64 Bit Considerations

64 Bit Considerations

32 bit apps, such as IRender nXt, run fine on 64 bit systems-- without noticeable performance degradation. We are not aware of any compatibility issues.

Speed

32 bit apps should run fine on a 64 bit system-- but unless you have 64 bit software to run you probably won't see any improvement. 64 bit version of apps. will generally show improvement in the amount of data they can handle, not their rendering speed.

A 64 bit OS alone will not improve performance under most circumstances. If you comapred 32-bit and 64-but OS on the same machine, the 32 bit system would likely be slightly (but not significantly) faster. 64 bit systems do allow you to add more than 4GB of physical memory to a machine-- this will result in performance benefits if all of your apps., including 32 bit ones, taken together, exceed 4GB of allocation.

Model Size

64 bit systems, on the other hand, can run much larger data sets (more detailed models-- hi-res renderings, etc.). They are not subject to the 3GB per-process address space problem (2GB in SketchUp 's case.) This problem is so significant in the AutoCAD and Rhino worlds that we wouldn't recommend a 32 bit system to anyone looking for a new machine for these purposes. The SketchUp world is more complicated since SketchUp does not have a 64 bit version. We can create a 64-bit Batch Renderer, if needed, but we have not done so yet.

File Locations

Programs, such as SketchUp and IRender nXt, which normally install into Program Files on 32 bit systems, install into Program Files (x86) on 32 bit systems. So many references in the documentation which refer to typical installation locations, such as C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins will be located in a different location on the 64-bit systems. (Usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins)