64bit OS - who actually needs it?

[Nothinman]

maybe i am just old skool as when i game, i just have the game and teamspeak on, if i am doing web stuff, i will probably have dreamweaver/golive, a text/hex editor, photoshop and illustrator and maybe flash and when doing 3d stuff, just have solidworks, illustrator and photoshop.

I got out of that habit as soon as I started using Linux. Virtual desktops make it so much easier to manage multiple applications that I don't feel the need to minimize or close anything. I'll leave things running for months at a time and not even realize it. That's just not possible on Windows because so often you end up rebooting or closing things trying to figure out why your hard disk is churning.

it just seems overkill for the vast majority of users.

In general I agree, but so many apps are just huge these days that the more memory you can give them, the better.

and for a 32bit program that won't work on 64bit - solidworks, at least version 2010 -

Generally, that's the exception rather than the rule.

oh well, maybe i can turn off the pagefile.

I really hope that's a bad joke...

 

[pdusen]

On Linux you could do both just fine, it's Windows that's artificially limiting you.

I'm well aware of that (I'm actually an Ubuntu user as well), it's just that a frequently have to use Windows for many tasks, and since I've never had anything not work in 64-bit (Linux or Windows), I pretty much do 64-bit everything.

 

[DOOA]

Another point in using Win7 64 bit progress. Right now Win7 32 and 64 are the same speed, but the potential is there and we need to change. Hopefully a firm majority of 64 bit users will start Microsoft optimizing for 64 bit instead of just being 64 bit compliant.

Apple showed a noticeable speed improvement when they released their 64 bit OS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nm5bvh_ric
shows much faster launching and how some programs can run faster.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31012_7-10319612-10355804.html
shows where we can go in a year or so.

 

[pjkenned]

how many of you actually use the difference that a 64bit OS gives vs just having it?

Every day.

how often do you use more than 4GB of ram?

Every day that the PC is on.

how many of your apps are true 64bit apps?

About 30%... but it isn't like I have one app open at a time.

what apps are you using that uses the additional memory?

In essence all of them... since I rarely have under 3.4GB used.... when I'm not really doing anything worth noted. The difference between 12GB and 4GB is getting to be pretty big. Plus, drivers are being written for x64 Win 7 more and more these days.

also, why is it on so many computers at the stores when 32bit is still plenty fine for probably 90%+ of the users?

It doesn't really cost more, it is becoming the best supported non-XP OS out there. And if you are running 64-bit Win 7... there is always virtual XP.

That brings me to:

just wondering what people are doing that needs 8GB of ram aside from science/large server stuff.

Virtualization. Eats memory and like crazy... but saves a ton of money by having a few big boxes.

 

[Nothinman]

Hopefully a firm majority of 64 bit users will start Microsoft optimizing for 64 bit instead of just being 64 bit compliant.

Very few things need optimization at that level, i.e. only niche things like A/V encoders and such. The vast majority of apps get all the "optimization" they can from the compiler.

 

[Modelworks]

how many of you actually use the difference that a 64bit OS gives vs just having it?

I use it and require it

how often do you use more than 4GB of ram?

All the time

how many of your apps are true 64bit apps?

75%

what apps are you using that uses the additional memory?

Maya
Mudbox
3dsmax
Cinema 4d
Vue8
3d coat


They are all native 64 bit and have been for years because they use memory by the truckload, especially vue 8. You can provide vue8 with 32GB and it will act like "is that all you got ?"

Of course it runs with far less than that but it really shines with a lot of memory and cpu cores too . Vue 8 stands out for me as an example of why 64 bit is needed. It isn't a program that makes use of lots of memory as a marketing tool . It is a program that really needs 64 bit to do what it does. Vue 8 is a digital nature program that models the real world down to details like leaves on the trees and has to store all that data in memory for thousands of leaves per tree and expand that to hundreds of trees in the scene. Combine that with the grass, each blade, flowers and each petal and you can see real fast why 64 bit is needed here. I have scenes that are 20+ billion polygons in size. If you want to know more :
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_8_xstream/?page=5

also, why is it on so many computers at the stores when 32bit is still plenty fine for probably 90%+ of the users?

Part of that is due to prices. If you look at memory prices DDR3 became really cheap for a period of time due to the market being saturated with it and not as many buyers as DDR2 and companies switching over to DDR3 production. To get best performance with DDR3 you would use 3 sticks. Those sticks are usually sold as 2GB each so OEM ended up with models for sale that are 6GB memory. They could still put 32 bit os on those but then the public would complain and why not put 64 bit, 64 is bigger than 32 and that is all consumers will see when they buy. They don't even know what a bit is, they just see the bigger is better. Also they have 6GB ram compared with the competitors 4GB and again 6 is bigger than 4.

 

[tommo123]

i ran vista x64 and was fine. no probs really. same now with win7 x64. as soon as i went 64 bit i jumped from 4 to 8 GB.

i'm lazy with my browser and have 50-80 tabs open at a time and that can sometimes eat up 1.5GB or so. hit 2GB once in opera and it crashed on me. hoping for a 64bit version to get around that someday. i figure, if i have the RAM, use it.