windows 64 vs 32 bit

becko BECKO

unread,

Mar 12, 2010, 7:12:43 AM3/12/10

to

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I can't think of any better. Would I gain some performance with Mathematica if I installed 64bit windows 7? I have a quad-processor, but only 2 gb ram, so I am not sure. Thanks.

David Park

unread,

Mar 13, 2010, 8:00:01 AM3/13/10

to

I believe you would only get an advantage if you also got extra ram and
actually used it. The speed performance might be slightly worse because the
processors are doing slightly more work to compute addresses. (You might get
better expert advice on this.)

David Park
djm...@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/

David Bailey

unread,

Mar 13, 2010, 8:09:31 AM3/13/10

to

becko BECKO wrote:
> I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I can't think of any better. Would I gain some performance with Mathematica if I installed 64bit windows 7? I have a quad-processor, but only 2 gb ram, so I am not sure. Thanks.
>
>

The big advantage of 64-bit Windows, is that it has an enormous virtual
address space of approx 1.8 x 10^19 bytes, unlike 32-bit windows, which
has a theoretical maximum address space of approx 4 x 10^9. In practice,
this means that memory can be used more effectively.

The Windows version of Mathematica has both 32 and 64 bit versions
within it, so after switching to 64-bit Windows, you would only need to
re-use your existing install disk.

Of course, the real gains from 64-bits come when you install more
memory, which can be exploited in 64-bit mode by a single hungry
application, whereas in 32-bit mode each process reaches a limit as to
how much memory it can use.

Although the address space limit in 32-bit mode is 4 x 10^9, in practice
the limit is much lower. This is because the operating system itself
uses up part of this address space, and also the address space tends to
become fragmented.

I think it would probably be worth a try, but why not install some more
RAM, then the choice would be obvious!

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk

divisor

unread,

Mar 15, 2010, 6:02:29 AM3/15/10

to

Hello becko:

1) you can only install 64-bit Windoze if you have 4GB (or more).
2) I recently started running this OS with 6GB. All of my older
examples which used a lot of memory (for graphics or imported data)
run much faster now.
3) the best improvement is that File-Saves which occasionaly were
interminable (sic?) are now completed in a reasonable (if not short)
period of time.

I will probably go to 8GB soon.

Roger Williams
Franklin Laboratory
http://www.youtube.com/CongruentLight

David Bailey

unread,

Mar 15, 2010, 8:04:13 AM3/15/10

to

This statement is certainly not true of Windows XP-64. I have run it on
1GB or RAM quite successfully. Indeed, that is Microsoft's stated
minimum requirement:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306856

Have you confused RAM requirements with hard disk usage perhaps?

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk

divisor

unread,

Mar 16, 2010, 5:46:12 AM3/16/10

to

Hello David:

I stand corrected...it looks like it is 2GB..

I never tried XP x64...I run Win7...this page says 2GB for Win7 x64

http://capitalhead.com/articles/windows-7-requirements-for-64-bit-(x64)-and-32-bit-(x86)-personal-computers.aspx

Roger Williams
Franklin Laboratory
http://www.youtube.com/congruentlight

On Mar 15, 5:04 am, David Bailey <d...@removedbailey.co.uk> wrote:

> This statement is certainly not true of Windows XP-64. I have run it on
> 1GB or RAM quite successfully. Indeed, that is Microsoft's stated
> minimum requirement:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306856
>
> Have you confused RAM requirements with hard disk usage perhaps?
>

> David Baileyhttp://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -