64 bit compatibility

[Jason Burkhimer]

Short answer: yes. You really havent provided that much information by saying “64 bit computer” Are you talking just 64bit processors or are you making the leap to Windows XP64? Either way, youre not going to see any real gains from the 64bit architecture. If you are upgrading to WIN 64bit, you will have to run in 32 bit Legacy mode, as Vegas and other Sony products dont have 64bit versions yet. So, will they work? Yes. Will you see any performance gains as of right now? No.

-burk

[Pieper1]

thank you very much….thats what i needed to know…

[Gary Kleiner]

[Jason Burkhimer] “Will you see any performance gains as of right now? No.”

I’m not so sure about that. The 64 bit machines render a LOT faster than their 32 bit equivalents.

Gary Kleiner

Learn Vegas and DVD Architect

http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com

[Jason Burkhimer]

I’m not so sure about that. The 64 bit machines render a LOT faster than their 32 bit equivalents

I agree, but is the performance gain coming from overall better architecture processor and mobo, or is it coming from the actual 64bit computing process? I think the 64bit processors just have more efficient tech.

[Terje A. bergesen]

The rendering speed increase is coming from a few different areas, better motherboard (CPU-memory interface) better and faster CPUs etc are the prime ones. There is nothing in the 64 bit architecture that in it self would make rendering faster.

People think that because moving from 16 bits to 32 bits gave us a significant performance increase, that there will be something similar moving from 32 to 64 bits. There won’t. For anything but the most specialized applications (nope, video is not one of them), moving from a 32 bits to 64 bits computing platform is a non-event.

—
Terje A. Bergesen

[Jason Burkhimer]

People think that because moving from 16 bits to 32 bits gave us a significant performance increase, that there will be something similar moving from 32 to 64 bits. There won’t. For anything but the most specialized applications (nope, video is not one of them), moving from a 32 bits to 64 bits computing platform is a non-event.

If that is the case, then why does every 64bit related article mention digital video and content creation as one of the key areas that WILL benefit from the upgrade? Im not saying youre wrong(I am definitely no authority on the subject matter), Im just wondering why I should believe you over the architects behind the technology and various journalists reporting on the subject matter.

-burk

[Terje A. bergesen]

[Jason Burkhimer] “f that is the case, then why does every 64bit related article mention digital video and content creation as one of the key areas that WILL benefit from the upgrade?”

Good question, I really don’t know. Most video editing requires a decent amount of RAM, but typically not enough to tax the adressing capacity of a 32 bit CPU. There is a possibility that this may change with HD video editing, it depends. With a 32 bit architecture you can directly address about 4G of RAM, currently probably two to four times what most people have. A 64 bit architecture allows direct access to far more RAM, but how effective is RAM in your video editing/rendering process? Assume you are currently using Vegas with 1G of memory, if you could chose, what would you do, double the speed of your CPU or double the amount of memory you have?

No doubt, the next generation of computers will require more memory, 4G of RAM will soon enough be a vague memory. At that stage you will be glad that you have a 64bit address space, but that in and of it self will not make anything faster.

—
Terje A. Bergesen

[Aniron]

Hey all,
i have a little problem with that 64bit Version. I got it as a christmas present.
When i want to install Vegas 6.0 i always get the error-message: “Please install Windows .NET Framework 1.1” – well, there is no running .NET Framework 1.1 for the x64bit Version of Windows. I just got the .NET Framework 2.0 x64 Version. Vegas still needs the 1.1 Framework…
My Question: Can i run Vegas on the 64bit Version of Windows, without installing the 1.1 .NET Framework?
i got the .NET Framework V2.0 (x64), like i said…
thanks
Lukas R.

[Rohdew]

[Terje A. Bergesen] “Good question, I really don’t know. Most video editing requires a decent amount of RAM, but typically not enough to tax the adressing capacity of a 32 bit CPU. There is a possibility that this may change with HD video editing, it depends. With a 32 bit architecture you can directly address about 4G of RAM, currently probably two to four times what most people have. A 64 bit architecture allows direct access to far more RAM, but how effective is RAM in your video editing/rendering process? Assume you are currently using Vegas with 1G of memory, if you could chose, what would you do, double the speed of your CPU or double the amount of memory you have?”

Actually, they will see some speed improvement, but not from the memory side of a 64-bit architecture. The AMD64 instruction set adds many more registers (and they’re 64-bit wide vs. 32-bit wide) as well as instructions to do work in 64-bits. Some types of video encoding / decoding are very dependant on 64-bit math, and it provides the ability to optimize other algorithms as well as they can work with data in larger chunks.

All that to say – speed increases are not limited to memory usage, but also to other features that come along with the new 64-bit x86 machines.

-Rohde