32 vs 64-bit software for same machine?
- by GorillaSandwich
What is the difference between 32 and 64-bit software? My understanding is that 64-bit can use more RAM, if it's available, because it has a larger address space for it.
Is this correct? And, specifically:
If I have a 64-bit operating system with lots of RAM, and I install, say, the 32-bit version of MySQL instead of the 64-bit version, will it be unable to use all the available RAM and therefore run slower than the 64-bit version might on the same machine (assuming RAM becomes the bottleneck before processing speed or disk access speed or whatever)?
If I have a 32-bit operating system and I install a 64-bit piece of software on it, will it (probably) fail to run?