Windows XP64 question

[Boom782]

Sorry if this is a lame question, but I have been out of the loop for awhile.

Whats the difference between Windows XP and Xp64?

Also will Windows XP run on a 64 system? I ask because im upgrading to an AMD 64bit system.

 

[Rilex]

XP64 offers a clean 64bit implementation of XP. It will allow you to run 64-bit native programs. It will not allow you to run 16bit programs. It will allow you to address gobs of memory, well beyond the 4GB physical limit that XP has. It is also built off of the Windows 2003 codebase with IIS6, so if you want to run a real webserver off of it with no 10-concurrent connection limit, you can.

Yes, XP32 will run on a 64bit system, you just don't get the benefits/downsides a 64bit system offers.

 

[pkme2]

Originally posted by: Rilex
XP64 offers a clean 64bit implementation of XP. It will allow you to run 64-bit native programs. It will not allow you to run 16bit programs. It will allow you to address gobs of memory, well beyond the 4GB physical limit that XP has. It is also built off of the Windows 2003 codebase with IIS6, so if you want to run a real webserver off of it with no 10-concurrent connection limit, you can.

Yes, XP32 will run on a 64bit system, you just don't get the benefits/downsides a 64bit system offers.

I switched back from XP64 to XP32 for that exact reason

 

[ProviaFan]

AMD's 64 bit processors are fully backward compatible with 32 bit code, so Windows XP will run perfectly with no performance penalty on x86-64. XP x64's benefits have already been covered, but it does require 64 bit drivers which are still sometimes lacking. In short, the hassles of x64 are not worth your time if you don't have more than 3GB of RAM.

 

[Nothinman]

In short, the hassles of x64 are not worth your time if you don't have more than 3GB of RAM.

The amount of physical memory is mostly irrelevant. The 4G limit on XP32 was artificially imposed by MS to make you pay for Server if you want to use more memory, it's perfectly possible to use up to 64G of physical memory in a 32-bit machine with PAE. A huge amount of virtual memory is what using a 64-bit system gets you, I believe AMD64 chips will allow you to map up to 256TB of addresses. But since most of your apps on Windows will most likey be 32-bit for a while you're still constrained by the 32-bit VM limitations, they'll only be able to map up to 4G of addresses even on a 64-bit system.

 

[Rilex]

You leave out the point that applications have to be built with PAE in mind, and that applications are still unable to address more than 2GB (or 3GB if built for it) of VAS without AWE extensions, which only the high end applications have

 

[Nothinman]

And upgrading to XP64 won't help because those same applications will still only get 4G of VM in XP64 because they'll still be 32-bit. Unless the app is open source and you can recompile it or there's a 64-bit build available, you're screwed. My point was just that the amount of physical memory is irrelevent in choosing between XP and XP64, Windows can address a lot more than MS allows you to with a XP Pro 32-bit license but chances are that your apps won't be able to take advantage of it anyway.

 

[Rilex]

Uh, it is quite relevant. XP-32 doesn't allow you to gain access to more than 4GB (or rather, 3.2GB). With XP64, you can. Regardless, addressing more than 4GB of physical on 32bit platforms is a hack.

 

[Nothinman]

Hack or not it works, I'm sure there's hundreds or thousands of other little hacks in every system to work around bad designs and other problematic hardware. Hell the whole i386 real->protected mode crap of the boot process is a hack.

But, as off topic as it may now seem, my point was that in XP32 it's just an artificial limitation though and in either case if he wants to use XP64 or Server 2003 32-bit which won't have the XP32 Pro limitation, he'll have to buy a new license. And since we seem to be seeing people complaining about XP64 driver issues just as much as we see people complaining about Linux wifi support I'd say it's safer just to stick with a Win32 system for now. =)