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mySQL comes in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. I have a 64-bit OS (OS X 10.8.) What are the advantages/disadvantages to running 32-bit vs. 64-bit mySQL on my 64-bit OS?

p.s. I'm going to use mySQL with MythTV so my data needs should be small

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  • The ability to use more mmemory is the biggest difference.
    – Zoredache
    Feb 6, 2013 at 22:45
  • I understand that a 64-bit process will be able to address more memory, etc. but is that any reason why running a 32-bit process might be advantageous? Feb 6, 2013 at 22:47

1 Answer 1

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x64 is what most people with new installs should be using. It is able to address more than 4GB of memory.

If your data footprint is tiny, it shouldn't make much difference, but there's no real reason not to use x64 if you're already on a x64 OS.

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  • Huh. Learn something every day. I always assumed it was 2GB, for no good apparent reason. Perhaps because I knew that x64 limits disk usage to 2TB, and got the two confused. I almost commented saying "no, it's 2!" but did some googling on it to make sure. Glad I did before I made myself look like an idiot. =)
    – David W
    Feb 6, 2013 at 23:32
  • On x86 Windows the most any application can consume is 2GB (or 3GB with the /3GB switch). The most possible memory that can actually be addressed in any x86 system (because of the 32-bit address space) is 4GB.
    – MDMarra
    Feb 6, 2013 at 23:48
  • @david-w x64 isn't limited to 2TB drives either. That would be a limitation of either the FAT filesystem (if it is formatted in that particular flavor of FAT) or Windows app that directly accesses the drive and doesn't understand how to handle the native block size of a 3TB drive. Feb 7, 2013 at 2:53
  • @david-w x64 isn't limited to 2TB drives either. That would be a limitation of either partitioning the drive with Master Boot Record (MBR) instead of GUID Partition Table, formatting with an old version of the FAT filesystem or a Windows app that directly accesses the drive and doesn't understand how to handle the native block size of a 3TB drive (e.g. Windows Backup Server.) Feb 7, 2013 at 3:01

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