32 bit vs 64 bit

[claydoh at claydoh.com]

> On Sunday, August 22, 2010 09:44:27 pm William Biggs wrote:
>> I have a 64 bit computer should I install the 64 bit 10.2 ?
>>
>>
>>
>
> The 32 vs 64 bit question is easily answered.  It's true that almost
> everything works in 64 bit while everything works in 32 bit out of
> the box.  You can access all your memory if you use the PAE kernel.
> Although there is a slight memory & perfomance hit, it is really not
>  noticeable to the human eye if you are using fairly modern and
> fast hardware.  The only reason that you would want to use the
>  64 bit every time is if you do a lot of video decoding and other
> very cpu-intensive things.  Otherwise the 32 bit will work just fine
> for you.
>
> Alan
>

I have to concur. My AMD dual core athlon desktop has 4gb ram, but I
decided to try switching from 64 to 32 bit as that machine is primarily a
media center running Boxee and XBMC. I was having issues with flash
content inherent to both of these, and even the alpha/beta 64bit flash
(now discontinued) did not help.

Going to 32 bit I have not noticed anything different performance-wise,
outside of a working flash/hdmi audio :). I do a little video encoding and
cannot really tell the difference.

Btw, Ubuntu/Kubuntu actually select 32bit by default on their download
sites, iirc, as that will work just about everywhere.

Clay