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Message: <blockquote data-quote="azhrei_fje" data-source="post: 2997274" data-attributes="member: 12966">He's not buying it on any kind of corporate or educational pricing.  Or if he is, he didn't say so.And 64-bit exclusivity is not the question.  The question is whether 64-bit apps are (a) available now, and (b) will be available soon.  The issue is sort of like the old 16-bit world vs. the win32 and win32s add-ons to the Windows of yore.  All of the apps were 16-bit (of course), but win32<s> was obviously the future and program developers were trying hard to get their code to win32 because the writing on the wall was written in Common in LARGE BLOCK LETTERS. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></s><s></s><s></s><s>Then here's a news flash:  OOo is available 64-bit (but only a developer release), FF is available 64-bit.  Blender (for those into professional-grade 3D modeling) is available 64-bit.  In fact, if you want professional anything, you want 64-bit.</s><s></s><s>[code]Output of "file firefox-bin blender":</s><s>/usr/lib64/firefox/firefox-bin: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.4.1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped</s><s>/usr/bin/blender: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.4.1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped[/code]</s><s>However, the OP wants to run games.  Most games are not currently 64-bit.  However, history shows us that it's the gaming industry that pushes the envelope on PC hardware (memory requirements, disk space requirements, CPU speed, video performance, network performance, etc).  You name the resource and it's the requirements of PC games that push it to the limit.  (Of course, <a href="http://digg.com/" target="_blank">digg.com</a> just ran a story about piracy of PC games forcing developers towards consoles, so maybe this trend is going to change over the next few years?)</s><s></s><s></s><s>Agreed.</s><s></s><s></s><s>I travel a lot.  And I can't (easily) take a desktop with me.  So I want as powerful a laptop as I can buy and I'm willing to pay a little bit more to get it.  Not a lot more, but a little more. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></s><s></s><s></s><s>Again, exclusivity is not the issue.  I remember that 16-bit vs. win32 period when apps were distributed in either format, sometimes even on the same set of floppies.  If you have a 386 or above, you definitely wanted the win32.  If you were stuck on an 80[2]86 (there was no effective difference between the 8086 and 80186 for this discussion), there was a trade-off, since the 80286 protected mode (used for win32 stuff) sort of sucked. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  And most people didn't have enough memory to make it practical anyway.</s><s></s><s></s><s>Agreed on the performance of 32-bit apps on 32-bit chips.</s><s></s><s>But I'm not sure what you mean by, "dealing with non-Intel chipsets for".  Does that imply that non-Intel chipsets are somehow under-supported by Intel or OEM manufacturers?  In fact, my wife's Pentium 9x0 (950, IIRC?) required BIOS updates from Dell (it took 4 days to figure this out) to reliably run the software that was pre-installed on the system!  Would that have happened with an AMD chip?  I have no idea.  But I doubt she would've been worse off...</s><s></s><s></s><s>Yep!  Similar to a Unix programming I took in college (gee, that's too long ago to even quote a time difference!), "All the world is not a Vax."  Same concept. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></s><s></s><s>I don't disagree with your points about 32-bit vs. 64-bit for performance.  And as I mentioned in my last post, the OP is just going to run games.</s><s></s><s>Would I buy a 64-bit chip to run my microwave?  Nope, not if it's even a penny more than a 32-bit chip (or 16-bit or 8-bit!).  However, if the price point is the same either way, would I choose 64-bit?  Of course -- why wouldn't I?  In general, the 64-bit chips will run cooler and consume about the same amount of power -- usually a little less, because the same amount of work can be done in less instructions (there's a wider data path), meaning more idle time on the CPU, which leads to lower power consumption over time and better battery life.</s><s></s><s>And if you look at the technology (as I mentioned in my previous post), the AMD chips are a superior design.  The HyperTransport throughput beats the pants off the Intel chips.  And Intel doesn't even try to spin it in their direction.  Instead they repeat the mantra, "We're faster running today's applications!"  Of course, today will be yesterday real soon.  And if you want to run yesterday's software, then that probably won't bother you.  But if you want to run tomorrow's software, it's certainly worth looking at.</s><s></s><s>It's been fun chatting about this, but I'll bet that by now the OP has already bought a machine! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></s><s></s><s>My point is simple:  if you can get a V8 instead of an inline-4, and the V8 consumes about the same amount of fuel as the 4-cylinder but has more torque, why not get it?  You may not need that power right now, but when you do, you'll enjoy it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></s></blockquote>

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