe try making a RAMDISK on the 1 or so GB that is not seen and then put the swap file on that?

The problem with having that little RAM is wear on the SSD with virtual memory usage (or swap file in Linux).

Depends on the OS.

For Windows 10, I agree.

But we are talking Windows 7 here (as per the thread title), which is pretty tame with RAM usage, once configured properly. Only swapping that would occur then would be from browser usage... and this wouldn't be that bad, really.

If you can still get 32-bit browsers, try it. I haven't run a modern 32-bit OS, so I don't know if there is a difference in resource usage.

Latest Firefox Quantum still has both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

My 1.6GHz Pentium-M and Atom-1.6GHz run latest ESR Firefox just fine, just that many pages are simply too slow - but they'll eventually render...

Ugh, FF ESR.

Maybe it's not so bad on Linux. But on Windows, I ditched it a long time ago. Quantum is way faster and more resource-friendly. If you really want RAM efficiency, though, Pale Moon (or New Moon for Win XP... or MyPal) is the way to go. It's just not as compatible as FF Quantum, though. And slower with video sites.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

The current ESR (102) is based off of Quantum.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

OK, now that's just sad.

Maybe try making a RAMDISK on the 1 or so GB that is not seen and then put the swap file on that?

I just put 64-bit on and it says all 4GB. Not sure how much of it is actually video shared

found out it's 16M GPU shared. Thank god. I've seen 128M+ from 4GB of ram

[Topcat]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

I just put 64-bit on and it says all 4GB. Not sure how much of it is actually video shared

IIRC it's 256mb. Look in display properties, it'll tell you how much it's nabbing as dedicated.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Which is better? 32-bit or 64-bit on the edge of max 32-bit memory (Win7)

IIRC it's 256mb. Look in display properties, it'll tell you how much it's nabbing as dedicated.

I edited my previous post, it's 16M, which is good enough