32 & 64 bit OSes

[lizzibet]

Ya know, ....i remember, back in the day when computers went from 16 bit machines to 32 bit machines and i ran windows 3.1 on my k6 machine or my p100 machine.. how it ran so super fast... something i remember about clock cycles and there was a problem with some cycles not synching so the 32 bit machines wouldn't run 16 bit software.. am i saying this right? someone interject here.. how is it then now that the 32 bit OSes don't really get a speed boost over the 64 bit OSes when run on 64 bit chips?

[SiKing]

It has nothing to do with speed. The difference is the size of data that it can handle, with 64bits being bigger.

[DrHu]

how is it then now that the 32 bit OSes don't really get a speed boost over the 64 bit OSes when run on 64 bit chips?

Because the 64bit version of the OS supports 32bit modes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64

• Operating mode explanation
  The architecture has two primary modes of operation:
  Long mode
  The architecture's intended primary mode of operation; it is a combination of the processor's native 64-bit mode and a combined 32-bit and 16-bit compatibility mode. It is used by 64-bit operating systems. Under a 64-bit operating system, 64-bit programs run under 64-bit mode, and 32-bit and 16-bit protected mode applications which do not need to use either real mode or virtual 8086 mode in order to execute at any time run under compatibility mode.

If you have the correct amount of resources, then there is no inherent advantage in sticking to 32bit OS, although in the current desktop OS environment, a 32bit OS is perfectly adequate: until the OS changes or requires more resources