32 or 64 bit virtual machine is faster on 64 bit machine (vmware)
I have a 64bit host with 64 bit host OS. I want to install a virtual machine (with 1GB ram or less), but I don't know which will show better performance. I've heard that the only advantage of 64 bit hardware/software is that it can address more than 2 GB memory per process and it's actually slower than 32 bit.
So is it better to install 32 bit guest vm/os or 64 bit.
I think that software I'll run on it is 32 bit, so it'll run /not in emulation/ using 32 bit libraries anyway. But what if I had the 64 bit version of the software?
Answer
Well, like so often you heard hogwash. It has the big advantage of not only supporting more than 2gb per process, but also more than 2b TOGETHER - which is the harder limit. In fact, running a 2gb process on a 32 bit machine leaves little wiggle room for file caches, while running a 2g process on a 64 bit machine leaves tons of.
Unless the system is very little stressed, the memory barrier makes 32 bit OS level wise just a bad install. Heck, I write that on a virtual machine running visual studio - with 8gb memory because it really helps debugging large stuff.
I think that software I'll run on it is 32 bit, so it'll run in emulation
Ah - now you spread bad things, too. No emulation, 32 bit execution is on all decent processors 8not ccounting in Itanium) as fast as 64 bit.
But what if I had the 64 bit version of the software?
Depends. For most software it makes no sense. Depends whether teh softawre can / makes use of more than 2gb memory. But even if not - the OS may.