programming question.

[chrisj1968]

I've done some small time programming, nothing professional just tinkered with Visualbasic back from VB 3-6 days. But in regards to 64 bit programming what are some simple advantages/ disadvantages.

 

I'll guess to some degree that 64 bit software is more efficient. I realized when FARCRY 1 first came out in 32 and 64 bit, 64 bit was much better to look at and it ran smoother but I never understood the advantages/disadvantages. 

 

I DO know that 64 bit OS took care of the memory issue that 32bit was stuck with max 2GB ram for a PC. I'm thinking about grabbing visual studio express to mess around with. I do miss programming. mine is strictly hobbyist but I want to relearn how to use API's already within windows so as to not reinvent the wheel. I want program a database and make a personal app for cataloging my CD/MP3 album collection.

 

But I'd program only for 64 bit since the norm seems to be 64 bit but not everyone does.

 

thanks guys. I'll read replies during free time during my vacation. have a good one everyone! peace!

 

Chrisj1968

[Ravensky]

faster floating point operations and access to more RAM...

 

[+Fahim S. MVC]

There is a small performance overhead of emulating 32 bit libraries on a 64 bit OS.  Obviously, programs compiled to target a 64 bit processor simply won't run on a 32 bit Windows installation.  Most low cost Windows devices are running a 32 bit installation, so it's important to bear that in mind.

 

Furthermore, it might be moot point, as the majority of code written these days runs on a run-time of some description, abstracting the architecture of the underlying platform away from the code.  It's only if your code is compiled to native should you actually care.

 

 

[Circaflex]

On 6/21/2016 at 9:32 PM, chrisj1968 said:

I've done some small time programming, nothing professional just tinkered with Visualbasic back from VB 3-6 days. But in regards to 64 bit programming what are some simple advantages/ disadvantages.

 

I'll guess to some degree that 64 bit software is more efficient. I realized when FARCRY 1 first came out in 32 and 64 bit, 64 bit was much better to look at and it ran smoother but I never understood the advantages/disadvantages. 

 

I DO know that 64 bit OS took care of the memory issue that 32bit was stuck with max 2GB ram for a PC. I'm thinking about grabbing visual studio express to mess around with. I do miss programming. mine is strictly hobbyist but I want to relearn how to use API's already within windows so as to not reinvent the wheel. I want program a database and make a personal app for cataloging my CD/MP3 album collection.

 

But I'd program only for 64 bit since the norm seems to be 64 bit but not everyone does.

 

thanks guys. I'll read replies during free time during my vacation. have a good one everyone! peace!

 

Chrisj1968

Not sure if you have seen this program or not, but MediaCompanion can create a database for you and allow you to catalog. https://mediacompanion.codeplex.com/

 

Regarding Far Cry, you example is a little off. 64-bit didnt make it better to look at, smoother maybe, but hardly noticeable. Here is a great write up you can read about it, http://www.anandtech.com/show/1677/2

 

Quote

AMD's goals are quite admirable, but the fact of the matter is that none of the visual improvements enabled by the Far Cry patches had anything to do with AMD64 or EM64T. They are artificially limited to run on those platforms alone, but could work just as well on a 32-bit platform. 

 

[satysin]

Mostly just being able to access more memory. A 32 bit program is limited to 2 GB of memory (3 GB if compiled and ran with a special instruction in Windows). 

 

There is a small performance hit of using 64 bit over 32 bit for some things. For example programs will use more memory for the same data types which could put more stress on the overall system but on modern machines this isn't really an issue. It could be back in the Windows XP days though.

 

With languages such as C# and Java it doesn't really matter though as the runtime environment handles the memory. Just compile as AnyCPU and don't worry about it. It is only something you need to think about with languages such as C and C++ or other fully compiled languages.