Should I move to amd64 ?

[Charles Swiger]

Hi--

On May 30, 2013, at 10:19 AM, Michael Gass <mgass at csbsju.edu> wrote:
> I am currently using a 9.1-RELEASE with an i386 install.
> The hardware is a core 2 duo with 2 GB of RAM.  My video card 
> is an ati radeon hd 2400 xt. Things work fine.
> 
> Would I gain anything by starting over and doing an AMD64 install
> or would that be a bad idea?  Would my system perform better, worse, 
> or the same after the change? I may eventually bring the memory up
> to 4GB, but not anytime soon.

For machines with less than 4GB of RAM, running 32-bit version is probably
wise; 32-bit processes use memory more efficiently compared with 64-bit mode.

For some math-intensive workloads like SSL/crypto, audio/video transcoding,
and such, there is likely to be significant improvement in 64-bit mode
compared with running in 32-bit mode.  For most other workloads, you're
not likely to notice a difference.

> I understand some ports my not work - like WINE - but I do not use
> WINE. Would there be other problems?

Nope, or at least not in general; AMD64 is very stable nowadays.

Regards,
-- 
-Chuck