Quote Originally Posted by 'Nitro',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45349#post453 49
Hmm . . From what I have read when running in a 64bit environment your OS and all your Apps will have double the memory footprint. If this is true then you dont actually start to enjoy the gains of a high end 64bit OS until you exceed 6GB of system memory.

Someone feel free to correct me if im wrong but if your goin with 4GB then go WinXPPro and enjoy 3GB worth rather then a 64bit solution that will feel like 2GB in comparison using the larger footprints.
I highly doubt that it doubles your memory consumption. I'm not an expert on 64-bit programming, but I would think that the only things that must be doubled in size across the board in native 64 bit mode are memory pointers, which is typically only a small amount of a program's memory usage. Also, unless a program is compiled in 64-bit mode, the OS must simulate a 32-bit environment for it (which does have some speed overhead I think), so it would only be using the same amount of memory as on a a 32-bit system. WoW does not have a native 64 bit version available.

It is known that Windows will expand it's memory usage as more is available, but this occurs in both 32 and 64 bit modes and is because it is trying to minimize use of the swap file (by keeping more data in main memory) to increase performance.

If I'm wrong on this, I'd love to know. 8)