32 or 64 bit virtual machine is faster on 64 bit machine (vmware) [closed]

Question

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 1

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.