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Cross-Comparison of 32-bit/64-bit kernel and 32-bit/64-bit application

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foxmachia

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 14, 2009
8
0
Original Here

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10069338

About 2.5% difference between kernels:

64-bit SL/64-bit Geekbench--4,263
32-bit SL/64-bit Geekbench--4,159
(2.50% difference between 32-bit and 64-bit kernels)

64-bit SL/32-bit Geekbench--3,910
32-bit SL/32-bit Geekbench--3,809
(2.65% difference between 32-bit and 64-bit kernels)

Not much advantage to booting 64-bit kernel.

For applications the difference is larger, there is 9% difference between 32-bit Geekbench and 64-bit Geekbench.

64-bit SL/64-bit Geekbench--4,263
64-bit SL/32-bit Geekbench--3,910
(9.0% difference between 32-bit and 64-bit apps)

32-bit SL/64-bit Geekbench--4,159
32-bit SL/32-bit Geekbench--3,809
(9.2% difference between 32-bit and 64-bit apps)

The 32-bit Snow Leopard kernel can run both 32-bit and 64-bit apps. The biggest bang for the buck is running 64-bit applications.
 
Hellhammer said:
So, basically you get nothing from 64-bit kernel?
Click to expand...

I cannot say that. Comparing 64-bit SL/64-bit App and 32-bit SL/32-bit App (aka. Leopard in most cases), there is a 11.1% performance boost, which matches Apple's marketing data. Adding Open CL, if some apps implement it, the result will be more promising.
 
foxmachia said:
I cannot say that. Comparing 64-bit SL/64-bit App and 32-bit SL/32-bit App (aka. Leopard in most cases), there is a 11.1% performance boost, which matches Apple's marketing data. Adding Open CL, if some apps implement it, the result will be more promising.
Click to expand...

I meant from kernel. 2% is almost nothing and for some people, 64-bit kernel ruined everything. Yes, 64-bit apps are a lot faster.

uaecasher said:
I think the only reason is that you need 64-bit kernel is that apps will be able to address more than 32Gigs, hmm you got an application that needs more than 32 gigs?
Click to expand...

Would that make my Text Edit faster :D
 
The results have to be taken with a grain of salt! Geekbench does neither report raw results like instructions per second nor does it publish how the Geekbench "score" is calculated. In the domain of professional computing nobody would care about a "score" like that.

It could be the case that Geekbench adds a premium offset for 64 bit code on the estimation that 64 bit can process more data, which isn't exactly true: just bigger numbers and that's a fundamental difference. At most 10% of applications, if at all, can exploit that.
 
If you work with scientific apps, 64 bit is much much faster, sometimes more than twice as fast. But I doubt anyone in this forum works with those.
 
iBug2 said:
If you work with scientific apps, 64 bit is much much faster, sometimes more than twice as fast. But I doubt anyone in this forum works with those.
Click to expand...

It is also helpful at the treasury department, where they are always working with trillion+ levels of debt, and lots of fuzzy math.
 
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