Wow! 64-bit Win7 makes LR fly!

benl

benl

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I've just upgraded from the 32-bit version of Win7 to the 64-bit version, and can't believe how much difference it makes. Lightroom absolutely flies when importing photos! It's at least three times faster.

When I bought a new laptop last year, I opted for the 32-bit version of Win7 as I was worried about software compatibility. Since then, an IT pro friend pointed out that most 32-bit software will run on 64-bit systems, and that graphics is where 64-bit software really comes into its own.

As he put it: "the performance will be better with 64-bit versions as the extra registers and non stack based FPU model give better performance for floating point heavy CPU intensive applications." Or, in English, Lightroom and Photoshop will be miles faster. :-)

If you already own any recent version of PS, and LR2 or LR3, you have a licence for both versions and the installers automatically install the 64-bit versions when installed on a 64-bit machine.

This is an upgrade I strongly recommend to any Win7 users or anyone considering an upgrade to Win7.

(Oh, and before the Mac fans come piling in, I'm actually running Win7 on a MacBook Pro 17. :-) I have no present plans to use the Mac side, but it's partitioned as a dual-boot machine so that I have the option. Note that you need a copy of MacDrive to allow Windows to use the Mac partition for storage: once that is installed, the Mac partition is just another drive as far as Windows is concerned.)
 
Another benefit of going 64-bit is that 32-bit Windows only supports upto 4Gb of RAM, 64-bit has no memory limit (other than the number of memory slots on your motherboard).
 
I installed the 64-bit edition of Win 7 RC2 on my old Mac Pro and found LR2.6 flew on that too compared to the Mac OS X version - even with the 64-bit option enabled.

I personally thought the only advantage of running a 64-bit OS was if you had more than 3.2Gb of RAM which is the limit on 32-bit operating systems.

Aside from the ability to use the extra RAM I didn't think a performance boost would happen but what your friend said really makes sense to me and I personally felt the difference when I upgrade my workstation in the office from Vista x86 to x64...


Just out of interest, why did you purchase a MBP to run Windows on full-time?
 
martyp said:
Just out of interest, why did you purchase a MBP to run Windows on full-time?
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If I could have gotten hold of a Lenovo W700 in a sensible timeframe, I would have bought one, but even the UK importer had no stock and was quoting maybe 28 days to get stocks, and even if that happened they couldn't say how many or what spec.

As my Dell Precision 6400 had experienced multiple failures, and Dell had agreed to refund, I had to replace it relatively speedily. Comparing a number of machines, the specs were all quite similar, and aesthetically I just loved the Mac. What can I say? I'm shallow. :-)
 
just got a new computer not got it up and running but it came with both 32 and 64bit recover disk. now my question is will ALL 32bit programs run on a 64bit set up ?
Photoshop is there different versions for 32 and 64bit or is it same copy as i only see one version to download.
 
Chaz Photos said:
Photoshop is there different versions for 32 and 64bit or is it same copy as i only see one version to download.
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PS CS4 can run as 64bit on W7 64bit (linky), other versions of PS are 32bit as far as I am aware. I've seen CS2 working fine on 64bit W7, not sure about older versions.

I would personally go for 64bit on a new PC, you get to use above the old 3.somthing Gb limit of 32bit Windows.

If you got W7 professional or above you can use XP mode to help with running your old programs in case they don't run on 64bit. I have not tried it but I would expect you could also use VirtualBox to do the same on the other versions of W7.
 
Don't compare 64 Bit XP with 64 Bit Win7!

I had 64 Bit XP and it was a nightmare. The 64 Bit Win7 is fantastic
 
You may run into one or two problems with third party filters on photoshop but apart from there doesn't seem to be a problem.
 
jerry12953 said:
My accounts software wouldn't run on 64bit W7, nor would Nikonscan v4, which meant that I couldn't use my scanner.

I took the PC to the local computer shop who removed 64 bit W7 and replaced it with 32 bit W7 , now all's dandy again....
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untill you want to upgrade to more than 3gb memory. a more sensible solution by the computer shop would of been to see if there are 64bit versions of those software available.
 
I've had 64bit Win7 for a couple of months and loving it so far... not had any problems with 32 bit applications to date.
 
Chaz Photos said:
just got a new computer not got it up and running but it came with both 32 and 64bit recover disk. now my question is will ALL 32bit programs run on a 64bit set up ?
Photoshop is there different versions for 32 and 64bit or is it same copy as i only see one version to download.
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yes if its windows 7

it will either install it as a 32bitt program OR if its massively old skool it will run it in a compatibility mode (win 2000 era stuff)

photoshop will install the 64 bitt version on a 64 bitt system but 32bit on a 32bit system ;)
 
Sticking to XP 64 here but well pointed out re the performance. Although I will point out that not everybody is able to upgrade. You should check you system compatibility first.

Win 7 doesn't like WebDav and Explorer crashes all the time / has write issues to my server so stuck with XP. Although DX10/11 would be nice.
 
King_Boru said:
Sticking to XP 64 here but well pointed out re the performance. Although I will point out that not everybody is able to upgrade. You should check you system compatibility first.

Win 7 doesn't like WebDav and Explorer crashes all the time / has write issues to my server so stuck with XP. Although DX10/11 would be nice.
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My windows 7 64 bit has never crashed explorer.

Either you are using the Release Candidate (technically still a beta test version) or there is some other bit of software causing explorer to crash
 
noneforit said:
My windows 7 64 bit has never crashed explorer.

Either you are using the Release Candidate (technically still a beta test version) or there is some other bit of software causing explorer to crash
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+1 the only time I've had explorer crash was accessing a file remotely and the remote pc fell over :D
 
I have a Epson Perfection 2450 which is no longer supported on 64bit,
I also have a Nikon CoolscanV ED which is 'under review'.

As mentioned above, drivers are the problem not software.

However, using Vuescan - http://www.hamrick.com/ - they are fully operable.

Vuescan really is the dogs pyjamas.

I have a Belkin 15-in-1 Usb card reader that no longer works, Vuescan can't help with that. :'(
 
snapalot said:
You may run into one or two problems with third party filters on photoshop but apart from there doesn't seem to be a problem.
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Yes I agree , some plug-ins (filters) like neatimage and Nik filters won't work with 64bit version, but there is a workaround.

When you install 64bit version of CS4 (not sure about LR), it installs a 32 bit version alongside, so if you wanted to use these filters, you can install/run them from the 32 bit version, although you lose the efficiency of running 64bit alongside the memory cap.
 
noneforit said:
My windows 7 64 bit has never crashed explorer.

Either you are using the Release Candidate (technically still a beta test version) or there is some other bit of software causing explorer to crash
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When using WebDav it crashes. Also rendering a 1080p 3D rendering from 3DsMax crashes it. Not a release candidate, full version. XP64 doesn't exhibit these issues. So naturally I went back to it so I can continue my production.

Other than its good, like the spreadsheet thing having two docs open split in the middle was useful.
 
neil_g said:
untill you want to upgrade to more than 3gb memory. a more sensible solution by the computer shop would of been to see if there are 64bit versions of those software available.
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Yes, I'm aware that 32bit W7 can only use up to 3.2GB memory, and I had been under the impression that I would be able to use XP compatibiliy mode to run my accounts software. But it seemed not to be the case, which is not surprising since it dates from 1995!

So rather than fork out £200 for new software i went down the 32 bit route.

I was also pretty cheesed off to discover that the software for my (very expensive) Nikon scanner wouldn't install on the new machine, and even more so that there was no driver for it to run in W7. I've sent several emails to Nikon about this - they haven't got round to it yet....... However today I tried installing it again, and discovered that it would work on 32bit W7.

I'm not exactly sure what the computer shop did, tbh, but I'm happy and the machine runs fine.
 
Well, if you have 64 bit hardware then a 64 bit OS will run faster than a 32 bit one. It hopefully won't be long until 64 bit is the de-facto standard, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is true, honest to goodness 64 bit (and with the relative good price of Apple's products ATM, now is actually a good time to get a Mac, I think), as are some distros of Linux, and with Vista 64 and 7 64 Windows 64 bit is now actually feasible! Having said that I'll probably still be on 32 bit for the next 3,000 years.... :P
 
There is always a draw back (apart from the cost) most motherboards won't support anywhere near that amount of RAM.
 
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