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32-bit vs 64-bit on 4GB RAM

djdelarosa25
By djdelarosa25
in Windows
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By the sounds of it you may want to upgrade the computer completely... anything that only supports up to 4 GB of RAM is probably too slow to be useful by today's standards

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Always go with 64bit unless you have a specific reason not to. There are no downsides to using 64bit over 32bit except for a minor memory hit per process but it's so minor you won't notice it.

 

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 on my netbook with only 2GB of RAM and it's not much of a difference performance-wise.

-KuJoe

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By the sounds of it you may want to upgrade the computer completely... anything that only supports up to 4 GB of RAM is probably too slow to be useful by today's standards

Depends on the usage.

His CPU, 4GB RAM and a decent SSD will do office work, media consumption etc just fine.

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64bit would be best since that means you can upgrade later.

 

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Depends on the usage.

His CPU, 4GB RAM and a decent SSD will do office work, media consumption etc just fine.

4 GB of RAM would do fine, on a modern machine.  We're talking a mobo that does not support more than 4 GB; that suggests to me it is extremely old, and thus probably won't work very well even if it had the full 4 GB

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4 GB of RAM would do fine, on a modern machine.  We're talking a mobo that does not support more than 4 GB; that suggests to me it is extremely old, and thus probably won't work very well even if it had the full 4 GB

 

My netbook doesn't support more than 2GB and it was my primary workstation up until 2 years ago.

-KuJoe

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My netbook doesn't support more than 2GB and it was my primary workstation up until 2 years ago.

:blink:  How!?

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:blink:  How!?

 

When I do anything productive I rarely do it locally and RDP to one of my VMs to do actual work. I actually use a Raspberry Pi 2 mostly when I'm at home since my gaming desktop generates so much heat and uses so much power (plus it only has 6 cores and 16GB of RAM). But 2GB is still plenty for basically anything except gaming.

-KuJoe

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3gb or more RAM, always go for 64bit. 2gb and under 32bit is OK since its also bit smaller.

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You'd be fine with 32-bit, but it will be the same story like those 16bit machines: they will be obsolete sooner or later.

I'm currently rocking a 32-bit machine with 1GB of RAM and it's, well, fine if you are not using it for more than 5 tabs in Chrome.

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Always go with 64bit unless you have a specific reason not to. There are no downsides to using 64bit over 32bit except for a minor memory hit per process but it's so minor you won't notice it.

 

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 on my netbook with only 2GB of RAM and it's not much of a difference performance-wise.

Well that's not entirely true a 64bit OS can break compatibility with older 32 bit software and as the OPs machine sounds like it's around 8 years old he probably has some old software kicking about and he is going to get pretty much no benefit at all on his current system from a 64 bit OS (32 bit can address 3.5gb of ram so he's only missing out on 500mb which is not going to make a difference) so there is little point in upgrading to 64bit.

 

That said though I believe nowadays you get a generic license and can install either 32 or 64 bit windows. So it doesn't really matter.

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on 64bit machines dont run 32 bit software, it might seem to non-tech ppl like it would be easier for the pc to run it because its only 32 bit while your pc can handle 64, however thats a total mistake.

 

You have to see it more like reaching the full potential, on a 64bit platform, a 64bit OS, will be able to utilize 100% of your hardware, a 32bit OS might not, and not more than 4g, but thats your limitation anyway

 

If you run a 64bit cpu, use a 64bit OS, its gonna run smoother, easier and possibly even faster, but defently NOT slower than the 32bit variant

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on 64bit machines dont run 32 bit software

 

That's not true at all. You can definitely run 32bit software on a 64bit OS.

 

If you're running Windows check your C drive and you'll see two Program Files directories, one for 64bit (Program Files) and one for 32bit (Program Files (x86)). Additionally in the C:\Windows directory you'll see a System directory (32bit) and SysWOW64 (64bit) which shows compatibility for both on the same OS.

 

You will see a slight performance increase (maybe a few percentage points at best) at the expense of more RAM usage per process (maybe a few MB at most) when you run 64bit over 32bit. Again, the only reason to go with 32bit over 64bit is if you have to. There really is no added benefit to using 32bit unless you have software that cannot run on 64bit or your hardware is not 64bit compatible.

-KuJoe

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Well, to finally answer the question, I don't think this really even worth asking these days; there was a time when Windows was 32 bit, and that's just how it was unless you were crazy (remember 64 bit XP anyone?) but it has been very common (the norm I would say) to have 64 bit windows for quite some time now, so even if you don't need it for the amount of RAM you have, its a case of "you may as well", especially since that processor is 64 bit.

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

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