Vista 64 vs Vista 32 memory usage

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Billzz

New Member
Hi everyone,

I am currently running both Vista 64 and Vista 32 on two different drives and I notice that when booted, 64 uses almost 1.2 gig of RAM while 32 uses only about 800meg when booted.

The only thing I have on 64 that I don't on 32 is iTunes and the Adobe CS3 suite.

Is this normal? If so, why does 64 use more memory than 32? I do have superfetch on for both installs - could it be this that is using the extra memory - preloading iTunes/CS3 apps maybe?

Thanks - its no big deal really, just curious more than anything! :confused:
 

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Hello, Initially, sorry for my English, I am French. I tested Vista 32 and Vista 64 and I noted the same variation of memory. On the other hand I find Vista 64 faster during use
 

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Vista pre-loads into memory the start~up routines for programs it thinks you may use. This is called "Superfetch". Over time, Vista learns your habits, and changes it's defaults to what you actually use. And it's smart enough to remember time and day. So if you work during the day but game at night and on weekends, then what it loads will also change.

If an active program needs any memory space being used by Superfetch, then Vista surrenders the RAM just as if it were empty.

This is why Vista uses more memory.
 

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    Intel Q6600
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    Seagate 1TB 7200.11 (Vista x64) Seagate 500GB 7200.11 (Win 7 x64)
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....but isn't superfetch the same for 32 and 64bit vista?

I believe the answer is more fundamental:

64 bit numbers are twice as big as 32 bit numbers and therefore consume double the memory.

each 32 bit reference costs 4 bytes, 64/8 = 8 bytes. An OS maintains a lot of references.

the 64 bit architecture is faster because of the extra core registers and the increased size of the base registers. (registers are the fastest storage in a cpu)

32 bit processors have to do a lot of 64 bit math and they do it inefficiently.

salut fabrice!
 

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Billzz said:
Hi everyone,

I am currently running both Vista 64 and Vista 32 on two different drives and I notice that when booted, 64 uses almost 1.2 gig of RAM while 32 uses only about 800meg when booted.

The only thing I have on 64 that I don't on 32 is iTunes and the Adobe CS3 suite.

Is this normal? If so, why does 64 use more memory than 32? I do have superfetch on for both installs - could it be this that is using the extra memory - preloading iTunes/CS3 apps maybe?

Thanks - its no big deal really, just curious more than anything! :confused:
Click to expand...
Check this read out: Vista Workshop: More RAM, More Speed | Tom's Hardware Vista Workshop: More RAM, More Speed | Tom's Hardware
 

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