64- vs 32-bit performance?

[imashination]

I'm looking into dual-core laptops (waiting for Turion 64 x2), and was wondering:

Will I see any performance increase due to simply to the fact I'm running 64-bit XP? I mean, given equal RAM (2GB), and equal hardware, will a native 64-bit app run faster than its 32-bit counterpart?

Nope, not really. Some improvements will come as manufacturers can drop old cpu support, but nothing jaw dropping.

[lots]

Unless you're memory limited :P

[MadMax]

Of course if you are using 64 bit apps like LW, XSI, Real3D etc. then yes, you most definitely WILL see an improvement.

[cbamber85]

Does anybody have any idea when a 64-bit version of max is coming out, or have Autodesk not said anything?

[lots]

64bit LW doesnt run faster really.. Though, if your scene was pushing the 32bit memory limits, then 64bit LW will of course render faster, since it has more RAM capacity...

[RPG2006]

Only real 32v64bit example I've expereinced is cinebench 9.5. A dual render dropped from 29 secs to 26 secs using the 64bit version.

RPG

[MadMax]

64bit LW doesnt run faster really.. Though, if your scene was pushing the 32bit memory limits, then 64bit LW will of course render faster, since it has more RAM capacity...

well I'm thinking in the real world, not the hobbyist world.

In the real world it is a fact of daily life that modern visual effects EATS resources for breakfast. Battlestar Galactica comes to mind as a prime example with a 4 million poly model that can barely even be worked on in a 32 bit environment.

And huge models are becoming more and more commonplace as the demand for bigger, badder and cooler comes down from clients. The days of getting away with a space fighter that weighs in at 30k are LONG over.

[JMulder]

Thanks for the replies. The crux of what I was trying to get at was whether operating on 64 bits at a time was faster than operating on 32 bits at a time.


Let's change the question a bit:

Will a 32-bit app run slower in 64-bit windows than on a 32-bit install? Does thunking to 64-bits affect performance?

[lots]

well I'm thinking in the real world, not the hobbyist world.

In the real world it is a fact of daily life that modern visual effects EATS resources for breakfast. Battlestar Galactica comes to mind as a prime example with a 4 million poly model that can barely even be worked on in a 32 bit environment.

And huge models are becoming more and more commonplace as the demand for bigger, badder and cooler comes down from clients. The days of getting away with a space fighter that weighs in at 30k are LONG over.
Well thats what I was saying :P If you're not pushing the 32bit memory limits, then it wont be faster for you as everything fits in RAM just fine. If you've got something like Battlestar Galactica, and some complex combat scene, then sure, I can say 64bit LW will render it faster, but only because it can address more memory. There's not a speed gain because the chip is 64bit aside from that aspect.

I was just saying a scene that is only eating up 1GB of memory will render at about the same pace on 64bit LW vs 32bit LW. A scene eating up 8GB will obviously render in a fraction of the time on 64bit LW than it will on 32bit. 32bit LW would choke, and likely crash on a scene like that, unless rendered in passes..

I'd agree though, in the end on big scenes 64bit LW is far better... Now if only they'd start shipping more 64bit plugs :)

Anyway :P 32bit Apps in my experience have had no ill effects due to 64bit Windows. In some instances they run faster actually, because they get more memory (if your system has it..and if they apps were memory starved..)

[MadMax]

Let's change the question a bit:

Will a 32-bit app run slower in 64-bit windows than on a 32-bit install? Does thunking to 64-bits affect performance?



No. In fact many 32 bit apps can benefit from the additional mermory address space.

I run XP 64 and other than being able to work on enormous scene files, it runs just the same as 32 bit XP.

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