Re: Benefits/problems running 64-bit?

Pete Puma wrote:
Would anyone here recommend a 64-bit installation for faster speed?
Is it noticeably quicker or not worth the trouble?
Buggy? etc. ...

I used both and decided to keep the 64-bit one. The only thing that does not work in Java inside Firefox (yet?) but it works fine in Konqueror.

I have some apps that *need* 32-bit and they run OK because openSUSE x86_64 provides a 32-bit environment too (native DLLs are in /usr/lib64 etc., 32-bit programs use the 32-bit versions in /usr/lib).

A few facts about 64-bit:

Programs run faster because the 64-bit architecture is not only about 64-bit; this architecture provides more general purpose CPU registers and therefore code runs faster. Actually, I don't care about the "64-bit" part; the speed increase come from the registers and new instruction set.

Another fact: The speed difference is not noticeable in "normal" tasks, because 32-bit is already fast enough! You *will* see a speed difference (a quite nice one too) on tasks like video/audio encoding. Encoding a 20 minutes video to AVC/H.264 on 32-bit took about 30 minutes. On x86_64 it's about 20 minutes, but since I didn't test with the *same* video (the only thing in common is they both were 20 minutes long) that "benchmark" might be a bit off.

Games also benefit, but unfortunately they usually don't provide a 64-bit executable so that opportunity is missed.

For your normal working stuff like browsing, office apps, listening to music, watching videos/DVDs, etc., there *is* a speed increase, but you won't notice simply because it's extremely fast already in 32-bit.

So in the end, the main reason which to choose depends on whether you want Java in Firefox, cause right now it only works in Konqueror. Don't know if this will be fixed in the future, but right now the only way to get Java in Firefox is to use a 32-bit version of Firefox in openSUSE x86_64; you might have to get the source RPM and rebuild it by yourself to 32-bit. *NOTE* We're talking about Java applets inside Firefox, not Javascript! Javascript works.
.

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