software 32 bit vs 64 bit

[conowizard]

what is the advantages of having a 64 bit os as opposed to having a 32 bit os?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just run 64bit. Its faster, it can use more ram, it has better program support. No reason not to.

 

Big thing is over 4gb native ram support(pae is disabled on most windows versions)

[conowizard]

thnx

[Sniperfox47]

9 minutes ago, conowizard said:

what is the advantages of having a 64 bit os as opposed to having a 32 bit os?

64 bit windows can run 64 bit software and 32 bit software with an emulation layer.

32 bit windows can run 32 bit software and 16 bit software with an emulation layer.

 

64 bit operations on x86_64 (the architecture used by desktop PCs) are potentially more efficient due to having more registers to work with.

 

64 bit systems can work with higher precision values without sacrificing performance.

 

32 bit applications and drivers are smaller than 64 bit drivers and use slightly less storage space and RAM. (Useful for devices with only 1-2GB of RAM)

 

Specific to x86_64 are also some security and virtualization features that are only available with a 64 bit OS.