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Should I swtich from w7 32 bit to w7 64 bit?
Musubi:
The reasons I considered a change is adobe cs5 which will be 64 bit only. If I would upgrade I would upgrade only to 8GB of ram (i've got 4GB right now)
I don't know I'm not so techy. Will this SIW info help you give me good advice?Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Family
Product Name GA-MA785GM-US2H
Serial Number
SKU Number
PC System Type Desktop
Machine Type AT/AT COMPATIBLE
Infrared (IR) Supported No
DMI System UUID 30303234-31444431-36343435-FFFFFFFF
UUID 34323030-4431-3144-3634-3435FFFFFFFF
Windows System Assessment
CPU Score 6.20 (Calculations per second)
Memory Score 5.50 (Memory operations per second)
Graphics Score 4.00 (Desktop performance for Windows Aero)
D3D Score 5.30 (3D business and gaming graphics performance)
Disk Score 5.90 (Disk data transfer rate)
Windows Experience Index 4.00 (Base score)
Disk Space Disk C: 188 GB Available, 232 GB Total, 188 GB Free
Disk D: 195 GB Available, 233 GB Total, 195 GB Free
Disk E: 33 GB Available, 372 GB Total, 33 GB Free
Disk F: 11323 MB Available, 1430797 MB Total, 11323 MB Free
Disk G: 48 GB Available, 698 GB Total, 48 GB Free
Physical Memory 2815 MB Total, 884 MB Free
Memory Load 68%
Virtual Memory 5628 MB Total, 2525 MB Free
PageFile Name C:\pagefile.sys
PageFile Size 2814 MB
In use 808 MB
Max used 875 MB
Registry Size 80 MB (current), 682 MB (maximum)
Profile GUID {e29ac6c0-7037-11de-816d-806e6f6e6963}
The system clock interval 15 ms
Motherboard
Property Value
Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Model GA-MA785GM-US2H
Version x.x
Serial Number
North Bridge AMD 785GX Revision 00
South Bridge ATI SB750 Revision 00
CPU AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor
Cpu Socket Socket AM3 (938)
System Slots 4 PCI
Memory Summary
Maximum Capacity 2048 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 4096 MBytes
Memory Slots 4
Error Correction None
Warning! Accuracy of DMI data cannot be guaranteed
CPU
CPU Name AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor
CPU Code Name Regor
Vendor AuthenticAMD
Number of Bits 64
Instruction Set MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64, NX, VMX
Platform Name Socket AM3 (938)
Revision DA-C2
Technology 45 nm
Original Clock 2800 MHz
Original System Clock 200 MHz
Original Multiplier 14.0
CPU Clock 2813 MHz
System Clock 200.9 MHz
HT Link 2009.2 MHz
Number of Cores 2
Core #1
Speed 2812.8 MHz
Multiplier 14.0
Core #2
Speed 2812.8 MHz
Multiplier 14.0
Virtual Technology Supported Yes
Hyper Threading Supported No
Cache
L1 Data Cache 2 x 64 KBytes
L1 Instructions Cache 2 x 64 KBytes
L2 Cache 2 x 1024 KBytes
Memory Top348
Property Value
Memory Summary Top349
Property Value
Maximum Capacity 2048 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 4096 MBytes
Memory Slots 4
Error Correction None
DRAM Frequency 338.3 MHz
Memory Timings 5-5-5-15 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Device Locator Slot 1 Top350
Property Value
Manufacturer Kingston
Serial Number 49CC3A5C
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR2 (PC2-6400)
Speed 400 MHz (DDR2 800)
Supported Frequencies 266.7 MHz, 333.3 MHz, 400.0 MHz
Memory Timings 4-4-4-12-16 at 266.7 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 5-5-5-15-20 at 333.3 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 6-6-6-18-24 at 400.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Data Width 64 bits
Manufacturing Date 2009, Week 25
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No
Device Locator Slot 2 Top351
Property Value
Manufacturer Kingston
Serial Number 49CC2F5C
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR2 (PC2-6400)
Speed 400 MHz (DDR2 800)
Supported Frequencies 266.7 MHz, 333.3 MHz, 400.0 MHz
Memory Timings 4-4-4-12-16 at 266.7 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 5-5-5-15-20 at 333.3 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 6-6-6-18-24 at 400.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Data Width 64 bits
Manufacturing Date 2009, Week 25
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No
Device Locator Slot 3 Top352
Property Value
Manufacturer Kingston
Part Number KTC1G-UDIMM
Serial Number 67238A64
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR2 (PC2-6400)
Speed 400 MHz (DDR2 800)
Supported Frequencies 200.0 MHz, 266.7 MHz, 400.0 MHz
Memory Timings 3-3-3-9-12 at 200.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 4-4-4-12-16 at 266.7 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 5-5-5-18-23 at 400.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Data Width 64 bits
Manufacturing Date 2010, Week 2
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No
Device Locator Slot 4 Top353
Property Value
Manufacturer Kingston
Part Number KTC1G-UDIMM
Serial Number 65238B64
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR2 (PC2-6400)
Speed 400 MHz (DDR2 800)
Supported Frequencies 200.0 MHz, 266.7 MHz, 400.0 MHz
Memory Timings 3-3-3-9-12 at 200.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 4-4-4-12-16 at 266.7 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 5-5-5-18-23 at 400.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Data Width 64 bits
Manufacturing Date 2010, Week 2
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No
mouser:
if you do want to upgrade from 4gb then you have no choice but to upgrade to x64. You simply cannot access more then 4gb on 32bit windows.
Musubi:
Yeah but is there a program that would make the reinstallment easier? Because it would be a pain to reinstall everything.
f0dder:
if you do want to upgrade from 4gb then you have no choice but to upgrade to x64. You simply cannot access more then 4gb on 32bit windows.-mouser (April 03, 2010, 08:13 AM)
--- End quote ---
You can, but only if you install a server edition :)
Yeah but is there a program that would make the reinstallment easier? Because it would be a pain to reinstall everything.-Musubi (April 03, 2010, 08:50 AM)
--- End quote ---
Microsoft has had a "transfer user settings" wizard for a while - never used it myself, though, so dunno how well it works. Nothing will save you from reinstalling all your applications, though. You can make this less painful if you sit down and take inventory of exactly what you have on your system and write yourself a little setup document. In my experience it's about a day's worth of work doing this and then doing a clean reinstall with all your apps and settings.
As an answer to another question, most of your well programmed software *SHOULD* work on the 64bit OS as Microsoft has built in a program to allow conversion. That said not ALL software works and even those that do, may exhibit peculiar and/or unexpected results. Moreover, since it is going through emulation, most software will actually function slower on 64bit if it is designed for 32bit operation.-steeladept (April 03, 2010, 07:44 AM)
--- End quote ---
32bit on 64bit isn't really emulation, the CPU has native support for running 32bit code while in 64bit mode. There's WoW64, but it really isn't "emulation" :)
Apart from drivers for old/exotic hardware, just about every old 32bit app runs perfectly on 64bit Windows. And apart from pathological cases, you won't be able to measure a speed difference either. The biggest problem I've bumped into is semi-old software which uses 16bit installers even though the application itself is 32bit - you can't run 16bit apps (whether DOS or win3.x) in 64bit mode since the CPU doesn't support it.
JavaJones:
I'm with f0dder in his response as the most pragmatic and current view. I'm a happy user of 64 bit OSs for several years now, and I think your biggest concern should be about the upgrade process rather than hardware/software compatibility as most of thoste issues are ironed out now. You might want to start with:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/32-bit-and-64-bit-Windows-frequently-asked-questions
That tells you that moving from 32 bit to 64 bit is definitely not something you can do easily as an "upgrade", so that may make it unappealing from the start for you. What that means is you need to reinstall all your apps and backup your data then restore it once you've installed the new OS. I certainly wouldn't liken it to a move to Mac, but it does require a full redo of your software environment.
The vast majority of 32 bit apps are 64 bit compatible. Of course you should check software compatibility lists for anything you might use and see if there are any known problems. Here are some resources:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx
Most of what you'll see on the non-compatible side are either very old apps, or apps that try to do something tricky with the deep internals of Windows (system hooks, etc.) that need to be 64 bit to hook into Windows properly, e.g. antivirus. Any currently updated app should have 64 bit support, and certainly if an app has Win7 support, it should.
Modern 64 bit apps are seldom noticeably slower than 32 bit versions, and in some cases faster, although due to the increased instruction size and memory use, there is certainly a theoretical performance penalty. In the real world it's rarely detectable these days. That being said, for any performance-critical app, you will likely need a well-tuned 64 bit version for performance equivalence or improvement, since these apps already tested the limits of the system at 32 bit. This is why earlier 64 vs 32 bit tests sometimes showed inconsistent results on benchmarks, with 64 bit pulling ahead in some cases, and 32 bit in others. As time has gone on and 64 bit becomes more pervasive, more and more apps are optimized for it. The advantages also become much more clear with large memory use scenarious, of course. This is an example of an older benchmark test where you can already see 64 bit pulling ahead in many cases, but some of the performance critical apps (like rendering) do show some inconsistency, and this is probably down to how well tuned each app was for 64 bit at the time (note the article was written 2 years ago):
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2280808,00.asp
Things have continued to improve since then.
Your SIW report is a bit confusing as it doesn't seem consistent in the memory limits it reports, but it does seem to say that - if you do have 4GB - you're already missing out on some of that (it's only showing about 3GB). I would imagine your board can support at least 8 and possibly 16GB of memory, which is somewhat supported by parts of the SIW info (but again that is inconsistent). It does appear that you have 4x1GB DIMMs so one disadvantage to upgrading is you'd have to get rid of some of your existing memory, trading out for e.g. 2GB DIMMs. Even upgrading to 64 bit without a memory upgrade would give you access to a bit more memory though it seems.
In any case as I said at the start the biggest issue is probably the hassle of reinstalling everything. If you're ok with that, and given you're a Photoshop CS user and could theoretically benefit from 64 bit, then I think it may be worth the upgrade. But take your time about it, make sure you back everything up, and be prepared for the full reinstall process.
- Oshyan
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