32 or 64 bits? [solved]

[font=Courier][size=medium] I think this is going to sound stupid, but I’m installing netrunner in a laptop running an Intel® Core™ i5 CPU M 460 @ 2.53GHz,with 4 Gb of RAM. It has been running Linux Mint (Mate) in 64bits and I find it a bit slow. It actually ran faster on a live USB flashdrive with Netrunner 32 bits, but I diodn’t try a live 64bit, so I have no idea if the differenca was mostly due to Netrunner or the 32bit system.

Any idea on cost-benefit here? I read somewhere that if I had MORE than 4Gb of RAM,the 64bit version would be better, what about at exactly 4 Gb?

Thanks![/size][/font]

Windows 32 bit won’t access more than 4GB of ram however the 32 bit kernel PAE kernel will address up to 64Gb.
You have a 64 bit CPU so I would use 64 bit.
I’ve used both 32 and 64 bit on a 64 bit CPU and to me 64 bit seems faster in most tasks.
I didn’t benchmark but 64 bit felt faster and smoother.

Hey, Thanks for the quick reply!!

My concern was that 64 bit uses more RAM, which could slow things down, but following the architecture the CPU was designed for makes a lot of sense. ANd I like you descriptions o feeling “faster and smoother”, especially the smoother part. Even if it were a little slower, I’d go for smoother.

Thanks again!

putting a 32 bit distro in a 64 bit pc is like putting e10 in a ferrari haha. even if you have less than 4gb of ram but a 64 bit cpu, always use the 64 bit variant. i have a netbook with 2gb of ram and i use a 64 bit distro in it and it runs at least 3x faster than the 32 bit variant

Thanks, mitchy93, the Ferrari metophor was great!
I installed the 64bit distro in this notebook (i5, 4gb of ram) and in another one (i3, 3gb of ram) and, so far, I’m very happy, it runs fast an smooth on both, as jberkpc said.
I can’t even tell any difference in performance so far, between the two computers. I haven’t done any heavy work yet, though.

I was too worried about the amount of ram, but following the architecture of the hardware really makes mor sense.

Thank you all!