AMD64 vs. i386, any new observations?

[arijit sarkar]

On Sat, 2007-09-29 at 09:11 +0300, Edgars Šmits wrote:
> I'm getting ready for Gutsy's release, and was thinking about going to
> the AMD64 version, but wasn't sure of what the current issues around
> 64 bit were. As I remember last fall I chose i386 as many users
> reported issues with 64 bit versions of 3rd party software - OO
> printing, Flash etc., however, a year has gone by and I assume some of
> those problems have been eliminated.
> 
> A search through Ubuntuforums brings up a discussion on the subject,
> however the newest entry is from 2005. A google search for "AMD64 vs
> i386" + Ubuntu did bring up an interesting comparison test
> 
> http://fedora.thelinuxpimp.com/files/amd64vsi386.pdf
> 
> comparing the LiveCD versions of Dapper and Edgy and says:
> 
> Following conclusions were made:
> 1. It was clearly shown that most of applications have better
> performance in 64 bit environment.
> 2. Performance degradation was observed in very few cases and it was
> very low – in about few
> percents – lame MP3 encoder, GNU compiler.
> 3. Most of applications have 20-30% performance gain in 64 bit mode.
> 4. In very few cases the gain was extremely high – 70-100% –
> mathematical processing in octave, image processing with ImageMagic.
> 
> Which, if true, seems reason enough to switch.
> 
> How do list members who have tried both versions lately see it,
> especially any of you who have already downloaded the beta of Gutsy?
> 

I am using 64 bit of debian (lenny aka Testing) since mid-July. Before
that I used 32-bit debian etch/testing, ubuntu etc. and I must say,

1. Almost all applications have faster GUI responsiveness.
2. Few applications start/stop faster than 32-bit counterpart.
3. Encoding mp3 is really better. (I didn't do any video encoding
though)
4. I am not into scientific/mathemetical field, so can't comment about
that.
5. 64 bit Gnash plugin is working with many websites. Though I didn't
get youtube (32bit flash must be installed)
6. 64 bit Java is just ok.

And I don't know if this related to 64-nit or not, I found 64-bit
application crashes less, even in debian-testing version. Though I'm
using debian, but still I think ubuntu will behave in same way. :)

regards,
--
Arijit Sarkar
Kolkata, India