Is PCs 64 bit like the N64?
Is PCs 64 bit like the N64?
Because like, PC's are 32 bit right? Or something. And N64 is 64 bit, but the PC has WAY better games than the N64 (graphics wise) so what the ★■◆●?
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KompresZor
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From "how stuff works" link below
Nintendo GameCube
Processor:
Here is a link to compare the big three
Nintendo GameCube
Processor:
- "Gekko" IBM Power PC microprocessor
- 485 MHz
Cache: - level 1: 32 KB Instruction and 32 KB Data
- level 2: 256 KB
- 32-bit address, 64-bit data bus
- Maximum bus transfer rate of 2.6 GB per second
- 0.18 micron copper interconnects
- "Flipper" ATI graphics chip
- 162 MHz
- 1 MB embedded texture cache
- 3 MB Mosys 1T-SRAM (This static RAM uses a single transistor per cell, like DRAM.)
- Approximately 12 million polygons per second
- Special 16-bit digital signal processor
- 64 channels
- 48-kHz sampling rate
- 40 MB (24 MB 1T-SRAM, 16 MB of 100-MHz DRAM)
Here is a link to compare the big three
Psst... we're talking about the N64, not the GameCube. 
The N64 had a custom 64-bit RISC processor; the GameCube has an IBM-built 32-bit big-endian PowerPC.
Sage, you're thinking of the size of a video card's texture RAM, which is measured in megabytes. For example, a GeForce with 256 MB of RAM can load 256 MB worth of texture data to the card, where it can be accessed more quickly than if it were stored in the system's RAM. 64-bit processors are called that because they have 64-bit registers. The registers are the segments of memory the processor uses when processing instructions, and they have funny names like EBX and EDX. Your typical 32-bit computer has 32-bit registers, and thus integers (more accurately, addresses in memory) are represented with 32 bits. 1 byte = 8 bits, so the size of a memory pointer on these systems is 4 bytes (because 8 * 4 = 32). On 64-bit computers, the registers are made bigger, in fact double the size of a 32-bit register (duh). This means that the processor can work with larger numbers at the same time, and since integers and memory pointers are the same thing as far as the processor is concerned, the processor can natively handle larger numbers. The maximum number that a 32-bit unsigned integer can handle is 4,294,967,296 (2^32); a 64-bit processor can handle integers with a maximum unsigned value of 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 (2^64). In implementations such as Intel's and AMD's, the processor can still process 32-bit data and instructions, thus allowing 32-bit programs to function on a 64-bit processor.
The N64 had a custom 64-bit RISC processor; the GameCube has an IBM-built 32-bit big-endian PowerPC.Sage, you're thinking of the size of a video card's texture RAM, which is measured in megabytes. For example, a GeForce with 256 MB of RAM can load 256 MB worth of texture data to the card, where it can be accessed more quickly than if it were stored in the system's RAM. 64-bit processors are called that because they have 64-bit registers. The registers are the segments of memory the processor uses when processing instructions, and they have funny names like EBX and EDX. Your typical 32-bit computer has 32-bit registers, and thus integers (more accurately, addresses in memory) are represented with 32 bits. 1 byte = 8 bits, so the size of a memory pointer on these systems is 4 bytes (because 8 * 4 = 32). On 64-bit computers, the registers are made bigger, in fact double the size of a 32-bit register (duh). This means that the processor can work with larger numbers at the same time, and since integers and memory pointers are the same thing as far as the processor is concerned, the processor can natively handle larger numbers. The maximum number that a 32-bit unsigned integer can handle is 4,294,967,296 (2^32); a 64-bit processor can handle integers with a maximum unsigned value of 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 (2^64). In implementations such as Intel's and AMD's, the processor can still process 32-bit data and instructions, thus allowing 32-bit programs to function on a 64-bit processor.
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KompresZor
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