Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: Dirtnapper on September 20, 2010, 02:45:33 pm
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I am about to move to Win 7 and I am somewhat confused about the system I have, will it support Win7 64 bit(see tag below.) I ran CPUZ and SIW, I see in the instructions that it has EM64T, yet looking in the system Info on the computer for System type it shows x86 based pc...I am assuming that is as the system is now. Clarification is appreciated. Thanks.
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I can't see any problem with running Win7 64bit on your system. The only slight worry would be 64bit drivers for the graphics card as it is a bit old.
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Thanks, I am actually in the process right of now of checking drivers, maybe I'll need a new card.
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Based on your specification, your computer should be Win7 64-bit ready.
About time you unlock the full potential of your hardware :)
Your processor is x86-x64, or as we call 64-bit. Basically it's a modified x86 architecture from Intel, made by AMD, to support 64-bit instructions. This allow us to run both 32, and 64-bit instructions at the same time, allowing us to run 32-bit and 64-bit programs perfectly (at a theory level).
True 64-bit processors can only execute 64-bit instructions.
To ensure maximum software compatibility in Windows, so that 100% of 32-bit applications (assuming that they are well programed to support Win7 in the first place) runs perfectly under a 64-bit environment, Microsoft uses Windows-On-Windows or WOW64 if you prefer the shorter version.
Basically, its all Windows 32-bit library files, and executable that a program can use, included, hence why Windows 64-bit if much bigger in size than Windows 32-bit.
Going 64-bit will provide you with the following benefits:
- More overall performance even on 32-bit applications, as you have the OS in 64-bit, which is heavy and demanding enough so that it really maters.
- Able to address 4GB of RAM and more (up to 16 ExaBytes - (Windows 7 supports up to 192GB Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate edition or 16GB for Home Edition). That is 17 179 869 184 GB of RAM goodness.). Fun fact: As this huge number sounds way over the top, the same was said about the 4GB limit that we face today, back in the days when the x86 architecture was made.
- Be able to address 2TB+ HDD drive partition (you were limited because the address for each data block were only 32-bit long, now they are 64-bit long). Please note that your HDD controller might limit 2TB support drive partitions, or the limit can be somewhere else. Not that this limit mathers today, but it's still interesting facts to know.
Hope this was informative.
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Goodbytes, thanks for the the expalnation and I am looking forward to the new set up. I hope to have it done by next week.