32bit vs 64bit

Inspired by a friend who isn’t as big of a computer geek as I am, I decided to do a post explaining the differences between 32bit and 64bit when it comes to operating systems.

The 32 and 64 bit numbers actually refer to the maximum accessible address space that the OS and CPU can handle. In laymen terms, with a 32bit processor/Operating System you are limited to about 4294967296 bytes of space (2³²). If you convert that to Gigabytes you’re left with about 4gb (in reality that number is bit less). So in a 32 bit system the maximum amount of memory that your computer can successfully utilize is about 3.75GB. This means that even if you have 8GB of RAM in your machine, it will only be able to utilize 3.75GB. This is definitely something to keep in mind when you are picking up your next computer or looking to upgrade your current machine.

In a 64bit world (CPU/OS) you’re looking at significantly more address space. Since our number is actually growing exponentially instead of linearly (this isn’t really a math blog, but exponents grow exponentially whereas basic math modifiers (+ – / *) all grow linearly in repetitively applied) we are given about 17179869184GB of space. That is not a typo, it actually is 17 Billion Gigabytes. This means that your computer will read the full 8GB of RAM that you have in your machine.

The key when upgrading is to ensure that both your OS, CPU and Motherboard support 64bit processing. That isn’t really a problem now, but if you are dealing with a slightly older computer, it helps to look.