Mar
28
Upgrade to 64-bit Vista for Adobe CS4
For Windows users that do a lot of work in programs like Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 or After Effects CS4, now may be the time to upgrade your Vista system to 64-bit. Microsoft officially crossed over from 32-bit to 64-bit with Vista, and making the change has never been easier. Windows 7 will push 64-bit even more, and their down the road goal is to eliminate 32-bit operating systems all together.
What is the difference between a 32-bit OS and a 64-bit OS you may ask? I’ll tell you. A 64-bit OS essentially uses a data path that is 64-bits wide, allowing the system to transfer data around in packets that are twice as large. This speeds up your basic, underlying system performance. Perhaps the biggest advantage to a 64-bit OS, however, is the ability to utilize nearly unlimited memory. Windows XP and Vista 32-bit editions are limited to only 4GB of RAM, and those systems can only make use of about 2GB of that RAM. With Vista 64-bit, you can upgrade your RAM to 16GB or higher without any problems. That is where the new Adobe CS4 programs really shine.
All CS4 applications are designed to work with a 64-bit OS and harness extra memory beyond 4GB. Tests by Adobe have shown speed increases in Premiere Pro of up to 200% on 64-bit systems with 16GB of memory, over maxed-out 32-bit systems. With the price of memory upgrades at an all-time low, upgrading to 16GB or higher should run less than $500. For someone using HD workflows in CS4 Production Premium, the immediate leaps in productivity make this upgrade a no-brainer. Vista also makes upgrading to 64-bit as painless as it can be, but you will have to check to make sure all of your harware has 64-bit drivers. You will also have to upgrade your Adobe software to the latest versions and tweak the memory usage settings in the individual programs.
You Mac users have nothing to worry about because Mac OS Leopard is already 64-bit capable. So go ahead and throw another 32GB of memory into your system and watch your render speeds go through the roof.
Adobe recently released a white paper outlining the benefits seen in using CS4 Production Premium after upgrading to 64-bit Vista. This white paper should answer any additional questions you have and give you some guidance. Karl Soule also oulined some of the benefits of upgradaing in his blog as well.
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