I currently have a 32 bit system.

I have 4 Gb of memory.

Has anyone who went with a 64 bit system noticed any real speed improvements ?

The answer is a SOLID maybe.

Depends on what your current system is compiled for. If it was compiled using i386 flags, yeah, 64-bit will be faster. If it was compiled with 686 flags, then probably not. The MAIN advantage you'd see with the 64-bit is being able to address and use all 4 GB of your memory, instead of only 3.5 GB (I think) of it (32-bit will see 4 GB, but only use 3.5 if I remember correctly). Of course, you could use a PAE kernel and then you'd be able to see and use all 4 GB, so that's not a HUGE issue either way (plus it's only .5 GB...so not a huge amount either).

The biggest reason to go 64-bit if your system supports it, IMO, is because going forward, some non-foss software simply will stop being available in 32-bit. Such as with Chrome already. They've decided it's simply not worth continuing to support building it for 32-bit, so they've discontinued 32-bit linux Chrome. Other software will follow suit, simply because of how high the percentage of systems that can run 64-bit is now, given that AMD hasn't made a non 64-bit processor in almost 13 years, and Intel it's been over 5, and their mainstream processors are almost 10 (atoms stayed 32-bit for a long time, that's the only thing since the core2 was released they had that was still 32-bit only). The performance difference between 32-bit and 64-bit for most software is negligible at best, and with some software, 32-bit still actually performs better. So unless you're doing massively intensive apps (video editing, audio mastering, 3d graphics), you're not losing anything staying with 32-bit for now.

Hi Andy...

Maybe a little. Before the original hard drive went out in my laptop, I had Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit installed. After replacing the drive, I installed Lubuntu 32 bit to cut down the segmentation faults I was getting on a couple of the games that I liked to play. I haven't noticed a whole lot of difference. Probably the biggest difference is the browser, for some reason. Firefox seemed to load much quicker on Ubuntu then Chrome does with Lubuntu. But that may be because of something else.

Do you have 64 bit capable hardware?

Regards...

I was thinking about 64 bit Slacko.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%...%20Release.htm

I am not doing any video editing, etc.

When running free, I usually have at least 1 Gb of free memory.

It looks like that while 64 bit has some advantages, probably 80% of users would not take advantage of it.

I dare say it's higher than 80% of users who won't actually take ADVANTAGE of it. All my systems run 64-bit, but I guarantee that I have no advantage in it, I simply prefer it.

I have 64-bit capable laptop hardware (ThinkPad T61) but choose to run 32-bit Slackware on it. In my non-scientific experience, I found no practical advantage, based on my owns needs, to choose 64-bit. I use the .smp kernel, and all RAM is recognized.

I have 64 bit hardware.

Seamonkey uses about 30% of my dual core CPU.

I am surprised at how much cpu browsers use especially when no downloads/uploads are occurring.

I know it.

Some clever jokes there!

Regards...

I have noticed no particular difference in speed with 64-bit vs. 32-bit systems, but 64-bit systems seem to use resources more efficiently. Mind you, that's just an impression.

I have three systems and only one of them is 32-bit at this point.

Thanks for your feedback. :-)

Generally speaking, for microprocessors these days, "64-bit" is the native mode, and all other modes are "backward compatibility." I suggest that you should, insofar as possible, "keep up with the times." Buy equipment with 64-bit chips and run 64-bit operating systems. Until "128" comes along and the cycle repeats.

I like this answer. "The answer is a SOLID maybe."

When developers and kernel programmers wrote most of the code for 64 bit kernel, programs and drivers, they tended to use newer and faster tools. However many older programs were simply ported or left to 32 bit on older tool chains.

I doubt you'd notice any improvement for desktop use. Using some number crunching tasks would result in maybe at best a small percentage improvement.

The push to 64bit was driven primarily by the need for more directly addressable RAM. PAE works very nicely up to about 16G but after that it 'gets hinky" and many servers and especially supercomputers need hundreds of gigs of RAM. It isn't particularly harder to write code that will run on 64bit hardware but it is substantially more difficult to write 64bit code that actually utilizes 64bit power beyond addressable RAM. This means very few Desktop owners will ever feel a difference beyond the capability for in excess of 16G RAM properly addressed.

I haven't noticed much difference in my Thinkpad T61. It's not worth the hassle unless you're doing a clean install anyway.

I still have a number of 32 bit systems that I intend to keep for offline use when 32 bit is no longer supported.

I see no difference between 32bit and 64bit with the exception that 32bit may not be around for much longer.