XP 32 vs 64

[LUZR4LIFE]

OK, I know nothing about 64. What is the difference between 32 and 64. Is 64 better? I have googled a couple time but could not find really any information that I was looking for.

Any info you have or links will help. I was thinking about trying/testing it but don't know anything about it. Thanks in advance for my stupidity.

[cluberti]

Some links to get you started:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/default.mspx

http://download.microsoft.com/download/B/8...ight_for_Me.doc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Pr...nal_x64_Edition

The big differences are:\

1. x86 Windows can use up to 4GB of RAM, whereas x64 can use up to 128GB of RAM in it's current iterations

2. x86 Windows can use 32 registers on an x64 CPU, whereas x64 uses all 64 CPU registers (equals faster-running apps in most scenarios)

3. x86 Windows is limited to 256MB of virtual address space in kernel nonpaged pool and ~530MB of VA in kernel paged pool (locations where the kernel and applications store information that needs to be stored in a kernel pool, like driver data) - x64 increases these pools to up to 128GB (read more about memory differences here

4. Apps running on x86 Windows are limited to 2GB or 3GB (with the /3gb boot.ini switch) of virtual address space, whereas native apps running on x64 Windows have up to 8TB of VA (32bit apps on x64 that are compiled /LARGEADDRESSAWARE can actually use up to 4GB of VA, too)

There's more, but those are the basics.