Benefits of 64bit SQL?

Hi,
I'm trying to decide whether our next database server should be 32 or 64
bit. Could someone please explain the benefits of 64bit computing and the
factors I should be looking at in order to determine whether it would be of
value to me?
The only benefit I'm aware of is the fact that memory beyond 4gigs can
be accessed directly -- but surely there must be other benefits as well. I
imagine that the speed at which data is transferred across the bus must be
doubled due to the fatter data path... but given that I'd still be limited
by the I/O speed of the drives, is the performance improvement even
relevant?
Sorry for the newbie questions. I just want to avoid having some slick
talking salesman sell us a 64bit machine if we don't really need it. I want
to know what questions to ask.
Thanks..."The One We Call 'Dave'" <ghetto@.englewood.com> wrote in message
news:yLudnZXu2Ii_AE7eRVn-gQ@.giganews.com...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to decide whether our next database server should be 32 or
> 64 bit. Could someone please explain the benefits of 64bit computing and
> the factors I should be looking at in order to determine whether it would
> be of value to me?
> The only benefit I'm aware of is the fact that memory beyond 4gigs can
> be accessed directly -- but surely there must be other benefits as well.
That's pretty much it. But x64 64 bit does not add any cost to servers.
Intel and AMD's server chips are (basically) all 64 bit chips.
>I imagine that the speed at which data is transferred across the bus must
>be doubled due to the fatter data path... but given that I'd still be
>limited by the I/O speed of the drives, is the performance improvement even
>relevant?
Memory bus speed is a very important performance factor for databse servers.
With several gigabytes of data cached, moving that data in and out of the
CPU is one of the major system bottlenecks. Large on-chip L2 cache helps
here too. However 64 bit systems are not automatically better here. X64
servers use basically the same system boards as 32-bit systems.
> Sorry for the newbie questions. I just want to avoid having some slick
> talking salesman sell us a 64bit machine if we don't really need it. I
> want to know what questions to ask.
You definitely want 64bit, since it doesn't really cost you anyting. You
still have to choose between x64 and IA64-based systems. Currently dollar
for dollar x64 is the performance king, but for certian very large workloads
you might need a big IA64 box.
David|||from a performance point of view, for the same hardware and less then 4Gb
there is no difference.
above 4Gb there are small improvements at the DB level. but managing the
memory is more easier.
the performance improvement is at the SSIS & AS levels. with more then 4Gb
these 2 tools takes a big advantage of this memory.
the other advantage is at the OS level.
Standard x64 edition of windows support 32Gb while the 32bits version is
limited to 4Gb.
"The One We Call 'Dave'" <ghetto@.englewood.com> wrote in message
news:yLudnZXu2Ii_AE7eRVn-gQ@.giganews.com...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to decide whether our next database server should be 32 or
> 64 bit. Could someone please explain the benefits of 64bit computing and
> the factors I should be looking at in order to determine whether it would
> be of value to me?
> The only benefit I'm aware of is the fact that memory beyond 4gigs can
> be accessed directly -- but surely there must be other benefits as well. I
> imagine that the speed at which data is transferred across the bus must be
> doubled due to the fatter data path... but given that I'd still be limited
> by the I/O speed of the drives, is the performance improvement even
> relevant?
> Sorry for the newbie questions. I just want to avoid having some slick
> talking salesman sell us a 64bit machine if we don't really need it. I
> want to know what questions to ask.
> Thanks...
>|||http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/whitepapers/advantages-64bit-environment.mspx
Adam Machanic
Pro SQL Server 2005, available now
http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=457
--
"The One We Call 'Dave'" <ghetto@.englewood.com> wrote in message
news:yLudnZXu2Ii_AE7eRVn-gQ@.giganews.com...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to decide whether our next database server should be 32 or
> 64 bit. Could someone please explain the benefits of 64bit computing and
> the factors I should be looking at in order to determine whether it would
> be of value to me?
> The only benefit I'm aware of is the fact that memory beyond 4gigs can
> be accessed directly -- but surely there must be other benefits as well. I
> imagine that the speed at which data is transferred across the bus must be
> doubled due to the fatter data path... but given that I'd still be limited
> by the I/O speed of the drives, is the performance improvement even
> relevant?
> Sorry for the newbie questions. I just want to avoid having some slick
> talking salesman sell us a 64bit machine if we don't really need it. I
> want to know what questions to ask.
> Thanks...
>|||> However 64 bit systems are not automatically better here. X64 servers use
> basically the same system boards as 32-bit systems.
Hi David,
Could you expand on this a bit? Excuse my ignorance here, but what do
you mean when you say that X64 servers use basically the same system boards
as 32 bit systems? How is that possible? Also, is "X64" just a generic term
that's used to refer to 64 bit computing in general or does it represent a
particular *brand* of 64 bit processors designed by Intel (ala "Pentium" or
"386")?
Thanks,
Dave|||http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X64
Adam Machanic
Pro SQL Server 2005, available now
http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=457
--
"The One We Call 'Dave'" <ghetto@.englewood.com> wrote in message
news:x_SdnandWO39lEjenZ2dnUVZ_tidnZ2d@.giganews.com...
>> However 64 bit systems are not automatically better here. X64 servers
>> use basically the same system boards as 32-bit systems.
> Hi David,
> Could you expand on this a bit? Excuse my ignorance here, but what do
> you mean when you say that X64 servers use basically the same system
> boards as 32 bit systems? How is that possible? Also, is "X64" just a
> generic term that's used to refer to 64 bit computing in general or does
> it represent a particular *brand* of 64 bit processors designed by Intel
> (ala "Pentium" or "386")?
> Thanks,
> Dave
>