So after all the arguing you are starting to agree with what I say.

You must have missed the word "apparently".

In practice, the extra registers balance, or even outweigh, the wider memory path. There also seems to be an inherent assumption that in 64-bit mode the x86_64 can only deal with 64-bit operands. It can, in fact, deal with 8-, 16-, 32-, or 64-bit operands; it is only the pointers that are fixed at 64 bits; in most programs these do not make up the bulk of variables stored in RAM. An 8-bit variable needs only one byte of RAM in 32-bit or 64-bit mode - just the same as it needed on a Z80.

The memory usage argument is - on an x86_64 - a fallacy. Believe me; I have studied assembly language programming on the x86_64 chips quite extensively.

It's not as though these 64bit Intel/AMD processors are really 64bit CPUs is it, it's just an extension to the instruction with one main goal in mind, to enable greater than 4GByte of memory.

Absoultely incorrect. May I enquire what experience you have of programming x86_64 chips at assembler level?

Should have thought of that suggestion; a few programs do need to be run as Administrator. It would be the same with 32-bit Windows 7.

not to mention about him going on about upgrading a pc.

just about all current processors are 64bit and 64bit processors have been on the market for over 5 years now.

In reply to a post by workie_ticket:

Hi people got win 7 on thurs and now am thinking of installing today.The thing that i am unsure of is wether to go 64 or 32bit.Could anyone tell me of the benefits of the 64 over 32, apart from extra memory over 4gb being seen, and also of any major drawbacks of the 64 flavour.My pc is pretty modern, Q6600 chip,Asus pk5-c mb,4870 video card so surely no problems hardware wise,please correct me if i,m wrong.Look foward to any advice.Oh forgot to say it,s win 7 home premium retail version.

64 bit processor = might as well use 64bit OS

In reply to a post by PhilipD:

You have just fallen for myth and marketing I'm afarid. If you only have 2GByte of RAM there is no advantage and only negatives to using a 64bit OS, for a start you will have less available memory as the 64bit OS and programs use more memory by the fact they are 64bit, see the Pros and Cons of the Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit

Still you can upgrade your memory to 4GByte or preferably greater to get a real benefit without re-installing and video editing will be much improved but as it stands 64bit and 2GByte of RAM is not ideal.

Regards

Phil

I was being sarcastic, or at least trying, something I am not very good at The fact is even if you are correct and more memory is needed with 64bit windows, my machine with 2GB is flying, I don't think sticking another 2GB of ram on the machine will make a huge difference.

I may get some more latter on, but it means getting rid of the stuff I already got, but it won't be for a while, DDR2 prices seems to be rising, no doubt an other way to get people to update to another motherboard.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by PhilipD:

You have just fallen for myth and marketing I'm afarid. If you only have 2GByte of RAM there is no advantage and only negatives to using a 64bit OS, for a start you will have less available memory as the 64bit OS and programs use more memory by the fact they are 64bit, see the Pros and Cons of the Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit

Still you can upgrade your memory to 4GByte or preferably greater to get a real benefit without re-installing and video editing will be much improved but as it stands 64bit and 2GByte of RAM is not ideal.

Regards

Phil

I was being sarcastic, or at least trying, something I am not very good at The fact is even if you are correct and more memory is needed with 64bit windows, my machine with 2GB is flying, I don't think sticking another 2GB of ram on the machine will make a huge difference.

I may get some more latter on, but it means getting rid of the stuff I already got, but it won't be for a while, DDR2 prices seems to be rising, no doubt an other way to get people to update to another motherboard.

64bit computing on the windows platform is slowly coming around. Adobe is partly pushing that (even though ps cs4 64bit has a nice bug in it and crashes).. but untill adobe does a 64bit flash player we wont see a 64 bit version of ff and opera (yes i know there is a 64bit build of FF around).

Plus office 2010 will have 64bit versions

I wouldn't install 32-bit Windows 7 just because there in no native 64-bit Flash support (some might even say "Good" to this!). There's absolutely no problem running the 32-bit version of IE on 64-bit Windows. The fact that I can use all of the 4GB that I have paid for (let alone what I see to be other performance benefits) far outweighs this minor inconvenience.

In reply to a post by AnotherExPipex:

I wouldn't install 32-bit Windows 7 just because there in no native 64-bit Flash support (some might even say "Good" to this!). There's absolutely no problem running the 32-bit version of IE on 64-bit Windows. The fact that I can use all of the 4GB that I have paid for (let alone what I see to be other performance benefits) far outweighs this minor inconvenience.

there is lots more to having 64bit processing and a 64bit os than just more than 4gb of ram

There is indeed, which is the point that I have made several times in this thread. Were it only the ability to use more than 3GB of RAM that would be enough to swing the choice for me, but it is far, far more than that.