Difference between a 32 and 64 bit PC?

I don't know whether my OS uses 32 bit or 64 bit. Anyone have any ideas.

ie..

64 bit PC
32 bit PC

windows x64 version ---> this works on a 64 bit PC
windows x86 version ---> this works on a 32 bit PC

Now how do I know what PC I am using???

Right - first off, what processor do you have?

Do you have a 64 bit processor ie AMD Athlon 64? complete with a copy of 64 bit windows? If the answer is no to the first, then your a no to the second, and that means your using a 32 bit processor and system.


Im gonna bet on you having a 32 bit system, but with out more info about your rig, i cannot be more than 98% sure.

If you don't know if your OS uses 64 bit or not then you OS doesn't use 64bit. Computers (pre-built and installed ones) don't ship with 64bit and if they do you normally get a choice. So unless you installed a 64bit OS its 99& likely your running a 32bit OS.

Here are the specs

AMD Duron Processor 892 MHz
512 Mb of RAM
Windows XP Pro 2002

I'm guessing I have a 32 bit PC as well based on statistical averages of the replies to this thread.

Originally posted by websurfer
Windows XP Pro 2002

There's your answer right there. Definately the 32bit version of XP Pro.

If it was Windows XP Pro x64 you'd be in need of some major hardware upgrades.

Hope this helps.

You can use x86 and any other 32-bit OS on 64-bit CPU's from Intel and AMD.

And Durons like yours are 32-bit, in the timeperiod they were considered new, there weren't any desktop grade 64-bit x86 CPU's.

If I have a 32 bit xp version pre installed on my pc and go on and install a vista 64 home premium edition will this work or will it not install because it is not an 64 bit xp version on my pc?

Originally posted by MarkLuitzen
If I have a 32 bit xp version pre installed on my pc and go on and install a vista 64 home premium edition will this work or will it not install because it is not an 64 bit xp version on my pc?

Are you talking about upgrading? To be honest I say no because of critical driver incompatabilities. So fresh install is better.

As for your pc? Yes you could run a 64 bit OS but it would only function in 32 bit because of hardware capabilities, run Vista? No, you cannot run 32 bit Vista in wth that hardware with adequete functionality.

So what is 32 bit and 64 bit architecture?

Well, like every thinking computer part it reads information in 0's and 1's. And these come in the form of 'electricity on' or 'electricity off' a bit like morse code. Any single signal on or off is called a bit.

So when we say my processor has a 32 bit address block it can read a 32 bits of address information in any given clock cycle, for example 800Mhz (800 milllion cycles per second fast!)

A 32 bit address:

10110001110110101001010110101011

So you see a 64 bit address is twice as wide and we measure width in bandwidth, so it has double the bandwidth.

Do I need 64 bit? Answer is not likely although it depends on what you do. For me I have 64 bit but I don't see amazing differences yet due to the fact that software is only just moving towards 64 bit functionality. And I assume your not using programs that require over 4 gig's of memory, if this is the case then you don't need it yet.

More info here.

hope this helps.

[edit on 3-2-2007 by Selmer2]