64bit vs 32bit

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i want to know if I can change my 32 bit processor to 64bit processor. or do i have to change the motherboard as well?
Thanks for any help

 

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What processor do you have?

I'm going to presume it's of the 64-bit instruction set type anyway, unless it's very, VERY old..!

 

If its a standard desktop processor under 6 years old its likely to be AMD64 or Intel 64 (EM64T) instruction set.

It's possible that a Pentium4 32 bit processor could be replaced by a Pentium4 64 bit processor but today it wouldn't really be worth the hassle for most people.

Its more likely that you might be stuck on a 32 bit OS which could just be a software upgrade to get to a 64 bit OS.

 

what I have now is 32bit processor, my computer is Dell optiplex 745.

 

I want to have a faster processor, and want to be able to run Premiere Pro and After effect, because they are both 64bits only.

 

Switching to 64 bit by itself does not necessarily mean a faster processor. It just tends to be that way as newer processors have lots of improvements.

A 64 bit program will be bigger on average than a 32 bit program, meaning you will have to move more data in and out of the processor. Since memory and disk are by far the limiting factors in most systems this is not insignificant.

The biggest advantage of 64 bit is a larger address space.

A 32 bit system has a 4GB address space and some is lost for memory mapped devices like video cards. The larger address space will now make more memory addressable.

Having more available memory will mean things like less paging to disk which will make applications which process a lot of data faster.

However its likely that your 64 bit processor will have lots of other features like bigger cache, more pipelines, more registers, bigger registers, more processing units, better branch prediction etc. These are the things that will make it a faster processor at a similar clock rate.

Also faster clock rates also translate into faster processors and clock rates tend to go up with die shrinks and dies tend to shrink with moves to smaller processes. This is because smaller transistors produce less heat and heat is the limiting factor for clock speed. Over time fab's tend to shift to smaller micron manufacturing processes meaning higher clock rates over time.

 

Thanks to all of you for your help and clarifications.