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General discussion

PLEASE AMD 64 or Pentium M

by vikingck Jun 6, 2005 7:50AM PDT

Can someone please explain what this chnage to a 64 bit processor means. Will future software not work if by a Pentium M now? Are there any disadvantages to buying the AMD 64 for today's purposes (the compaq r4000 is cheaper than the comparable Pent M). And what are the disadvantages of having a Pent M for the furture.

I'm not a gamer, simply want to do word processing, store music, and probably due photo and dvd applications in the future.

Thanks.

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2 Posts

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Future Applications won't run --- but when is that future?

by Ryan T Jun 6, 2005 8:52AM PDT

2-3 years from now, 75% of new applications will require 64-bit, but most will probably still run on 32-bit.

The disadvantage of buying an AMD64 now is poorer battery life and (in my opinion) not as solid a platform. By that I mean that most Pentium M machines are Centrino, which means that they use an Intel Chipset and Intel PRO/Wireless cards which (in my experience) are the best. AMD needs to beef up it's chipset division or team with nVidia to develop a whole platform optimized for 64-bit, because from what I've seen, they don't have one yet.

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I'm living it now.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 6, 2005 9:53AM PDT

While nothing but some items we've created are 64-bit only at the shop, we won't be releasing such very soon. But the speedup is worth it even if you just use some item like VIRTUAL DUB which leverages 64-bit even in Windows XP 32-bit. AMD issued a magic toolkit to make this happen now.

In a few months you'll see a few games that will offer "extra" features for 64-bit owners and then more will happen.

If you are satisfied with today, then you can do well with the 32-bit offerings. I want this years purchases to stretch as much as possible into more than a few years.

Bob

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