[mythtv-users] 32 vs. 64 bit, any significant difference?

[Bill Bogstad]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:52 PM, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Dale Pontius <DEPontius at edgehp.net> wrote:
>> Outside of a few specific types of activities, like large, detailed
>> simulations, (nuclear bombs, weather, modern games(!)) or something like
>> CAD on chips, you don't really NEED a 64-bit CPU
>
> Nonsense.
>
> You can never have too much ram (or virtual address space).

Actually, too much ram can be a real problem if you are trying to
reduce boot times (and the BIOS wants to check
everything).  It can also make using suspend to disk on a laptop annoying.

Plus you are conflating 64 vs. 32 bit CPUs/virtual address spaces with
the physical memory limits of a machine.  I currently use
8 gigs of RAM in an Intel based desktop running a 32-bit version of
Linux.   This is done through PAE.   It has it's downsides (less
tested kernel , some potential performance issues); on the other hand
since all my apps/libraries are 32 bit I don't
have to worry about the lack of testing of many 64 bit versions of
apps.  You pick your poison.

Also, I get to allocate plenty of RAM to my VMs as well.  The only
(apparent) limit being no more then 4gig per VM.
In fact, the only reason I upgraded my desktop to more then 4gigs is
because of VMs.

Bill Bogstad