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Bad weather today, so I decided to clean the laptop with a clean install. I reinstalled vista 32 bit and I tested some programs included photoshop CS3, then I formatted the drive and installed vista 64 bit on my laptop (centrino duo T5200@1.60, 4GB ram) and re-run the same programs. What I found interesting is the photoshop performance using x86 and x64 version of vista. To make the test I stitched 15 shots togheter, I took the time from the beginning till the end of the merging and run the test 3 times, here the results:
VISTA 32 BIT (x86): 1st attempt 9m10s, 2nd attempt 8m 28s 3rd attempt 8m56s
VISTA 64 BIT (x64): 1st attempt 6m55s, 2nd attempt 6m 48s 3rd attempt 6m11s
I know that PS CS3 is a 32 bit software and I didn't expect so much difference, I use the merging menu quite a lot and I frequently stitch 5, 6 shots, that mean using 64 bit I'm going to save a lot of time. Anyone has performed similar tests? Your point of view appreciated.
TOM
give your vista 64 bit a few weeks and you will be sick of the problems, stick to the 32bit for now and stop being part of the vista beta testing team
Quote: Install XP and be happy.
;D
lol, actually I will try windows 3.11 (for workgroups of course!)..
When there is a lot of maths involved I would expect the 64 bit version to be quicker. And just to be unfashionable, I find myself adjusting to Vista quite well now.
The improved security features are handy. It's just like Xp with a few improvements. The only problem I have had is to do with how the spyder calibration has been loaded, and that is fixed now.
I expected lots of problems based on this forum, in reality its been simple.
Part of the difference may be that with 4GB, Vista 64 has more available memory to offer photoshop.
Have been using Vista 64 on a pretty powerful desktop machine (Vista index of 5.9 across the board) for several months now. No serious issues with software not working, at least none that weren't fixed by downloading the latest patches, etc. With new hardware drivers aren't a problem.
V.64 definately runs better with 4GB than with 2, but that difference aside I've found it incredibly responsive, very stable and very secure.
Have never run the 32bit version on this system (it made no sense to) so can't compare PS speed on like machines, but as Strawman said, for big number crunching it would make sense that the 64bit OS would have the legs, but I'm not sure that Photoshop has any 64bit instructions yet.
Oh, and Steve, I have been part of the Vista beta testing team since August '06 :o)
Nonetheless, SP1 should bring some good things.
When you run 32bit programs onthe 64bit version of Vista and they want to use the hard drive for temporary space the OS will actually allocate them spare RAM, as long as you have enough, which is considerably faster than using the hard disk.
So with memory hungry 32bit software there can be benefits to using a 64bit OS and lots of RAM.
Also on Vista x86 you wont be using all your RAM, as the maximum the OS sees is a total of 4GB, subtracting Video memory etc from this and it usually works out at 3.232GB RAM, the rest is wasted. Vista x64 can use all the ram so PS will use all 4GB for processing. As a result its faster!
thanks guys, the point is that I am using a "lucky" laptop - toshiba satellite 100-160 - that in the bios dont have the switch for the memory mapping so that using vista 32 or vista 64 the maximum memory seen from the OS is still 3064MB. But you are right, somehow the 64 bit is faster with the math but Im not sure if this is connected to the 4GB ram, maybe different architecture of the OS?
PS can only use a max of 3Gb of RAM for itself as a matter of interest, but will use the additonal on Vista 64bit for 'scratch disking'.
The switching is NOT done in the BIOS, you have to configure it in the BOOT.INI file Rusmi.
Quote: PS can only use a max of 3Gb of RAM for itself as a matter of interest, but will use the additonal on Vista 64bit for 'scratch disking'.
The switching is NOT done in the BIOS, you have to configure it in the BOOT.INI file Rusmi.
interesting stuff, I though boot.ini was in the old windows, how can I access to the file in vista? I cant see it typing "msconfig"...
On an XP system boot.ini is on the root of c:\
I would assume it is in the same place with Vista. You might need to set up your system so system files are visible to see it.
If you're going to use Vista anyway and you don't have any driver issues with old hardware then you may as well use the 64 bit version. 32 bit programs like Photoshop can't take advantage of the 64 bit processing for their maths, but can and do take advantage of the better memory management
Sorry to break it all to you, but x64 does not change or enhance the maths capability of the OS or the apps. I does however change the addressing methods for memory.
So yes, under some circumstances the x64 version might give you better performance with lots of RAM and an x64 version of the application, but that will be down to the way that the addressing of memory is changed - i.e. no over head with additional memory paging, look-aside-tables.
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