Will 64 bit run better than 32 bit?

[knightswatch 10]

I'm currently using 32-bit Windows 7, but obviously, like many people it seems that my fps is very low. Would 64-bit Windows 7 run Arma 3: Alpha noticeably better? Or perhaps the same, or 1 or so fps more?

[incontrovertible 13]

the main difference between is that 64bit can address more RAM per application. However an application also has to be 64bit to take advantage of that, ArmA 3 can only address up to 4GB RAM on 64bit and 3.5GB RAM on 32bit. Soooo there will be a performance increase but I wouldn't imagine it would be much.

Edited May 2, 2013 by incontrovertible

[Leon86 13]

If you have 4GB or more ram a 64bit OS lets you use all of it. Unless you have a piece of hardware that absolutely wont run on 64bit there's no real reason to install 64bit, even though the gains are pretty small if you only have 4GB ram.

Arma benefits slightly, if it runs out of virtual memory space it uses windows to page stuff, if there's any space in memory left those files will stay there and can be accesed instantly. It will not do much for average fps but it might reduce some stuttering (occasional screen freezing for half a second).

[Monkeylord 10]

I am running Win 7 64bit and have 12GB of RAm with a 3GB 660TI and I still get stutter now and then.

[metalcraze 290]

You need a fast HDD or even SSD not more RAM for ArmA since it's streaming a lot of data.

[SavageCDN 231]

^ what he said. SSD and higher CPU clock speed are the 2 best things for Arma performance

[gpha5e 1]

I am running Win 7 64bit and have 12GB of RAm with a 3GB 660TI and I still get stutter now and then.

you need more bandwidth actually, not moar ram, if you're running it at 1333 mhz i suggest you oc it to at least 1600 mhz, and if you buy an SSD you'll notice the difference in ram\cpu clocks even better (sorry 4 my eng)

Edited May 2, 2013 by gpha5e

[jblackrupert 14]

Get an SSD

[tet5uo 4]

Anyone reading this thread will find their IQ lowering just from close proximity to these posts.

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

The single biggest performance improvement for Arma came from the SSD I bought last summer. It really is a night and day difference.

But if you have exuberant amounts of ram (or plan on upgrading the ram to go along with a 64-bit OS upgrade), don't discount a ramdisk to push all your Arma files on. Just keep in mind that you may run into bandwidth issues at 1333 using a ramdisk. You definitely need 16gb of ram running over 1600Mhz for a ramdisk to be truly profitable. Try it on much less and you'll run into extreme performance dips when both the texture streaming and normal ram usage easily oversaturates your memory bandwidth.

I will say this, though unrelated; 64-bit OSs are more secure than 32-bit ones. That in itself is reason enough to upgrade.