Windows 7 RC - install 32 or 64-bit version?

[Piggy]

Anyone care to share their experience with the performance difference between 32-bit and 64-bit version of Windows 7 RC? Which is better to install? Does the XP Pro 1 CPU, 512 MB RAM recommendation apply equally to Windows 7? I'll be installing existing 32-bit apps. I don't think much, if any, of what I use is 64-bit.

I have a 15" Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro ("Merom" - Oct 2006 - Jun 2007).

Thanks!

[Michael Roy]

I've used both, and have some good results both with Boot Camp and in a VM.

Straight in a VM, the 64bit works fine. I had some driver issues when trying to use Boot Camp, but the install was no problem, and when Fusion converted it to a virtual machine, it worked without a hitch. In Boot Camp I had to grab the nvidia drivers and sigmatel audio drivers, both for the 32bit and the 64bit.

That was basically the only issue I had with either was the boot camp drivers werent' as updated as the actual manufacturers drivers were.

In Fusion tho, no problems whatsoever.

The main thing about going to 64bit is the RAM allocation. In 32, Win 7 only uses 2.7GB. It even tells you it sees more (if you have it), but that it cant' be used. This is just the limitation of a 32bit address space.

As far as settings, I have a 13" Macbook Pro 2.53 (newest model unibody), and i devote 1CPU and 1GB of RAM to the VM. 512 is ok for XP, but not so much Win7. Even with just 1GB everything flies tho... about a hundred times faster than Vista.

The main thing slowing your computer down is the hard drive. Upgrading to a 7200rpm hard disk speeds up Virtual Machine performance considerably (when you have enough RAM).

=)

[Piggy]

It'll be strictly in a VM. I don't use Boot Camp at all. I suppose I should convert my vm so I can but it's never been that important.

Technically speaking doesn't 64-bit require more ram and would be less efficient if used with 32-bit apps?

I'm downloading from Technet now. Can never seem to do it with Mac FF so it's all happening in my Windows vm. :smileyhappy:

Folks really seem to want to move to Win7. I predict it will set records for adoption.

Personally I think MS threw out the Vista code and went back to XP Pro to fix, cleanup and update the interface. I don't expect a lot of application and driver issues.

It'll be interesting to see how well Snow Leopard works. My MBP is fairly old but checking MacTracker the performance gain of a new system aren't all that significant. This may change when Apple releases new laptops for Snow Leopard (which I fully expect they will do). I'm not investing in new hardware until my list of critical apps (like Fusion) are updated.

I think Microsoft is going to recapture their glory and start to win people back. Apple is becoming the new evil empire. Their dependency on AT&T (whose voice/data and customer service is the worst IMHO - even worse than the airlines now), the ridiculously long delays in approving iPhone app updates and reversal of decisions on previously approved iPhone Apps (like SMS, tethering and Google Latitude among others) and censorship has turned them into the new evil empire. The difference is Microsoft has never been secretive like Apple. Apple puts form over function to the alienation of their customers. Case in point glossy vs. matte laptop displays, the chiclet keyboards and sharp laptop edges. I've never though of Microsoft spitting on their customers - only their competitors. I feel like Apple spits on us all the time.

Sorry I got a bit off topic!!

Message was edited by: Piggy

[Michael Roy]

I remember having issues trying to use Safari with the msdn downloader, but FF worked fine for me... /shrug

64bit does require more physical ram than 32bit (in the 'minimum requirement' sense), but the reason it's faster is because it can fill up a wider space with data. Each register can hold 64bits of instructions, instead of just 32.

The thing is that the applications actually need to know about this to make any use of it, otherwise things are just coded to use 32bit registers. Even tho the extra space is there, the app isn't calling for it so it just idles.

Overall, I've yet to see a speed diference between the two. I'm sure you'd notice it if you managed to max out the ram above 2.7GB in 64bit, but even then I doubt it would be much of a speed increse.

That being said, I imagine that hard-coded 64-bit apps would run much faster than their 32bit counterparts, but i havn't tested any.

[Piggy]

Thanks Mikero. BTW, I updated my last post while you were replying. I got on a bit of a soapbox. :smileyhappy:

I have a 7200 rpm drive (I replaced it last year). I find heavy continous disc i/o is where the Mac takes a hit and moving around windows begins to lag. The disc i/o is reflected in iStat Menus which I have in my menu bar.

Apple is going to start falling from grace.

[Michael Roy]

lol don't even get me started on iPhone app rejection...

http://gizmodo.com/5325539/apples-chickenshit-approval-process-has-gone-too-far?skyline=true&s=i

I'd been waiting for a latitude app for a while now, and when it got nerfed I just couldn't believe it.

I have a late 2006 model MBP (2.16 c2d, 2gb-ram,self-installed 7200rpm drive), as well as a brand new 13" (2.53, 4gb-ram, with a replaced 7200rpm HD as well... had to do that myself too ).

Totally agree that there really isn't much performance difference when just browsing the web and doing mild stuff. Rendering on Logic is quicker, and more snappy as a whole. The seller for me is just the unibody design, which i think is terriffic. Putting the 7200rpm drive in my older mbp zipped things right up, bringing the two pretty much on par, so I hear ya on the i/o issue there.

The only thing I notice is the 9400m is better than the older radeon for gaming (in boot camp, cuz I don't play WoW... there are other mac games, right?... right??).

Heh, for notebooks Apple does rock, but the premium and vendor-lock-down is definitely starting to chip away at the Ivory Tower image that Apple has, turning it into something more like Isengard :smileywink:

Disclaimer: I was an Apple support engineer before coming to VMware a month ago :smileywink:

[Piggy]

Is Windows XP or Vista the better vm type option?

[Michael Roy]

For the Beta, the VM had to be Windows server 2008

http://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2009/01/windows-7-on-mac-with-vmware-fusion-a-practical-guide.html

BUT...

My Win7 RC, however, is Vista x64, so the rule no longer applies.

[Piggy]

It's working great. I used the Vista OS type.I was even able to run 32-bit Win7 in 1 GB of RAM simultaneously with WinXP in 512 MB. :smileywink:

Do you know of any tools (for both Mac OS and Windows) that monitor disk i/o and provide information about which process is doing it? Task Manager and Activity Monitor let you see how much CPU each process is using but not what process is causing the most disk i/o. Disc i/o goes up and I have no idea if it's a software update process in Mac OS, Windows, or something entirely different. If I knew I could better manage the process.