64 bit question

[Ramah]

Ok, so I'm thinking of starting the ball rolling soon with a looooong overdue upgrade to my PC. In order to get more usable system memory I'm thinking of changing to a 64 bit version of Windows. Unfortunately my budget would in no way allow me to spring for a 64 bit copy of PS and so I was wondering if there would be any potential problems for me running 32 bit PS on 64 bit Windows? Any compatability problems or bottlenecks or whatever?

I remember reading that 64 bit PS had compatability problems with some filters. Is that right? It is just the PS version that causes that and not Windows itself?

Cheers in advance for your help.

[Lukc]

Hi - from what I recall, my 32 bit PS had no problems with my windows. But I'm no expert on the programmes and some other folks might have more detailed news.

[Clercon]

I would say that the biggest difference is in addressing memory. If you have a 64 bit OS and a 32 bit program, the program wont be able to address more memory then 4 GB even if you put in 8 GB in the OS. However you might still increase your PS performance due to that PS can get 4 GB memory that it doesn't need to share with the OS or other programs.

[Redrobes]

Cant say anything useful about PS since I dont use it - 32 or 64 bit, but Clercon is right. Whilst you would get more system memory and more memory for the whole PC to use, PS on its own running as a 32 bit app would be limited to 4Gb of memory on your squillion Gb shiny 64 bit box. Memory wise, it would be better than PS on a 32 bit box but only by about 1Gb max. You could not use 6 or 8 Gb of ram with it. Generally, 32 bit apps run on 64 bit windows just fine. You only NEED 64 bit windows device drivers for a 64 bit OS and nowadays you can get 64 bit drivers for almost everything - certainly everything sold new.

Most new CPUs now are 64 bit anyway. Most new motherboards have DDR3 and a 4Gb stick of that is about £18 and most motherboards have two slots min so getting 8Gb is no issue now. The OS is either XPx64 (what I use) or Vista64 (just don't do it !) or Win7 64 bit, which is like Vista64 only this time it works. If your buying a new machine and want more than 4Gb PS and are not going to shell out for the upgrade no matter what then consider making a machine up from bits or buying it with no OS and installing Ubuntu x64 or Linux Mint and trying the Gimp in 64 bit or even Xara (free in linux). If you dont get on with it then you can always format the hard drive blank again and buy a windows copy and install that and go again. If going windows then I would definitely recommend getting a boxed copy of the OS even if its the somewhat iffy OEM type version. But don't just get it pre installed and live with it as you would be on a limited life span before you need to reinstall it again and lose your ability to get your work back. Oh and on that point, budget for an external USB hard drive as back up. It amazes me how many posts we have on this forum about lost work. Losing the last thing you were working on is unfortunate, losing everything you have ever done is just careless.

[cereth]

I'm running 32bit PS on a 64 bit system and haven't noticed any issues at all. Everything is running smooth as silk for me. I built a new pc last year and the difference has been night and day. Of course my old system was relatively ancient...

I have an external hard drive too, but don't back things up nearly enough.

[waldronate]

Pretty much all Windows 32-bit programs should run without error on a 64-bit version of Windows because there is a whole dedicated subsystem that emulates the 32-bit Windows system.

An important point that Redrobes touched on is that you get MORE memory running a 32-bit Windows program on 64-bit Windows. http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404901.html shows that 32-bit PS can use a maximum of 1.7GB of memory on 32-bit Windows and 3.2GB on 64-bit Windows.

My recommendation is at least 8GB of RAM and the 64-bit version of Windows 7. The 32-bit PS version should run a bit smoother with large files than under a 32-bit version of Windows with that sort of configuration.

Photoshop filters are programs (DLLs, technically, but the principle is the same). According to the Adobe document above, the 32-bit filters won't run under 64-bit PS version. This fact isn't surprising because Windows can't load 32-bit DLLs into a 64-bit program; the instruction sets are different.

[Ramah]

Well thanks for all the advice, people. I made the leap to 64 bit today. I'm slowly trying to get things up and running still so haven't tried PS to see if it makes much of a difference to me yet. I'll report later. For now though... man, Windows 7 really makes it tough with its stupid administrator rules. :s

[Jaxilon]

Yeah my biggest issues with Win7 is that I hate the way it wants to share stuff. It's like an all or nothing deal or something and I still haven't figured it all out. I just want to right click on a file and say "Share it" and have done. It drives me crazy. Other than that I'm very happy with my upgrade so far.

[Ramah]

Heh. So I thought I was about ready to get back into some mapping. I load up a map I had previously started in Photoshop on XP, make a few changes and decide to save it. Except it doesn't want to let me save it because I don't have permissions. :S How crazy is that? This is just a PSD file, not some important system file.
The only way I can find to get around this is to right click on the program before I start it and select "Run as administrator." But I have to do this every time and I KNOW I will forget most of the time... could someone with Windows 7 gimme a hint on how to change permissions etc. on this? When I try to figure it out myself it's like a maze of windows opening up that all tell me I cannot change it. :s

[Ramah]

Never mind. I seem to have found it by doing a Google search. I needed to navigate to the exe file, open up the compatability menu and check "Run as Administrator".... this seems such a stupid thing to have to do. :S Especially as now, every time I open the program it gives me a warning asking me if I want to allow Photoshop to make changes to the computer... Zzzz