No point in going 64bit yet at all?

ChRoMe

Just looking at all the people going and spending big money on 64bit systems. Just throwing this out there for people to consider I'm interested in other geeks reactions.

There doesnt seem to be any point in going 64bit yet. I say this assuming that these machines are running windows and are used for everyday task's. Is there a speed increase of running these chips yes of course but other things need to be taken into consideration. To go 64bit your dumping a lot of old and trusted standards (doesnt have to be a bad thing). But when the majorty of people who use 64bit machines with a 32bit os it takes away some of the feeling that your ahead of the pack. Also even if you get your hands on a copy of 64bit windows xp rc1 a number of things are broken in it. No flash player or java vm. Other things reportedly have also been broken.

I dunno from reading all the type and everything else. There really doesnt seem to be a good argument for jumping on to the 64bit bandwagon just yet becuase so many things are still in their infancy. The only advantage really seems to be bragging rights?

Just curious what others thought

ChRoMe

tuxy

if you want a new system and are big into games you get an athlon 64
simple as that
yes 64bit does not come into yet
its just the best gaming cpu also happens to support 64 bit

stevenmu

At the moment there's very little benefit (unless you want to run 64bit Linux) but there's no real loss either. The performance of Athlon 64s in 32-bit apps is more or less the same (for most of us anyway) as the equivalent Intel 32-bit chips. On your point about dumping existing standards etc, you can always keep 32-bit stuff too and run both. Also I think that for most apps to go 64-bit they just need to be recompiled, there mightn't be as much of a performance boost as if they were designed for 64-bit though.

If you buy a 32-bit chip now though, and 64-bit takes off over the next year or so then you're going to miss out on a potentially huge free performance boost. So you've a potentially nice upside (no gaurentees) with no real downside that I know of, so it's an easy choice (or was for me anyway).

Nukem

I dunno really. 64 bit processor at the moment is adequate and will jsut get better so its well worth buying. Always have it and dont need to upgrade(within reason)

Fair point though

RicardoSmith

In broad terms the AMD 64bit chips are faster than the 32bit ones running 32bit software. Is that not enough of a reason?

You can build a AMD 64bit 3000+ system, overclock it and have a machine thats faster than a Intel machine costing a lot more. Whats not to like about that?

For years people ran 16bit windows 3.x and hybrid 16/32bit windows 98 on 32bit cpus. So theres no really difference in that and running 32bit Windows XP on a 32/64bit hybrid cpu is there.

MrPinK

ChRoMe wrote:

To go 64bit your dumping a lot of old and trusted standards (doesnt have to be a bad thing)

If only we were dumping the old standards! x86 should have died a long time ago, but unfortunately it's popularity has made it nearly impossible to replace. The old startards are still there in all their horrific glory. 64-bit is just a very slight extension to them. There's no risk in moving to a 64-bit processor.

gamer

Amd cpus 64bit cheaper and faster than intel and when they come with 64bit windows u,ll be ready at no extra cost,faster 4 gaming in my experience.unless u really wanna pay 500euro 4 an intelcpu,4 no advantage in speed.

monster_fighter

tuxy wrote:

if you want a new system and are big into games you get an athlon 64
simple as that
yes 64bit does not come into yet
its just the best gaming cpu also happens to support 64 bit

This is it in a nutshell.

Right now there is absolutly no use for 64 bit except for these running 64 unix or developing for win xp 64 bit.

If you do not do either of these but you still want the fastest 32 bit consumer x86 processor then it just happens that the 64 bit AMD's, in 32 bit compatability mode, are the right choice.

Wouldn't buy one just "to be ready". The PC industry doesn't work like that. When you need it, it will be mass produced and cheap.

monster

Mutant_Fruit

To go 64bit your dumping a lot of old and trusted standards (doesnt have to be a bad thing)

Not really, when the 64bit windows is out of beta, 32bit programs will still run, and 64bit versions of all your favourite app's should be recompiled. And even if they aren't, they should still run.

However, any program that relies on 16bit install exe's/program exe's won't work (afaik).

tuxy

monster_fighter wrote:

Right now there is absolutly no use for 64 bit except for these running 64 unix or developing for win xp 64 bit.

If you do not do either of these but you still want the fastest 32 bit consumer x86 processor

well it depens on what you mean by fastest
if you are talking about games then yes however there are things that the p4's are better at

gamer wrote:

Amd cpus 64bit cheaper and faster than intel

that used to be the case, the price is about the same now

Peteee

Still faster though.

If your buying an AMD cpu nowadays, chances are its 64-bit anyway. Something for nothing.

Also the 4 gig RAM limit is approaching so.... why not?

tuxy

Peteee wrote:

Still faster though.

well a Athlon 64 3500+ is the same price as a p4 3.4 ,now amd's *+ rating isnt the most accurate so its realy the same value for money
its all down to what you want to use the processor for

Azza

Yeah the 64bit reason is not reason enough on its own......but the fact thats its faster in the majority of applications makes sense.

RicardoSmith

Don't forget you can overclock a 3000+ to almost 3700+ speeds.

Thordon

tuxy wrote:

if you want a new system and are big into games you get an athlon 64
simple as that
yes 64bit does not come into yet
its just the best gaming cpu also happens to support 64 bit

Exactly, I didnt buy my CPU so I could be 'ahead of the pack', I bought it cause it owns in games