KN1 SLI RAM mystery

Thanks!

Forgive my ignorance, but which processors supprt the 64 bit OS?

I have an AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (San Diego). BIOS: Phoenix Technologies,
LTD 6.00 PG, 7/8/2005.

Would my setup accept windows 64 bit, and if so, would the processor
speed be dragged by the demands of a heftier OS? Or would the opposite
happen --- would I see a speed boost from an OS that can take advantage
of the 64 bit architecture?

Analogous questions: would the 64bit OS have trouble handling my apps
(say, for instance Photoshop CS1, and others), even if they weren't
designed for the 64 bit architecture? Regardless of whether this is a
problem, would upgrading to a 64bit OS automatically take care of the 3
to 4 GB recognition issue? Or would further BIOS and other
modifications be necessary?

Again, MANY thanks for your helpfult comments.

D
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"RankTyro" <latchamba-amazon.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1141298147.165794.178690@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks!
>
> Forgive my ignorance, but which processors supprt the 64 bit OS?
>
> I have an AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (San Diego). BIOS: Phoenix Technologies,
> LTD 6.00 PG, 7/8/2005.
>
> Would my setup accept windows 64 bit, and if so, would the processor
> speed be dragged by the demands of a heftier OS? Or would the opposite
> happen --- would I see a speed boost from an OS that can take advantage
> of the 64 bit architecture?
>
> Analogous questions: would the 64bit OS have trouble handling my apps
> (say, for instance Photoshop CS1, and others), even if they weren't
> designed for the 64 bit architecture? Regardless of whether this is a
> problem, would upgrading to a 64bit OS automatically take care of the 3
> to 4 GB recognition issue? Or would further BIOS and other
> modifications be necessary?
>
> Again, MANY thanks for your helpfult comments.
>
> D

The big advantage of a 64 bit OS is doubling the amount of data a CPU can
process per clock cycle. A 64-bit chip has the power to dramatically
improve the performance of audio and video encoding, complex engineering
programs like CAD, and to really boost the performance of games. And in the
long term, 64-bit computing will give programmers much more power as
desktops come closer and closer each day to what used to be the exclusive
realm of the mainframe.

The 64-bit CPUs can handle more memory and larger files because of the
larger a address space, which means it lets you address more memory. That's
the limit you're hitting now. Today's 32-bit Intel and AMD chips can
address up to 4GB of memory. In Windows-based machines, that 4GB is split
between the operating system and the applications. That means the most
memory any given application can access is 2GB.

That limit is becoming a problem--particularly in video-editing applications
and the like. A 64-bit processor can address up to 16 exabytes of memory
(that's over 16 billion gigabytes).

The Athlon 64 processor supports, IIRC, up to one terabyte of physical
memory and up to 256 terabytes of virtual memory.

While apps like Photoshop are usually among the first to upgrade to a new
platform, I think it's still going to be a while before that sort of stuff
trickles down *affordably* to me and you.

As for compatibility, IIRC, AMD and Intel took different approaches with AMD
running 32 bit apps natively and the Intel requiring a software emulation.
But it's been a long time since I've looked into the CPU race - much might
have changed.

--
Eric
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