Difference between 32bit & 64bit versions of Dolphin

[Misfire]

Hey all, great emulator you guys have here.

I just have one question about 32bit and 64bit. What are the differences between the versions?

From what I can see, both versions seem to be completely identical, I am on 64bit Windows 7 and Dolphin 64bit still runs in 32bit mode so I'm rather confused as to the best version to get for my Operating System.

Thank you.

[GoldPhoenix0]

32bit (or x86) can only handle 32bits of memory at any one single time! this means, as an example, that Vista x86 can only utalise ~3.2GB of RAM, since it cannot handle any more!

while 64bit (or x64) can handle more than 3.2GB of ram, and will allow faster speeds for other programs! but many are not copmatible with 64bit! so be careful!

also, there will be a more detailed discription somewhere else!

[Warboy]

(04-05-2009, 10:13 PM)GoldPhoenix0 Wrote: 32bit (or x86) can only handle 32bits of memory at any one single time! this means, as an example, that Vista x86 can only utalise ~3.2GB of RAM, since it cannot handle any more!

while 64bit (or x64) can handle more than 3.2GB of ram, and will allow faster speeds for other programs! but many are not copmatible with 64bit! so be careful!

also, there will be a more detailed discription somewhere else!

Well technically it ties into just more then memory.

64bits in a single line of code will perform better then 32bits, But don't be fooled. It won't magically double performance. Since there isn't that much software to show the difference. I would recommend trying LinX bench program.

First use it 32bit mode and then use it in 64bit mode. You will notice a performance increase.

Well most users have trouble merging from 32bit OSes to 64bit OSes for a unknown reason (Which they claim compatibility issues, but don't have evidence). I'm still wishing for 128bit to come out. Since memory has been 128bit ready since dual-channel came out. Triple-channel memory should be 192bit if they kept the 64bit per channel layout. Most high-performance video cards use a 256bit - 512bit memory bus too.

[Nerve]

I totally agree with Warboy, and I would like to emphasize that there's almost no reasonable way to have a combatibility issue (except if you're using a beta driver or your OS has a bug) with a 64-bit OS, because it can address registers in 32-bit and 64-bit mode, which means full backwards compatibility. The only thing you have to worry is the drivers, because they have to be built using 64-bit libraries in order to work (backwards compatibility with 32-bit versions is out of the question) but today most companies release 64-bit drivers, so there's pretty much nothing that can hold you back from installing a 64-bit OS. To cut the long story short, every application/game you have that's 32-bit will work as it did, and 64-bit applications will be optimized. And about the memory, at a friend's house that has Vista 32-bit on his PC, I noticed that it reported that it had 4GB of RAM. That's just something Microsoft did that fools people, it might report the correct amount of RAM, but as GoldPhoenix0 said, 32-bit OSes can only address the 3.2GB for processes/services, the rest ~800MB is mapped for I/O devices.

[Warboy]

(04-06-2009, 12:13 AM)Nerve Wrote: I totally agree with Warboy, and I would like to emphasize that there's almost no reasonable way to have a combatibility issue (except if you're using a beta driver or your OS has a bug) with a 64-bit OS, because it can address registers in 32-bit and 64-bit mode, which means full backwards compatibility. The only thing you have to worry is the drivers, because they have to be built using 64-bit libraries in order to work (backwards compatibility with 32-bit versions is out of the question) but today most companies release 64-bit drivers, so there's pretty much nothing that can hold you back from installing a 64-bit OS. To cut the long story short, every application/game you have that's 32-bit will work as it did, and 64-bit applications will be optimized. And about the memory, at a friend's house that has Vista 32-bit on his PC, I noticed that it reported that it had 4GB of RAM. That's just something Microsoft did that fools people, it might report the correct amount of RAM, but as GoldPhoenix0 said, 32-bit OSes can only address the 3.2GB for processes/services, the rest ~800MB is mapped for I/O devices.

Normally it will show 2GBs, With Memory remapping it goes to 3.2GB. Because it remaps the I/O Devices and such.

So Yes, Here is a good read on it.

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2004/02/19/the-4gb-windows-memory-limit-what-does-it-really-mean.aspx

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

Mainly the only way to trigger use of that 3.2GB (atleast) that is usable. Is to enable memory remapping in the bios level and /PAE in the boot manager. if /PAE in 32bit OSes isn't enabled. The system will still only allow 2GB for apps.

[PewnyPL]

I noticed 2 defferences in 64 and 32 builds
1. 64bit is faster than 32 (I don't know about IL)
2. 64bit is more stable (on 32bit Super Smash Bros Melee was crashing for me after about a hour of play (it's hard to get Mewtwo that way), on 64bit it was able to go all night (about 8 hours))

[enix04]

I haven't noticed a difference at all in the 32bit or 64bit version of the new dolphin svn builds. I remember there being a huge performence boost in the first (and only) official 64bit dolphin beta before wii emulation. I set up 64bit windows vista and tried out the 64bit rev 2745 of dolphin and didn't notice any difference at all. Is anyone else experiencing this or maybe it was a problem on my side but I was quite disappointed that there was no difference in the two versions. My fps stayed at 12-16 fps ingame ssbb on both the 32 and 64 bit versions of dolphin.

[hakunushi]

(04-06-2009, 07:30 AM)enix04 Wrote: I haven't noticed a difference at all in the 32bit or 64bit version of the new dolphin svn builds. I remember there being a huge performence boost in the first (and only) official 64bit dolphin beta before wii emulation. I set up 64bit windows vista and tried out the 64bit rev 2745 of dolphin and didn't notice any difference at all. Is anyone else experiencing this or maybe it was a problem on my side but I was quite disappointed that there was no difference in the two versions. My fps stayed at 12-16 fps ingame ssbb on both the 32 and 64 bit versions of dolphin.

u should test further.... i still get that performance boost, and optimise quantizers works best on IL but gives more spoeed on the 64 build.

[Misfire]

(04-06-2009, 12:13 AM)Nerve Wrote: I totally agree with Warboy, and I would like to emphasize that there's almost no reasonable way to have a combatibility issue (except if you're using a beta driver or your OS has a bug) with a 64-bit OS, because it can address registers in 32-bit and 64-bit mode, which means full backwards compatibility. The only thing you have to worry is the drivers, because they have to be built using 64-bit libraries in order to work (backwards compatibility with 32-bit versions is out of the question) but today most companies release 64-bit drivers, so there's pretty much nothing that can hold you back from installing a 64-bit OS. To cut the long story short, every application/game you have that's 32-bit will work as it did, and 64-bit applications will be optimized. And about the memory, at a friend's house that has Vista 32-bit on his PC, I noticed that it reported that it had 4GB of RAM. That's just something Microsoft did that fools people, it might report the correct amount of RAM, but as GoldPhoenix0 said, 32-bit OSes can only address the 3.2GB for processes/services, the rest ~800MB is mapped for I/O devices.

Am I still getting the benefits of 64 Bit even though Dolphin is still running in *32bit mode. I am indeed using the 64 bit compiled version.

[ector]

Disregarding bugs, the only visible difference should be speed. x86-64 has 16 registers (super fast temp storage) available while x86-32 only has 8, and this matters when emulating a PowerPC that has 32 registers. On 64-bit we can also use a memory addressing trick to shave one instruction off of every emulated memory access. 64-bit CPUs can also do 64-bit byteswaps, which can speed up some operations. That's about it.

The IL build, which uses a better register allocator making better use of the available registers, currently doesn't work in 64-bit mode, but when it does, expect a bit more speed, maybe 10%.