Windows 7 What is the Difference between 32Bit & 64Bit OS

[MrHacker]

32Bits windows Supports (Maximum) -4GB of RAM
64Bits windows Supports (Maximum) -16GB of RAM

 

[Mike]

There are a lot of big changes in the way memory is addressed and allocated. The architecture is completely different. Also:

Every version except Home Premium x64 supports up to 192GB of RAM. 32-bit is limited to 4GB.

 

[Adamsappleone]

Here is a more in-depth description of what you're asking, note that this is referring to Windows Vista, but it does basically apply to all Windows x86 & x64 versions;

Link Removed

 

[sirloyne]

I did a google search on the same thing. I read that 32bit programs could actually run slower on a 64bit system.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

If you are considering whether to buy a 32 or 64 bit system, then buy a 64 bit system.
Buying a 32 bit system now would be like buying a 16 bit system after 32 bit came out as the standard.

64 bit is the standard now, almost every new off the shelf computer is 64 bit.

Some day they will start coming out with 128 bit computers, then we'll go through this all over again.

As others have pointed out the main thing is ram, I don't think you can get many new computers with less then 4 and many come with 8, you have to have 64 bit for that.

My friend just got a new computer like mine but 2 years newer, and his computer has 16 gigabytes of ram, by the time I get a new computer it will probably be 32 or 64 gigabytes of ram.

I run a lot of 32 bit programs on my 64 bit computer and everything runs a lot faster then it ever did on my old computer.

Even if there is some penalty to running 32 software the other factors in a new computer make it so much faster then whatever you are running on now you won't notice the difference, but you will notice the difference if you run 64 bit software on a 32 bit computer.

Even if you don't need it now you will in the future.
And ram is really cheap now get as much as you can.

My first computer had 4 megabytes of ram, and 100 megabyte hard drive and a 25 mhz processor.

Now I have 8,000 megabytes, if ram and and 2,000,000 megabytes of hard drive space, not counting external drives and 4, 3 ghz processors.

And I still want more. LOL

Mike

 

[Pauli]

My British friend explained it to me: You have a highway with 32 lanes, another with 64. Which one will you choose, in order to get as much traffic as possible passing by?