What's the benefit of using 64 bit slackware?
 

Just wondering, with my hardware (Intel Q6700 and 4g ram), will slackware13 64bit run much faster than the 32 bit slackware13 I am using now (as a desktop, mainly run matlab, simulink, latex, firefox)?

If not faster, what is the benefit of using 64bit system?

Using 64bit slackware, is there some compatibility issue with the software not in the DVD, if I install them mainly using the scripts from slackbuilds.org? Thanks!

Hello together,

the 64bit-Version of Linux gives me the feeling that the software takes more advantage of my hardware. Im running some 64-bit systems and I'm running Slack64 from the beginning last May and before I used BW64 and have some experience with Slamd64. But the truth is that in my daily work with 64bit desktop-systems I have never experienced an andvantage. OK, one point is to say: on a 64bit system I have my 4GB of Ram used out of the box, on a 32bit System I have to recompile the kernel with Highmem > 4GB enabled.

Markus

64 bit benefit
 

if you are moving a lot of data around memory as, for example, numerical computation, 64-bit will be faster. Of course, KDE4 sucks up a lot of speed on my systems compared to XFCE 4.6, so mileage will vary. You may want to compare your applications between the 32/64 bit and post your results.

Thanks! I have the same feeling using my colleague's 64bit system. So I think it's a good idea not to waste time bothering the differences, just use my familiar 32bit version.

Octave benchmark version 2.3 gave 25 % better performance index using a 64-bit binary compared to a 32-bit binary. Tested on a P4. (Octave is something similar to matlab.)

And 64-bit matlab on 64-bit Slackware 13.0 gave 18 % better result from 'bench' command compared to a 32-bit matlab on 32-bit Slackware 13.0. (Two similar P4 computers.)

Seems 64bit has some help to computation: attached is the results of "bench" command in matlab 2009a.