32-bit vs. 64-bit - what does it mean?

[anonymez]

i had been using intel since '96, and just swiched to amd64 <1 month ago. amd64 ROCKS!

athlon64 has less power consumption when at 100% usage than intel when its idle

[techno]

na.. intel - the original and best. you will find that you will return the cpu within a matter of time if its not an intel

[anonymez]

the thing is, i am a gamer first, then a digital video enthusiast second, so i decided to go amd, as it is very widely known it outperforms intel in that area

[tigerman8u]

"what are the practical differences between a 32-bit system and a 64-bit system?"

ask yourself what were the differences between 16 and 32 bit system

[principio]

So, do I understand correctly that you can run 32 bit OSes on a 64 bit processor ... some form of Athlon 64 specifically. Will it run 64 bit apps?

I heard something about needing 64 bit drivers for hardware and that 32 bit drivers won´t work. Does that apply to 64 bit processors or OS´s. Also, why? Please donät spare the technical details. I´m buying all my new devices as external USB or firewire to avoid issues like this until 64 bit has settled down, so it isn´t really a big issue except for video cards.

There is a new dual core A64 out, a budget version at 360 odd USD as opposed to 600 odd in the earlier dual core versions: Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz 512KB $354. Based on the Manchester core, aparrently. low low heat compared with Intel´
s Pentium D, for those of you who were interested in the comparison!

[UncasMS]

you can of course run a 32bit os like the normal xp or nt/2000 on an athlon64

driver problems concern the new 64 bit windows os