Originally posted by: Markfw900
I was referrring to the fact that they don't even run the regular 64bit software available today (not compliant) They need special patches to run the software they just added compatability for ? Its not compatable !!!!!!
I think you are misunderstanding the article. Of course, I get the impression that the misread answer is the answer that many people were hoping for (jose for example for posting that link in every possible chance). This is a chipset issue, not a processor issue by the way.
AMD's IOMMU is a crude attempt (it isn't a true solution either) to allow a 32-bit device to use DMA to access areas in memory over the 4 GB barrier. I'm sure you all know what devices are: sound cards, printers, scanners, hard drives, etc. This brings up things to think about. Stop reading the bullets when you reach the point where there is no performance problem. Continue reading if you think you will have a performance problem.
[*]Will you actually use more than 4 GB any time soon? If not, don't worry about it.
[*]Any 64-bit device won't have this problem. Some of these are already here and more are on the way. If you have all 64-bit devices, you will have no problem.
[*]So if you are still reading, you have 32-bit devices and more than 4 GB. We now have to think about the chance of running into a problem. Does your 32-bit sound card actually need to address memory areas over 4 GB? Maybe, maybe not. I obviously can't answer this question for everyone. But for my particular usage, I don't forsee that happening.
[*]When your 32-bit device attempts to access over the 4 GB region, is it using DMA? Or does it go through other routes? Probably DMA, but it could be different. If not, you still won't see a performance hit.
[*]Ok now you are in the rare case where you do have 32-bit devices accessing areas in memory >4 GB. Now we have to think about the performance hit. AMD has a crude hardware solution. I say crude since that is what the reviews say. I'll let you search for and read them. Thus AMD will have a slight performance hit. Intel has a VERY crude solution (memory is swapped into the below 4 GB region and then the devices can access it). Thus Intel will have a bigger performance hit. The unanswered question so far is how do the performance hits compare (how much bigger will Intel's performance hit be)? And does it actually matter if your sound card must wait for one extra memory swap?