Processing speed is based on bit lengths. The original 8088 chip had a processing bit length of 8bits or one character at a time running at a processing speed of 4.77Mhz (if I remember correctly). Current hardware that is coming out is now 64bits so that it can process 8 characters at a time or one to two 'words' depending on length. You must take into consideration that most of this is internal to the CPU and possibly between CPU and memory. External to the perephirals is still 32bit and in many situation still 16bit nd sometimes 8bit. So when they brag of 64bit processing it is mostly in the CPU. Also, there is very little actual software that can take advantage of 64bit (and multiple cores even) so the actual improvement is very minimal. This is especially true on the consumer end. Any software available that is native 64bit is going to be Pro software and VERY expensive.
Two things that truely improve performace are more memory and faster drives. High power graphics adapters with lots of memory help too.
But heck, WinXP64 STILL has 8bit DOS coding in it so who cares!
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I don't fear God anymore. Anything he/she can do to me now is only adding insult to injury!