Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit Performance Review

Despite the fact that 64-Bit operating systems and native 64-Bit software programs are widely available and provide significant performance improvements, many people are still using the old 32-Bit operating systems and 32-bit versions of software programs. The purpose of this performance review is to compare the performance of the 32-Bit and 64-Bit versions of the Windows 10 operating system and to quantify how much performance can be gained by moving from a 32-Bit operating system to a 64-it operating system on the same hardware platform.

For this review, we have performed the following benchmarks:

  • Disk Space Analysis
  • File Classification
  • Duplicate Files Search
  • Directory Scanning
  • File Synchronization
  • File Comparison
  • File Compression
  • Hash Signatures
  • File Search
  • File Delete

Both, the 32-Bit version and the 64-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system were installed on exactly the same hardware platform equipped with a Quad-Core Intel CPU, 4 GB of system memory and a fast NVMe SSD disk. In general, a 64-Bit operating system can gain some additional performance by using more than 4 GB of system memory, but 32-Bit operating systems are limited to 4 GB of system memory and in order to make the performance comparison accurate, we have used 4 GB of system memory in both, the 32-Bit and 64-Bit versions of the operating system.

The performance tests were performed using the DiskBoss file management solution, which is capable of performing many different types of disk space analysis, file classification, file search, file synchronization, file compression and file management operations. The 32-Bit version of DiskBoss was installed on the 32-Bit version of the operating system and the 64-Bit version of DiskBoss was installed on the 64-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system.

All the tests were performed using the same set of files containing 450,000 small files with the average file size 32 KB, 50,000 medium-sized files with the average file size 4 MB and 1,000 large files with the average file size 100 MB. The tests were performed exactly in the same order on both, the 32-Bit operating system and the 64-Bit operating system.

According to the disk space analysis results, the 32-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system processed files at the rate of 30,031 Files/Sec, while the performance of the 64-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system reached 52,391 Files/Sec, which represents a huge 42% improvement for this specific operation.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit Disk Space Analysis Performance

According to the file classification results, the 32-Bit operating system processed files at the rate of 72,684 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system managed to process files at the rate of 85,501 Files/Sec, which represents a significant 16% performance improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit File Classification Performance

When searching files, the 32-bit operating system is capable of reaching up to 103,267 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system manages to search files with the rate of 129,829 Files/Sec, which represents a significant 20% improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit File Search Performance

Searching duplicate files is a CPU-intensive and disk-intensive operation requiring to calculate files' hash signatures in order to identify which files are identical. In this specific operation, the 32-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system reaches 485 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system manages to process files at the rate of 544 Files/Sec, which corresponds to a good 10% performance improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit Duplicate Files Search Performance

When performing an initial file synchronization between two directories, the 32-Bit operating system reaches up to 257 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system manages to reach up to 273 Files/Sec, which represents a 5.8 % improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit File Synchronization Performance

On the other hand, when rescanning already synchronized directories, the 32-Bit operating system is capable of processing files at the rate of 33,070 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system manages to reach up to 33,780 Files/Sec, which corresponds to a minor 2% improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit File Synchronization Scanning Performance

Comparing files and directories is a CPU-intensive and disk-intensive operation requiring to scan directories, compare directory structures and identify changed files. In this specific operation, the 32-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system reaches 240 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system manages to process files at the rate of 264 Files/Sec, which corresponds to a 9% performance improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit Dir Comparison Performance

Calculating files' SHA256 hash signatures is a very CPU intensive operation, which is normally used to confirm authenticity of files. In this specific operating, the 32-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system is capable of processing files at a rate of 484 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system is capable of reaching up to 537 Files/Sec, which represents a 9.8 % improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit SHA256 Hash Signatures Performance

When compressing files to a ZIP archive, the 32 Bit operating system processing files at a rate of 219 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system is performing the same operation at a rate of 234 Files/Sec, which corresponds to a minor 6% improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit File Compression

According to the performance results of file delete operations, the 32-Bit orating system is capable of deleting files at a rate of 10,084 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit operating system manages to delete files at a rate of 17,273 Files/Sec, which represents a very significant 41% improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit File Delete

Finally, according to the average performance results, the 32-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system is capable of processing up to 25,009 Files/Sec, while the 64-Bit version of the Windows 10 operating system manages to process files at a rate of 32,062 Files/Sec, which corresponds to a significant 22% performance improvement.

Windows 10 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit Average Performance

* This performance review has been prepared for information purposes only and we strongly advise you to make your own performance evaluations using your specific hardware components and datasets.