On 01/09/09 11:41, Paul Johnson wrote:
Koh Choon Lin wrote:On Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 08:40:48PM +0800, Umarzuki Mochlis wrote:I just got my Compaq laptop CQ40-115AU and I want to install Lenny AMD64. What's the different if I use AMD64 instead of i386. My main use of laptop is for word processing and virtualization.Would a 32bit OS on 64bit system be at least 50% faster than a 32 bitOS on 32bit system? I assume the fastest setup would be a 64bit OS on 64bit system.Let's rephrase this with a visual. Would a two-track railroad allow trains to run at least 50% faster than a one-track railroad?
That is an invalid analogy, not least because railroads already *are* dual-rail. Except in Disney{land,world}.
A better analogy to two *pairs* of rails would be dual-core CPUs coupled with completely filled DIMM slots.
As for 64- vs. 32-bit, the only *intrinsic* benefit is that you can do math on larger numbers without resorting to computational trickery.
In fact, benchmarks run back when AMD was still making 32-bit CPUs demonstrated that similarly-clocked, similar-generation 32-bit CPUs and 64-bit CPUs ran 32-bit code at the same speed.
The only benefit which x86-64 has in 64-bit mode is extra registers. But that only benefits computationally-intensive programs.
Like Flash!!!!But there's no benefit to text editors, spread sheets (if yours are *that* complicated, you're using the wrong tool!), nethack, mail clients, etc.
-- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA "I am not surprised, for we live long and are celebrated poopers."