For a PC with 1GB RAM, should I install 32 Bit or 64 Bit Windows 7?

Question

I would like to install Windows 7 Ultimate on a PC with 1GB of RAM.

What's better for me? The 32 or 64-bit version?

Solution 1

The 64 bit version requires 2GB of RAM to work. Overall 32 bit applications require less memory (and disk space) than their equivalent 64bit counterparts.

Solution 2

For a 1GB system, the best to do is install the 32 Bit version, unless you want to upgrade your system memory to 4GB or more in the future.

32 Bit is a clean version and works better with most of low memory systems.

Solution 3

Windows 7's minimum system requirements are 2G of RAM for a 64-bit edition.

Solution 4

System requirements aside (where 2GB seems to be the minimum for an x64 install), you'll probably find better memory performance from a 32-bit version. Any 64-bit applications that run will have a higher memory usage profile, simply because all of the pointers in memory now use twice as much memory (64 bits vs 32 bits); similarly, the native size for some variables in memory will also be affected.

Solution 5

Run the 32 bit version. Along the way you should probably consider a RAM upgrade. Going to the max for a 32 bit address space, 4GB (if your motherboard supports it) will give you a pretty good boost in performance. Generally you need not consider 64 bit unless you have an application which is driving its use with both a very large memory model and a motherboard which supports the larger amount of RAM.

Yeah, I know 64-bit is 'sexier' but you are also likely to run into all sorts of small but annoying issues as you run 32 bit apps in 64 bit environments, including having to make absolutely sure that drivers you receive from manufacturers are 64 bit compatible, or even that they have 64 bit drivers for their hardware (as some do not).

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Comments

[Admin]

"should I install 32 Bit or 64 Bit Windows 7?". No.

[bevacqua]

Better: Get more RAM.

[SpeedBirdNine]

Try to get more RAM, as even if you install Windows 7 32 bit, performance of the PC will not be very good.

[user606723]

It seems like the real correct answer is "Windows XP"..

[Tamara Wijsman]

The bitness of an OS isn't about the amount of memory alone. This question outlines the most important differences, this should be able to help you decide which one you want...

[Diogo]

@iAsk Remember to accept the answer that solved your problem (click the outline of the check mark next to it)

[surfasb]

+1: "cleaning version"???

[therobyouknow]

+1 For realism. To add to this, older devices may only work with 32bit Windows because their device drivers are only written to use 32bit Windows APIs. Windows 7 64bit is not universally backwards compatible with 32bit drivers. An example being the Yamaha SW1000XG sound card, which works in Windows 7 32bit but not 64bit.

[kinokijuf]

I’ve succesfully installed 64bit Windows on a 512M virtual machine.

[M. Toya]

Installing is one thing but it probably dis not run very smooth, did it?