32 or 64 bit?

[Morris Taub]

I've been playing with Lightroom 3 in 32 and 64 bit and don't see any difference...I'm on a macbook pro with 4gb of ram...should 64 bit make a difference with only 4gb of ram?...I guess I have the same question about Photoshop CS5...I'm not seeing any difference there either...in photoshop i allot 65 percent to memory...

[digitaldog]

You are kind of on the cusp of where 64-bit would be useful in terms of accessing more memory. IOW, upgrade more memory, the application will use it. With 4 gigs, you just don’t have that much more being accessed (if any) between the two environments.

[PeterAit]

I've been playing with Lightroom 3 in 32 and 64 bit and don't see any difference...I'm on a macbook pro with 4gb of ram...should 64 bit make a difference with only 4gb of ram?...I guess I have the same question about Photoshop CS5...I'm not seeing any difference there either...in photoshop i allot 65 percent to memory...

The main difference between 32 and 64 bit versions is the ability to access RAM. The 32 bit version can access about 4 GB, the 64 bit version a whole lot more. So, with only 4 GB in your computer you won't see much difference. Put in 16 GB and you will - assuming that you images and workflow need it.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I don't think 4 GB ram is enough to warrant bothering with 64. But a couple of months ago I finally got my first 64-bit PC, running Windows 7 and with 12GB ram installed (and room for another 12 when I get greedy). Finally, CS5 and LR3 are both a joy to use and I can even use layers when I want to without spending half my life waiting for something to happen.

Add more ram if you can or upgrade to a model that lets you. It will make a huge difference.

[Morris Taub]

alright, thanks for confirming what I thought...i can buy a 4gb stick of memory and upgrade my laptop to 6gb for 100 euros...is this worth doing to a three year old computer?...actually older, april 2008 macbook pro...i'm ok with performance...would the extra 2gb make things much faster?...I'm kinda thinking to maybe leave things as is and wait till i upgrade the computer in a year or so...

[Hans Kruse]

alright, thanks for confirming what I thought...i can buy a 4gb stick of memory and upgrade my laptop to 6gb for 100 euros...is this worth doing to a three year old computer?...actually older, april 2008 macbook pro...i'm ok with performance...would the extra 2gb make things much faster?...I'm kinda thinking to maybe leave things as is and wait till i upgrade the computer in a year or so...

8GB is worth it if you run many other applications at the same time a Lightroom. If you only run Lightroom it may use a bit over 4GB but not a huge speed difference. I worked with 4GB on my MBP for about half a year since the MBP from 2009 I have was very expensive on RAM at the time. But check that you MBP can be upgraded to 8GB and it most likely requires 2x4GB sticks (as mine did)

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

My experience has been that 64 bits may slow down Lightroom if used with little physical memory. So I suggest that it may be best to use 32-bits with 4 GByte or less.

Best regards
Erik

I've been playing with Lightroom 3 in 32 and 64 bit and don't see any difference...I'm on a macbook pro with 4gb of ram...should 64 bit make a difference with only 4gb of ram?...I guess I have the same question about Photoshop CS5...I'm not seeing any difference there either...in photoshop i allot 65 percent to memory...

[Jim Pascoe]

This may sound like a dumb question, but I recently upgraded to a new Mac with 16gb of RAM.  How do I know if I am running LR in 32 or 64 bit mode?

[Scott Hargis]

In the "splash" screen, as LR starts up, it says either "32x" or "64x". On a Mac, you can also click the LR application icon, and "Get Info" - in the window that opens you can toggle between 32 and 64 bit, applied at the next launch of the program.

[David Hufford]

Contrary to the experience of others here, my iMac with 4gb RAM performs noticeably faster with 64 bits (Both Mac and LR set to 64 bits). I don't even bother with 32 anymore for Lightroom. In fact, if I forget and start the computer in 32 and use LR set at 64, I can clearly tell from the poorer performance that I forgot. Maybe this should not be so, but it is with mine.

[Schewe]

So I suggest that it may be best to use 32-bits with 4 GByte or less.

I disagree...while you WON'T get the bennies of more than 4 gigs of ram, the Develop module and exporting will be 10-15% faster under 64-bit vs 32-bit. Not everything in Lightroom will be faster...the UI for example. But any processor intensive activities will see an improvement.

[Morris Taub]

I disagree...while you WON'T get the bennies of more than 4 gigs of ram, the Develop module and exporting will be 10-15% faster under 64-bit vs 32-bit. Not everything in Lightroom will be faster...the UI for example. But any processor intensive activities will see an improvement.

what about CS5...any improvement in photoshop?...

[Jim Pascoe]

In the "splash" screen, as LR starts up, it says either "32x" or "64x". On a Mac, you can also click the LR application icon, and "Get Info" - in the window that opens you can toggle between 32 and 64 bit, applied at the next launch of the program.

Thanks for that - I am running in 64-bit after all!

[bjanes]

I've been playing with Lightroom 3 in 32 and 64 bit and don't see any difference...I'm on a macbook pro with 4gb of ram...should 64 bit make a difference with only 4gb of ram?...I guess I have the same question about Photoshop CS5...I'm not seeing any difference there either...in photoshop i allot 65 percent to memory...

Here are some official data from Adobe for Photoshop:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404901.html

Regards,

Bill

[Morris Taub]

Here are some official data from Adobe for Photoshop:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404901.html

Regards,

Bill

thanks for this link, Bill...

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi!

What I have noted that the memory image will be bigger with 64 bits, at the time I was checking LR could use around 6 GByte virtual memory while I had only 3 GByte in the iMac I had at that time. Using 32 bits limited the VM image to 4 GByte.

At that time I had many of those "spinning parasols" and I had the impression there was less swapping from/to disk with 32 bits than with 64 bits. Since than I use 64 bits on a MacPro with 16 GByte of memory and spinning parasols are memories...

Best regards
Erik

I disagree...while you WON'T get the bennies of more than 4 gigs of ram, the Develop module and exporting will be 10-15% faster under 64-bit vs 32-bit. Not everything in Lightroom will be faster...the UI for example. But any processor intensive activities will see an improvement.