Guest system performance - 32 bit or 64 bit?

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• 2008年2月2日 下午 11:26

   

   
  

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  Forgive me if I'm just stating the obvious, but with the extended memory space of x64, all applications, including any virtualization platform would benefit from the more capable and efficient use or recources.

   Also, less obvious:

  "New and improved architecture: New 64-bit micro-kernelized hypervisor architecture enables Hyper-V to provide a broad array of device support and improved performance and security.”

  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/virtualization/default.mspx

  “…technique of the micro-kernelized OS in which the minimum indispensable functions alone are given to the micro-kernel while all the other functions are provided as the user programs external to the micro-kernel, so as to be able to cover the wide range of utilization purposes by a single OS. In this technique, it becomes possible to provide the OS functions of a plurality of conventional OSs on a single micro-kernel in forms of the user programs, so that it is possible to realize the OS in the flexible structure.”

  http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5892944-description.html

   

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• 2008年2月3日 下午 10:21

   

   
  

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  A lot of this comes down to the specific workload (just as it does on a physical machine).

   

  Some considerations (perf and otherwise):

  Is the application a native x64 application or does it need to run under wow?

  Is the application heavily optimized for x86 and less optimized for x64 (ask the application vendor)?

  In general x64 is generally considers a more secure platform, driver singing enforcement etc…

   

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• 2008年2月4日 上午 10:17

   

   
  

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  Hi Mike,

   

  Thank you for your help. However, what you are talking about, including Hyper-V, is for the host OS. I don't think I have any doubt about 64 bit OS being a better platform for host. However, for guest OS, my strong feeling is that 32-bit systems will perform better under 64-bit OS. As I recall, both Intel and AMD use segmented architecture to optimize managing 32-bit apps within 64-bit OS (or managing 16-bit apps within 32-bit OS in olden days).

   

  My feeling is managing 64-bit OS within 64-bit OS requires more cycles at the hardware level compared to managing 32-bit OS within 64-bit OS.

   

  Any thoughts?

   

  Regards,

  Peter

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• 2008年2月4日 上午 10:22

   

   
  

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  Hi Taylor,

   

  Thank you for your help. Please see my other reply. I am trying to decide which of the following two would perform better as the "guest" OS:

   

  32-bit Windows 2003

  64-bit Windows 2003 R2

   

  The applications that we will be using under either OS are all 32-bit.

   

  Regards,

  Peter

   

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• 2008年2月4日 下午 07:33

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  Which OS would you use on physical hardware?  Some 32-bit applications benefit from the 64-bit OS - while others don't - so the answer is not clear cut here.  From a virtualization point of view it does not make any difference.

   

  Cheers,

  Ben

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• 2008年2月5日 上午 06:52

   

   
  

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  Hi Ben,

   

  Thank you for your help.

   

  Just knowing a little bit about how segmented architecture work, I strongly feel that the hardware provides better support for running multiple 32-bit virtual machines under 64-bit OS. However, I don't have much to back this claim. Therefore, I will take your word that from virtualization point of view, there is no performance difference between 32-bit and 64-bit guest OS.

   

  Regards,

  Peter

   

   

   

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