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Is amd64 faster than i386

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porton
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Is amd64 faster than i386

#1 Post by porton »

I installed Debian amd64 on my i7 PC.

It seems that now it works much faster than old i386 installation on the same PC. Is it really so? or it only seems for me?

bdtc1
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#2 Post by bdtc1 »

I noticed a difference in encoding times, such as converting a music CD to OGG format.

AMD64 has more registers available, and can move larger amounts of data in less time.

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stevepusser
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#3 Post by stevepusser »

For many CPU-intensive operations, yes. Up to 20-30% faster.

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Bulkley
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#4 Post by Bulkley »

If most of your computer use is word processing you probably won't notice any difference. How fast can you type? Where you might notice it is with massive files like video, maybe with highly detailed games. Newer machines with multi gig drives might help.

I was one who assumed that CPU architecture would keep multiplying every few years and that 64 was just another step and that by now we would all be using 128. I never expected the progression to stop at 64. If Microsoft execs had had their way, the progression would have stopped at 32.

Plug your thread title into Google; there are many discussions this subject. Some of them are quite interesting.

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debiman
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#5 Post by debiman »

Bulkley wrote:I was one who assumed that CPU architecture would keep multiplying every few years and that 64 was just another step and that by now we would all be using 128. I never expected the progression to stop at 64.
interesting.
i'm guessing that by doubling the width of the data stream (?wrong terminology?) the possibilities increase exponentially, and we just haven't yet reached the place where there'd be a need for that.

maybe something like this (i'm making this up):
8bit => 16bit - took 8 years
16bit => 32bit - took 16 years
32bit => 64bit - took 32 years (well it obviously didn't, so here my little idea collapses. anyhow, food for thought...

lbuiyzxl
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#6 Post by lbuiyzxl »

Although less possible,if you have very limited RAM then X86(i386 is one of X86) is faster than amd64.
Because amd64(64bit) instructions consume more RAM than X86(32bit) instructions.
I said "faster" is experience of human.
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#7 Post by sirfer »

IMO it depends which generation of amd64 hardware you're using. I recently upgraded from a ddr2 system to an i3 ddr3 system and the difference is very noticeable.

I write java apps for windows computers and run WinXP and 7 in a VM and have noticed VirtualBox and everything it runs starts *much* faster on ddr3 hardware than it ever did on ddr2. Also my apps start quicker too even moreso than on dedicated XP and Win7 machines.

Just my 2c fwiw.

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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#8 Post by stevepusser »

Obviously you can't make an objective comparison on an old 32-bit machine vs an amd64 install on a shiny new one. Just compare on the same hardware.
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#9 Post by Nili »

Older machine below 2005 i386 is better choice. New ones from 2012 or above, x64 is a lot better.
My old desktop says i386 when I tried to give a try x64 (Because is a old, or dead horse right to say).

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talby
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Re: Is amd64 faster than i386

#10 Post by talby »

I tested it on two laptops (AMD from 2006, INTEL from 2010, otherwise similar specifications) and could not observe any difference in speed, testing the boot of the laptop up to an autostarted Firefox session showing me a first local page. Both (32bit and 64bit installations) needed the same time (maybe 1 or 2 seconds difference for a 1.5 minutes boot on the 2006 laptop and maybe 1.1 minutes boot on the 2010 laptop). Obviously the bottleneck was not 32bit or 64bit, but something else, maybe memory or HDD speed.
I then had from the 2010 laptop model 3 different ones, each of them with other processors inside (although the brand model was identical!) kind of the laptops being from different production batches throughout a couple of months. All of them with a same 64bit installation and same RAM and HDD inside and almost identical CPU speed I found significant speed increase with increasing processor cache! The 1MB cache machine was not usable for a typical 64bit year 2016 Linux (Cinnamon Mint with standard kernel, XFCE Debian with standard kernel, LXQt SparkyLinux with Liqourix kernel) and only WinXP showed acceptable interaction responsiveness. The 2MB cache version was working with all Linux, very slow, but somehow working sufficiently fast to get my desktop work done. The 3MB cache version is what I am since then working with as my daily working horse laptop. It feels fast enough to never become annoyed by its responsiveness.

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