Thread: 32 bit or 64 bit on a comp with 3 GB ram? (windows 7)

Given the parameters of your question, I am going to go with:
3. They are equal.



The reason being, if you only have 3GB RAM and do not plan (or are unable) to upgrade, you will not experience any major performance impact either way. If your PC has a multi-core CPU and you use apps that support multi-threading, you may benchmark a minor increase in performance w/ a 64-bit OS, but I doubt it would be anything actually noticeable.

That said, as mentioned in previous posts, a 32-bit OS can only recognize 4GB (really 3.5) RAM whereas a 64-bit OS can recognize much more. If there is any possibility of you upgrading to >4GB RAM in the future, 64-bit is definitely the way to go as this will definitely net you a significant performance increase in pretty much anything you do.

It's been awhile since last time I started this post. I think spyro and dankirk make some good points here.

First of all my comp is a 1 year old Acer Aspire 5930G, shipped with vista 32 bit
My experience (may be helping other ppl with same question) is that windows 7 64 bit on my computer run very smooth. I have some 32 bit apps running as well, without any problems at all.

I feel that 64 bit is a better version for me after testing for a month now, and spyro's post make me feel even more sure that the 32 bits version would not be a better choise. 64 bit is the future.

I also have the 32 bit, but I wont go back to it since I'm so happy with the 64 bit.
It also found every driver needed, without nvidia grph.card (win7 installed standard driver). Even my acer crystaleye webcam did automaticly get installed.

For any other persons in same shoe as me, go for 64 bit as long as you don't have an old comp and many (very) old programs that you use oftenly an feel adicted to.

Also check out win 7 comp. center for hardware/software 32/64 bit compability

32 bit sure...

Originally Posted by aprilia

It's been awhile since last time I started this post. I think spyro and dankirk make some good points here.

First of all my comp is a 1 year old Acer Aspire 5930G, shipped with vista 32 bit
My experience (may be helping other ppl with same question) is that windows 7 64 bit on my computer run very smooth. I have some 32 bit apps running as well, without any problems at all.

I feel that 64 bit is a better version for me after testing for a month now, and spyro's post make me feel even more sure that the 32 bits version would not be a better choise. 64 bit is the future.

I also have the 32 bit, but I wont go back to it since I'm so happy with the 64 bit.
It also found every driver needed, without nvidia grph.card (win7 installed standard driver). Even my acer crystaleye webcam did automaticly get installed.

For any other persons in same shoe as me, go for 64 bit as long as you don't have an old comp and many (very) old programs that you use oftenly an feel adicted to.

Also check out win 7 comp. center for hardware/software 32/64 bit compability

Glad to see you are happy with Win 7 64-bit. After much research I chose the 64-bit version as well. I am amazed at the speed difference from XP 32 to Win 7 64-bit. I was originally very concerned with drivers because I had issues with XP 64-bit previously. However, I have not had a single issue this time around with a 64-bit OS.

They should be equal. However, if you upgrade your memory it will be a PAIN to switch from 32bit to 64. Also there are some programs that won't run on 64bit which have been annoying. I would recommend 64bit just because of the slight speed advantages.

I have 3GB RAM and i use Widows 7 32 bits version .I don't think it's a big difference between 32 and 64 bits when you use only 3 GB RAM.

If you're going to use more than 4 gigs of ram you have to go with 64 bit or else it will only use 4 gigs of ram. for 3 gigs I'd go with 32 bit because there's still a lot of software out there that won't run on 64 bit properly. Bare in mind though that Microsoft is trying to (very very slowly) switch everything to 64 bit (moving towards the future!) so in the future it will be wise to switch to 64 bit, but it's still too soon for that.

some software run better on 64bit than 32bit regardless of ram
it depends on the type stuff u're doing and the type of calculations your pc is doing

i remember over the summer when i was doing my msci with matlab (calculating fast fourier transforms...dont ask), on 32bit vista 3gb ram when running simulations would take ~16hours, but out of curiosity, i installed a spare 64bit msdn license of vista onto another hdd partition, and the 64bit matlab ran my simulations in just over 8hours!

i was really impressed with 64bit since it was the exact same pc!