I basically have an old Lenovo laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8700 2.53GHz and only 3GB RAM), and it's upgraded to the latest 1607 Windows version. However, it's only 32-bit when my processor is 64-bit based. I can't really be arsed to have to wipe everything to switch over to a x64 Win10. With those specs, is it actually worth it, or just keep it as it is? I read somewhere that it isn't worth x64 if less than 4GB RAM...
Thanks.
Correct. If you have less than 4GB, upgrading is pointless and gives very little benefit. Unless you need to use an app that is 64 bit (but it sounds like this is not the case).
If you have 4GB or more you should go to 64 bit (with 4GB you will only be able to use about 3.3GB on a 32 bit OS, a 64 bit OS lets you use all 4GB)
Thanks for that. Had a look about on Google, others have asked the same. Some say it's always best to go to x64 if the processor is. May as well leave it though. Don't really fancy deleting everything. If I could keep my files etc, I'd go for it normally.
Do you have a place to back up your files? (You should backup anyway!)
Hi thereCorrect. If you have less than 4GB, upgrading is pointless and gives very little benefit. Unless you need to use an app that is 64 bit (but it sounds like this is not the case).
If you have 4GB or more you should go to 64 bit (with 4GB you will only be able to use about 3.3GB on a 32 bit OS, a 64 bit OS lets you use all 4GB)
@Gelbs
Actually it's not only the RAM -- if your CPU is 64 bit enabled running a 32 bit OS on it actually increases the instruction lengths .
Sometimes the "pre-fetch" needs to get several instructions and the computation of virtual memory is a bit different when a 32 bit OS is considered - with a 64 bit OS the addressing scheme is essentially "1-level" as address can be directly computed whereas in a 32 bit os you have to calculate "virtual page etc" like a 2 element array.
Discussing how demand and virtual paging operates at the detail level is a bit beyond the scope of this post but if you have 4GB RAM in your computer it's worthwhile installing the 64 Bit os. You won't see a huge difference in say email or word processing but you buy into "future proofing" and you will definitely get better performance on CPU bound tasks (Photoshop, video editing etc).
I even run 64 bit VM's with as little as 1GB RAM allocated !!! they usually work fine.
Cheers
jimbo
Also worth bearing in mind that you'd need a complete set of 64-bit drivers. Depending how old it is, they may be hard to obtain.
I'm typing this on a Core 2 Duo which is in 32-bit for exactly that reason, even though I'm not getting full usage of my 4GB as mentioned.
Hi there
Windows 10 - especially the later versions (1511 and 1607) do a sterling job of getting appropriate drivers --they might not always be the 100% most perfect ones but they will work allowing you to load other ones later --si if poss - in addition to the reasons I posted previously I'd go for the 64 bit OS if at all possible.
Cheers
jimbo
Cheers for the info. In all honesty, I don't even use my laptop much. I have a main computer and another one as back up. All my stuff is backed up. I'm not even sure why it has 32-bit Windows anyway! It might of come like that, or I put the wrong disc in rather than 64-bit, then obviously upgraded to Windows 10 for free last summer. Think I'll just leave it. Though the 'ocd' in me is urging me to wipe and do it all! Haha.
I had a brief look earlier. But what's the simplest way to switch over to a 64-bit version from 32 Win10?
Don't want to have to create a flash drive or do it via disc.
