x86 or x64 - what is faster?

Message boards : Questions and problems : x86 or x64 - what is faster?
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

AuthorMessage
nikitastepanov

Send message
Joined: 6 Feb 21
Posts: 1
Message 102828 - Posted: 6 Feb 2021, 18:48:13 UTC

x86 or x64 - what is faster?
ID: 102828 · Report as offensive
Richard Haselgrove
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 5 Oct 06
Posts: 5077
United Kingdom
Message 102830 - Posted: 6 Feb 2021, 19:05:47 UTC - in response to Message 102828.  

Depends who's writing the program.

But in principle, and provided everything fits within the 4 GB address space limit, and the same hardware can handle either mode, x86 should be quicker because the memory transfers will be smaller.
ID: 102830 · Report as offensive
Profile Dave
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 28 Jun 10
Posts: 2518
United Kingdom
Message 102832 - Posted: 6 Feb 2021, 19:08:05 UTC - in response to Message 102828.  

It depends. Some projects only have 32bit executables though as 64bit CPUs are more recent they are likely to be faster. I don't know if anyone has tried using a 32bit and 64bit version of BOINC and or OS to compare speed. I would guess there is an advantage to 64bit if the executables are compiled for it.
ID: 102832 · Report as offensive
Bryn Mawr
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 31 Dec 18
Posts: 284
United Kingdom
Message 102834 - Posted: 6 Feb 2021, 22:08:36 UTC - in response to Message 102828.  

x86 or x64 - what is faster?


At what?

It depends what you’re trying to do
ID: 102834 · Report as offensive
ProDigit

Send message
Joined: 8 Nov 19
Posts: 718
United States
Message 102987 - Posted: 14 Feb 2021, 6:52:31 UTC

64bit can handle more complex instruction sets.
Your question is like asking, what is faster, a basic calculator that can do only sum and subtraction, or a scientific one that can also multiply and divide?

x86 would be faster at what it can do (like the basic calculator that can only do sums and subtraction).
x64 (comparing here with the scientific calculator) may be slightly slower at sums and subtractions, but is massively faster at multiply/divide and other functions.

So for a project using only sums or subtraction, the older calculator may be the better thing.
Likewise, unless a project uses x64 instruction sets, x86 instruction sets will be quicker.
ID: 102987 · Report as offensive
Raistmer

Send message
Joined: 9 Apr 06
Posts: 302
Message 102994 - Posted: 15 Feb 2021, 9:21:15 UTC - in response to Message 102828.  
Last modified: 15 Feb 2021, 9:30:20 UTC

x86 or x64 - what is faster?

In perfectly optimized code x64 usually be faster due to more registers available.
(Modern best optimizing compilers good enough to get measurable speedup for x64 build over x86 one on computationally heavy apps).
ID: 102994 · Report as offensive
robsmith
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 25 May 09
Posts: 1283
United Kingdom
Message 102997 - Posted: 15 Feb 2021, 12:44:43 UTC - in response to Message 102994.  

Also the better addressing of large memory spaces can help when pulling data from memory rather than disk
ID: 102997 · Report as offensive
Richard Haselgrove
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 5 Oct 06
Posts: 5077
United Kingdom
Message 102998 - Posted: 15 Feb 2021, 12:51:19 UTC - in response to Message 102997.  

Also the better addressing of large memory spaces can help when pulling data from memory rather than disk
Thus encouraging bloatware, instead of mean and clean programming - and slowing things down again.
ID: 102998 · Report as offensive

Message boards : Questions and problems : x86 or x64 - what is faster?

Copyright © 2024 University of California.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.