On Tuesday 12 February 2008, Wael Nasreddine wrote: > Let's say this processor supports 64 bits, what whould I gain from > migrating to x86_64 I mean would it be faster??? I've never > owned/worked on a 64bit machine before so excuse my lack of knowledge > > :)
Please stop using the x86_64 nomenclature with respect to gentoo. Gentoo does not define this arch and has no such name - all 64 bit extended arches compatible with x86 are called amd64 on gentoo. The x86_64 name is used by Red Hat and other distros. There are all the same thing really, but using the wrong name in the wrong context clouds the issues and leads to vast side-threads asking question that have no answers and that accomplish nothing. You will not notice a speed increase with a 64 bit processor. You might be able to measure one but it won't really feel any different in real life. What you will notice are: 1. The annoyance of having to put up with 32 bit apps with no 64 bit equivalent 2. Apps can now see more than 3.1GB of memory per app, and can see it linearly. If you run a massive database this will be important to you. If you don't, you won't. Do you have more than 4G of RAM? So, the only good reason to move to amd64 is when you buy a 64 bit machine -- Alan McKinnon alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
