POLL: Are you a 32 bit or 64 bit user for GPB?

[HornetMaX]

Could be, I personally am on x64 so I don't care

I'm not utterly convinced we absolutely need GPB to go x64: even some of the currently most demanding games are still OK on 32bits.
On sim side, iRacing, rFactor2 and Assetto Corsa do not require x64 for example.

But for sure, if one has to reinstall an OS now, the advice is to go x64, no real reason not to.

One of the reasons why we'll have more games requiring 64bits OSs is that XBONE and PS4 are 64bits too. I know this will make you happy Hawk

MaX.

[BOBR6 84]

Im on 64 bit I think but no idea what its all about hahaha

[teeds]

On sim side, iRacing, rFactor2 and Assetto Corsa do not require x64 for example.

If I remember correctly Rfactor2 had to do a 64bit version to allow for some mods that needed the extra memory space, but it's not exclusively 64bit.

[Hawk]

True 64 bit architecture does run faster than 32 bit, also allows the use of bigger memory capacity. Just two good reasons to be running a 64 bit system.

However having said that, there are still some developers who do not take advantage of the 64 bit architecture and programming capabilities when programming for older 32 bit user capability too.

In my opinion, I would say that if you want any modern designed game or especially simulations to develop into their full potential then true 64 bit multi thread multi core programming is the way to go.
Is GPB multi thread multi core? Not sure, but maybe Piboso could confirm or deny question? 

You may think there is no need for 64 bit Max, but when you get to the stage were you can run track and dynamics on one core, bike physics on another, weather system and dynamics on another, and maybe online networking on another core, even true fluid dynamics on another one or two cores(these are just examples) then with the extra speed and memory capabilities of the true 64 bit system you can see the advantages and opportunities  a true 64 bit designed programme can offer.

Here is a quote from rFactor 2: http://rfactor.net/web/2014/06/05/rfactor-2-memory-usage-upgrades-in-upcoming-build/
ISI do state that to get the best out of rFactor2 you will need to run it on a multi-core 64 bit CPU and OS with more than 4GB of RAM.

Hawk.

[HornetMaX]

True 64 bit architecture does run faster than 32 bit, also allows the use of bigger memory capacity. Just two good reasons to be running a 64 bit system.

64bit apps run faster mostly when they need more memory than what a 32bit app can handle. So for the current GPB with current tracks, a 64bit version would run just as fast as the current 32bit one (because we don't need at the moment more than the 4GB a 32bit os can handle).

A quick semi-technical explanation:
"Unless you need to access more memory that 32b addressing will allow you, the benefits will be small, if any.

While x64 architecture has a few more registers which allows easier optimizations, this is often counteracted by the fact pointers are now larger and using any structures with pointers results in a higher memory traffic."

Other details (still not too technical): http://www.viva64.com/en/k/0003/

Bottom-line, some compute-intensive applications may run faster a x64, but again, I don't think GPB is compute-intensive enough for that to make a sizeable difference: if your GPU is good, you can run GPB on a fairly poor CPU.

In my opinion, I would say that if you want any modern designed game or especially simulations to develop into their full potential then true 64 bit multi thread multi core programming is the way to go.

64bits and multi-threading are two very different things. You can have multi-threading on 32bits too.

Is GPB multi thread multi core? Not sure, but maybe Piboso could confirm or deny question? 

As far as I know, no, it's single threaded.

You may think there is no need for 64 bit Max, but when you get to the stage were you can run track and dynamics on one core, bike physics on another, weather system and dynamics on another, and maybe online networking on another core, even true fluid dynamics on another one or two cores(these are just examples) then with the extra speed and memory capabilities of the true 64 bit system you can see the advantages and opportunities  a true 64 bit designed programme can offer.

You're mixing again multi-threading and 64bits, two separate things.

Here is a quote from rFactor 2: http://rfactor.net/web/2014/06/05/rfactor-2-memory-usage-upgrades-in-upcoming-build/
ISI do state that to get the best out of rFactor2 you will need to run it on a multi-core 64 bit CPU and OS with more than 4GB of RAM.

If you read carefully they speak mostly of RAM usage. If the app is RAM-limited then yes, 64bits is the way to go. But in GPB we're not there yet.
So they don't need it because "64bits is faster", they need it because they need more than 4GB.

I think a 64bit GPB would not be significantly faster than the corresponding 32bit GPB (running on same hardware, of course).

MaX.