Sublime Forum

Is 64 bit version any better than 32 bit version?

#1

Hi,

I wonder, and not only for ST, in what a 64 bit version of a software better than a 32 bit version.
Beside the larger memory manageable, which is not something really important for a text editor, is there any performance improvement.

Since I switched to Windows 7 64 bit I try to use 64 bit software but is it really important ?

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#2

If you’re on a 64bit OS, then in reality you should be running the X64 version.

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#3

Why ?

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#4

[quote=“bizoo”]

Why ?[/quote]

Well x64 is the native architecture for the processor. I believe the 64bit is backwards compatible to 32bit, so in theory, running 32bit on a 64bit OS is going to be slower.

I may be wrong, but I remember someone explaining it works similar to that.

Also, 64bit can take advantage of more RAM, over 4GB whilst 32bit can only do up to 3.25GB

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#5

The address space issue is more important than it initially seems: on win32, by default an application will get 2GB of address space (the upper 2GB being reserved for the kernel). Due to memory fragmentation, an application will generally start seeing failed memory allocations a while before it’s actually using 2GB of memory. In the context of Sublime Text, this can be an issue if you’re loading huge log files, although I’ve not heard of any issues in practice.

Aside from the address space, there are performance benefits for 64 bit applications on x86 CPUs, for a few reasons:

  • Twice as many registers
  • More efficient calling conventions, making function calls cheaper
  • Modern instructions (e.g., CMOV, SSE2) are guaranteed to be supported, whereas compilers will, by default, not make use of these for 32 bit code for compatibility with older CPUs.

On the down side, pointers now take up twice as much memory, effectively shrinking your cache, but it’s outweighed by the above benefits.

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#6

Thanks Jon for your explication, I’ve now a good idea of pro/cons of 64 bit compilation.

I ask this because it’s sometimes problematic to find binary extension for Python 64 bits, this is why I use a Python 32 bit installation on my Windows 7 64 bit.
I have sometimes hard times to convert my Python script to ST plugin when they need some binary extension.

For people like me that need Python 64 bit binary extension, I recommend to take a look at http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/.

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#7

Why is 64 bit binary available for every OS but OS X?

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#8

“I want my 64 bits Mac OS X binary!” …à la Charles Cheswick :stuck_out_tongue:

Even though, in practice, it’s probably close to the same thing.

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#9

Apple never really used to push the x64 architecture.

I don’t know why Jon hasn’t compiled one though?

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#10

FWIW, the latest OSX binary is 64bit, so maybe older ones were as well.


Mac OSX has supported 64-bit apps since Leopard I believe, and its always seemed transparent to the user (I don’t think I’ve ever seen separate 32/64bit mac app binaries offered, since the OS runs both without a problem).

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