Why does Windows 7 64-bit require more memory than 32-bit, according to the upgrade advisor?
Windows – Why does Windows 7 64-bit require more memory than 32-bit
32-bit64-bitmemoryperformancewindows 7
32-bit64-bitmemoryperformancewindows 7
Why does Windows 7 64-bit require more memory than 32-bit, according to the upgrade advisor?
Best Answer
I don't have any special information about the upgrade advisor, but here are a couple possibilities:
There's not much reason to use 64-bit unless you're going to have more than 3GB of RAM, as the extra address space won't do much for you. There are some special-case reasons, like high security applications or certain media processing, but in general memory address space is the reason to use a 64-bit OS at the moment.
64-bit OSes DO use more space to store memory addresses, as each address is generally twice as long (this isn't totally precise, but a generalization here will do). This means that storing the locations of data in memory takes more memory itself. Again, however, this isn't really a reason not to use a 64-bit OS, because if you are using one you are probably taking advantage of its increased address space anyway with a decent amount of RAM.