32 bit vs 64 bit

Today’s Computer comes under two brief Architecture categories…

• 32 bit (x86)
• 64 bit (x64)

Along with these modern architectures of computers.. Once upon a time in the world of Computers, there was an enormous use of even 8 bit and 16 bit architectures..

So, Lets have brief idea about what they actually means…? What are their significances for us…?
and why shall opt for the one among them..?



Some highlighted topics in this article is..

• The Architecture
• Comparing 32 bit and 64 bit architecture
• PROS of 64 bit architecture
• CONS of 64 bit architecture
• Bottom Line

The Architectures..

Architectures generally refers to the width of datapath used by the processors, width of memory addresses and integer size.

Example:
In 64 bit computer architecture..

• the processors have 64 parallel datapaths..
• can refer to a wide number of memory addresses using 64bits.

It has an integer size of 64bits (i.e. 8 bytes)

Now, Lets move on for a brief comparison of a 32bit machine and a 64bit machine. That we make your understanding much more clear about the architectures..

Comparing 32 bit and 64 bit architecture…

Comparing 32 bit vs 64 bit…

32 bit	64 bit
Have Less number of addressing Bus of 32 bits	Have a more wider bus of 64 bits
Having Less Number of Addressing bits.. It can support utmost 4GB of RAM	Having More Number of Addressing bits.. It can support upto 8TB of RAM
The addressable space also applies to programs.. limiting a maximum use of 2Gb RAM to any process. This means that 32 bit Photoshop can only ever access up to 2GB of RAM.	Maximum RAM usage by any process is 8TB.

Supportable Addressable Memory for different Computer Architectures

PROS of 64 bit Architecture…

PROS of 64 bit architecture

More Processing Power.	In very basic terms, 64-bit means that it can handle twice as many bits per clock cycle.
Supports More Memory.	Able to support more than 4GB of RAM. Hence feeding to the need of the memory hungry programs.
Performance Advantage.	Practically, Applications can make use of the 64-bit architecture to process huge data operations more quickly. This is especially important with advanced programs, such as video editing suites, games, or encryption software.
More Security.	The 64-bit versions of Windows contain Kernel Patch Protection which prevents malicious programs from changing the Windows kernel. The operating systems also boast a Data Execution Prevention which uses a special processor feature to prevent an application from running code from a memory region where it’s not supposed to run. Overall, the 64-bit edition is more secure than its 32-bit counterpart.

CONS of 64 bit Architecture…

CONS of 64 it Architecture

Minimum Requirement.	Needs a minimum of 2Gb of RAM to run 64 bit OS Needs 64 bit supported computer architecture.
Possible driver issues.	32-bit drivers are not supported; hardware manufacturers have to provide special 64-bit versions. However, this is not as much of an issue anymore, as nearly all of the hardware that has been released over the past three years has shipped with drivers right out of the box.
Higher memory consumption.	All memory addresses are now 64 bits long instead of 32 bits. This results in a larger memory footprint for Windows and applications. If you have at least 3 GB of main memory, this is not an issue, but on a low-end machine (1-2 GB), this causes more access to the hard disk and potentially slows down the machine.
No compatibility with 16-bit software.	Support for old 16-bit applications has been disabled.
Additional Windows layer.	32-bit applications run under the Windows on Windows 64 (WoW64) environment, which emulates the old 32-bit Windows systems. This means that all 32-bit programs need to go through an additional layer in Windows before they can be processed. Although this layer is very thin, it usually results in a 2% performance loss.

Bottom Line…

There are no two ways about it—64-bit is the future.
There might be some configurations, especially on older PCs with legacy programs and devices or PCs with less than 2 GB of RAM, where 64-bit does not offer any performance gains. In these cases, it makes sense to stick with the 32-bit version of Windows. If your computer came preinstalled with a 32-bit operating system, and you never work with resource-intense applications, then you will not see any benefit from formatting your disk and installing a 64-bit edition.

But the PC industry is moving forward! 4 GB of RAM is becoming the standard for consumer computers. Software is also becoming more memory-intense; there are more 64-bit-supported games coming out. In addition, the compatibility argument is becoming less of an issue. So, If you’re looking for a new computer, it is recommended that you go for x64.

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Thank You.