Windows 8, 32bits or 64bits

warriors

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
435
Reaction score
0
I have a notebook running on i3 hanswell. Currently is 4gb ram. My question is if I have no intention to upgrade ram at all, is it advisable for me to install a 32 or 64 bits windows 8.1. Can advised?
 

SimpliCity2k

High Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Messages
25,556
Reaction score
2,537
64bit even though 32bit can be PAE applied to address full 4GB RAM to avoid hassles & possible limitations.

Access to more than 4GB of RAM on 32bit Windows 8 (x86) | Windows OS Hub


32bit Windows will be beneficial for machines stricken by max installable 2GB RAM limit, as it consumes less RAM (typically few hundred meg less), leaving the saved precious RAM for little more apps usage.
 
Last edited:

davidktw

Arch-Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
13,391
Reaction score
1,180
I have a notebook running on i3 hanswell. Currently is 4gb ram. My question is if I have no intention to upgrade ram at all, is it advisable for me to install a 32 or 64 bits windows 8.1. Can advised?

If you only have 4GB and really really have no intention growing beyond, then 32bits is good enough and indeed you will get savings in memory consumption.
 

warriors

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
435
Reaction score
0
So can I say that the whole thing about 64bits is useful when I have more than 4gb ram and that by having 64bits os, I can utilise the ram above 4gb.
 

tungsten2

Master Member
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
4,150
Reaction score
0
That's affirmative.
In order to access more than 4GB addressing space, that's why ppl start moving to 64bit.
Google for "32bit OS limitation", you will find out more details.
 

Rogue

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
5,184
Reaction score
53
I have a notebook running on i3 hanswell. Currently is 4gb ram. My question is if I have no intention to upgrade ram at all, is it advisable for me to install a 32 or 64 bits windows 8.1. Can advised?

64 bits. It's because you can run both 64 bit and 32 bit software, with 32bit OS, you are stuck.
 

SimpliCity2k

High Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Messages
25,556
Reaction score
2,537
yup still personally recommend 64bit Win8 for full addressing of 4GB usable RAM (less reserved for onboard graphic RAM, if any);
& flexibility of 64bit & 32bit apps unless TS really chooses to forgo.
 

davidktw

Arch-Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
13,391
Reaction score
1,180
yup still personally recommend 64bit Win8 for full addressing of 4GB usable RAM (less reserved for onboard graphic RAM, if any);
& flexibility of 64bit & 32bit apps unless TS really chooses to forgo.

32bits can fully address 4GB of memory. The fact is with only 4GB of memory available, where would there be anything beyond 3GB if the kernel already reserved 1GB for its know use, some used for video memory mapping and so forth ? :)

Not saying 64bits shouldn't be used, but rather given the kind of scenario that was given, there is little value to go beyond 32bits since there is hardly any benefits for 64bits to exhibit its potential. More like with every memory addressing in a 64bits software using 8bytes vs 4bytes, memory are consumed with no benefits and system caching diminished due to large software occupying the memory and less available too.

While running 32bits applications on 64bits system, the application is still limited to the 4gb boundary and having the kernel mapped into the upper 1GB memory address of the application process memory space, there is no advantage of running a 32bits application in a 64bits OS unless there are more than 4GB hardware memory for the OS to reassign different processes pages beyond the 4GB limitation.

Running a 64bits application on a 64bits OS in a 4GB or less hardware memory is called suffocating yourself voluntarily, since you are already limited on hardware resources and yet you still choose to bloat your memory consumption.

Feel free to read: http://blogs.citrix.com/2011/10/13/wow64-memory-mapping-of-32bit-apps-running-on-a-64bit-windows/
 
Last edited:

SimpliCity2k

High Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Messages
25,556
Reaction score
2,537
32bits can fully address 4GB of memory. The fact is with only 4GB of memory available, where would there be anything beyond 3GB if the kernel already reserved 1GB for its know use, some used for video memory mapping and so forth ? :)

Not saying 64bits shouldn't be used, but rather given the kind of scenario that was given, there is little value to go beyond 32bits since there is hardly any benefits for 64bits to exhibit its potential. More like with every memory addressing in a 64bits software using 8bytes vs 4bytes, memory are consumed with no benefits and system caching diminished due to large software occupying the memory and less available too.

While running 32bits applications on 64bits system, the application is still limited to the 4gb boundary and having the kernel mapped into the upper 1GB memory address of the application process memory space, there is no advantage of running a 32bits application in a 64bits OS unless there are more than 4GB hardware memory for the OS to reassign different processes pages beyond the 4GB limitation.

Running a 64bits application on a 64bits OS in a 4GB or less hardware memory is called suffocating yourself voluntarily, since you are already limited on hardware resources and yet you still choose to bloat your memory consumption.

Feel free to read: WOW64: Memory mapping of 32bit apps running on a 64bit Windows | Citrix Blogs

Consumer Windows 32-bit (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1) can only utilize 4GB of memory - and even then, it is usually an amount between 2.75GB and 3.75GB that is visible (more commonly around 3.25GB.)

Does windows 8 32-bit can access full 4GB of ram, if not then how - Microsoft Community

flexibility as in "It's an open option" to run or trial run 64-bit apps.
a user still hv choice to decide which suits him (or like) best.

i'll just open apps (32 or 64bit) (& close) when needed & not leave them draining mem, so bloating if there's, a very very rare issue to me personally (perhaps a couple times once a yr) :o
 

davidktw

Arch-Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
13,391
Reaction score
1,180
Does windows 8 32-bit can access full 4GB of ram, if not then how - Microsoft Community

flexibility as in "It's an open option" to run or trial run 64-bit apps.
a user still hv choice to decide which suits him (or like) best.

i'll just open apps (32 or 64bit) (& close) when needed & not leave them draining mem, so bloating if there's, a very very rare issue to me personally (perhaps a couple times once a yr) :o

I think the link you have given did not address much of the concerns that I have highlighted in my post.

TS has explicitly mentioned one important fact in the first post and I did not read any change to it to date is there is only 4GB of memory and he do not have plans to change it.

If so, having a 64bits system is of no benefits to TS. I can agree that there are benefits to be able to run a 64bits application that do not have its 32bits counterpart. Will you be able to list out a few common Windows applications that do not have the 32bits version and only the 64bits version available? It will be good to let TS knows if it's advisable to decide better.

If TS choose to live with the deficiency of operating a 64bits OS with merely 4GB of memory and having it as a future option to upgrade the hardware to more than 4GB, then it's okay too. Just need to know what TS is missing in the whole game play.

Having a 64bits memory addressing model doesn't brings benefit to an application if the application is not memory intensive and especially so when the available hardware memory is insufficient.

The memory consumption of a 64bits kernel will eat away more precious memory where they are better used for applications to prevent paging out.

A large working memory set occupied by the 64bits kernel also means less free memory for caching and also you will get more cache miss versus hits since the working memory set is larger and the cache size is smaller.

The memory addressing space when contained within a 4GB memory is not relevant for discussion since there is nothing available to hit the limit at all. That means your software will likely not have more than 3.75GB of memory at your disposal to use even if the 4GB addressable memory space is partially occupied by the kernel at the upper 1GB or less.
 
Last edited:

warriors

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
435
Reaction score
0
Just to clarify, I confirm won't upgrade the ram at all. So 4gb ram is max. My concern though is that if I install 32bits OS, will I be wasting any ram since 32bits can only utilise up to 4gb ram. I saw in some posting on the web mentioning that by using 32bits os, I can only see it reflected as 3+gb under computer properties. As such, I worry if I'm actually wasting the ram if I do so.
 

davidktw

Arch-Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
13,391
Reaction score
1,180
Just to clarify, I confirm won't upgrade the ram at all. So 4gb ram is max. My concern though is that if I install 32bits OS, will I be wasting any ram since 32bits can only utilise up to 4gb ram. I saw in some posting on the web mentioning that by using 32bits os, I can only see it reflected as 3+gb under computer properties. As such, I worry if I'm actually wasting the ram if I do so.

If you have only 4GB of memory onboard, then 32bits system is good enough for you. You will be consuming more memory running a 64bits OS and you have no extra memory to move the kernel outside of the application's addressable memory. 32bits or 64bits, your kernel is going to take up actual memory, that means you will never get 4GB of memory available for your applications. Even more, 64bits kernel is going to eat more memory than it's 32bits counterparts. All other 64bit services running in your OS is going to eat more memory than their 32bits counterparts too.

While the addressable memory for a 32bits windows process is approx. 3.5GB after minus the hardware memory mapping of your video ram and also some parts of the kernel, you should understand that chances of a single application in your scenario using up to 3.5GB is unlikely because you will have a lot of other services running in your Windows beyond your userland applications. All these services are outside of the kernel and do take up memory. So what is available to you is probably 2+GB or even less. The benefits of your 64bits addressable memory space is moot since you don't have any real memory to work with at all unless you enjoy memory thrashing, then yup, there will be a lot of slow memory to play with :)

Simple explanation for you, you will be wasting more memory installing the 64bits OS since it is more bloated than its 32bits counterpart.
 

Rogue

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
5,184
Reaction score
53
... It's not about ram nowadays, it's the apps or games ...

You'll be in shock when suddenly you can't run a particular app or game since it's 64 bit only and yet only requires less than 4 gig ram to run. lol.
 

tungsten2

Master Member
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
4,150
Reaction score
0
... It's not about ram nowadays, it's the apps or games ...

You'll be in shock when suddenly you can't run a particular app or game since it's 64 bit only and yet only requires less than 4 gig ram to run. lol.

There is something called Wow64 to take care of that.
Do check out the link provided by davidktw in post #8


TS, pls advise what graphics card are you using ?
Do check out this link : 32 bit vs 64 bit: How it relates to video cards | TechPowerUp Forums
How video cards memory will affect your use-able physical memory.


In real life, 64bit OS does not bloat so much as concern by davidktw.
Even if it bloat, how much is ram nowadays ?

I am more worrying if my system have insufficient ram for my apps to run if I stick my head on 32bit OS. Performance of the machine will definitely degrade if insufficient ram. Even if I have the money and the ram slots to add the ram, the system performance will not improve due to the limitation of 32bit OS.

End of the day, it is still your call to decide 32bit or 64bit.
 
Last edited:

warriors

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
435
Reaction score
0
There is something called Wow64 to take care of that.
Do check out the link provided by davidktw in post #8


TS, pls advise what graphics card are you using ?
Do check out this link : 32 bit vs 64 bit: How it relates to video cards | TechPowerUp Forums
How video cards memory will affect your use-able physical memory.


In real life, 64bit OS does not bloat so much as concern by davidktw.
Even if it bloat, how much is ram nowadays ?

I am more worrying if my system have insufficient ram for my apps to run if I stick my head on 32bit OS. Performance of the machine will definitely degrade if insufficient ram. Even if I have the money and the ram slots to add the ram, the system performance will not improve due to the limitation of 32bit OS.

End of the day, it is still your call to decide 32bit or 64bit.

I'm using intel hd graphics
 

Rogue

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
5,184
Reaction score
53
There is something called Wow64 to take care of that.
Do check out the link provided by davidktw in post #8


TS, pls advise what graphics card are you using ?
Do check out this link : 32 bit vs 64 bit: How it relates to video cards | TechPowerUp Forums
How video cards memory will affect your use-able physical memory.


In real life, 64bit OS does not bloat so much as concern by davidktw.
Even if it bloat, how much is ram nowadays ?

I am more worrying if my system have insufficient ram for my apps to run if I stick my head on 32bit OS. Performance of the machine will definitely degrade if insufficient ram. Even if I have the money and the ram slots to add the ram, the system performance will not improve due to the limitation of 32bit OS.

End of the day, it is still your call to decide 32bit or 64bit.

... You have some interpretation problem since you are quoting me ...
 
Important Forum Advisory Note
This forum is moderated by volunteer moderators who will react only to members' feedback on posts. Moderators are not employees or representatives of HWZ. Forum members and moderators are responsible for their own posts.

Please refer to our Community Guidelines and Standards, Terms of Service and Member T&Cs for more information.
Top