Re: [gentoo-user] Re: 64 bit or not

[Ralph Slooten]

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Harry Putnam wrote:
> The amd64 faq link posted by Ralph Sooten tells a kind of bleak story
> as of June 2005 about there being nothing remarkable about 64
> performance and futher that 32 bit out performs in many areas.  It is
> also said that for `desktop' use there isn't much point.

Somewhere in that FAQ there was a link to the gentoo forum (thread)
where I read users were/are having the exact opposite results. They were
getting much better results with the 64-bit.

I think at the end this becomes one big debate, just like comparing AMD
MHz and Intel MHz.
My reasoning on whether to compile in a 64-bit environment, or a 32 is
quite simple: if you don't want to "hasle" (which so far has not been as
emerge sorts out everything it seems for you) of sometimes letting
gentoo do tricks for you to run 32 bit programs with a second set of
32-bit libs etc, then just stick with 32 all the way.
If you want to be stubborn (like me) and use your computer like it's
"supposed to be", and with a scense of adventure, use 64-bit. At the end
of the day I can say "hey guys, I'm running a 64-bit OS" ;-)


> R Slootens link: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-amd64-faq.xml
> Leads here:
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-amd64-faq.xml#perfup
> Which leads here:
> http://enterprise.linux.com/enterprise/05/06/09/1413209.shtml?tid=121
>
> Do you guys agree with that assessment?

The last link has a few comments at the bottom, the last one being:
"This benchmark is close to useless as described by the other posters.
If anything it goes to show how well Athlon64 copes with non-optimized
code."

This is pretty much what the users said on the gentoo forum too iirc.

Well, to fill you in on my progress.... I have now almost finished
compiling my new system with 64-bit, with the exception of
mozilla-firefox-bin and openoffice-bin (32-bit). I haven't had any
problems yet. The computer is surprisingly fast with compiling although
I cannot compare it to 32-bit code on the same machine, so this isn't a
comparison, just a remark. I tested the NVidia drivers (64-bit version)
last night ... no problems at all either.

I think in general the only snatch with 64-bit is that closed-source
software not providing 64-bit binaries will have to be run using 32-bit
libs. This being said, more and more are and will be in the future, with
the exception of companies like macromedia who just blatently refuse to
release any 64-bit software, limiting all "it's users" to using a 32-bit
browser just to be able to use the flash plugin.

Greetings
Ralph
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