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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Redrobes" data-source="post: 4640909" data-attributes="member: 40793">I know where your coming from but I would still disagree mainly because I think that statement is a bit out of date. A lot of software is 32 bit but theres plenty of 64 bit stuff if you do certain things. For example if you make maps then you can get Gimp in 64bit, all the 3D tools including Blender come in 64bit flavors. My ViewingDale has been for about 2 years now. Fractal Terrains + Wilbur are also 64 bit. The other big mapping apps are too like GlobalMapper, Worldwachine, Terragen etc are too. There's a lot of tools now in 64 bit like imagemagick, and all the sys internals stuff which was probably the first to get a port. And then the OS is all 64 bit of course so that IE, image viewer and so on.If you use a lot of open source apps then your sorted because linux variants have been 64 bit for way longer than windows so all their stuff is in 64 bit.I think that the high end stuff is all 64 bit and the low end stuff hasn't moved that way yet. Also part of the reason for going 64 bit on the high end is to do with the CPU running native 64 bit instructions. Apart from the increased memory bandwidth from using 64 bit instructions, all intel chips run 32 bit stuff in emulation mode which is natively slower. And you can get to use the SSE type instructions which are guaranteed to be there whereas in 32 bit CPUs they are optional so nobody compiles them in for compatibility reasons. Its a similar argument for multi core too. Most low end apps are single threaded so dont take any advantage from multi core. But all high end stuff will use all the cores that you have. Right now its not like you will be left out in the cold with a 32 bit CPU but the world is changing over slowly.I run XP x64 and I haven't found a 32 bit which didn't run on it and I get to use the 64 bit capability from the apps too. I have also not had any driver issues for all my modern hardware - its only old legacy stuff that causes a problem. The only thing that you cant run on 64 bit where you can on a 32 bit OS is 16 bit apps. 64 bit OS has no 16 bit compatibility mode any more. I cant think of a single 16 bit only app tho.</blockquote>

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