How to choose a tool for mapping?

[Azélor]

The thing about 64 bit is that a lot of software are not optimized to work on multiple cores. It can be very hard to code depending on the kind of things you want the program to do. So you end up with a 64 bit software where 75% of the work is done by a single core. This is a serious bottleneck since we basically reached the maximum power per core. Cpu are getting more powerful only when multitasking, not really on intensive load unless the program is optimized to spread the workload efficiently.

So in some cases, the difference in performance between a 32 and 64 bit version is small.

[waldronate]

So in some cases, the difference in performance between a 32 and 64 bit version is small.

Depending on the precise workload, a 64-bit program can be slower than the equivalent 32-bit version. However, if the working sets are large, a 64-bit program can be much faster. It's even weirder on Windows, where a 32-bit program running on a 64-bit OS can handle much larger data sets than the exact same program running on a 32-bit OS (CC3+ is such a program).

[Mark Oliva]

The thing about 64 bit is that a lot of software are not optimized to work on multiple cores. <SNIP> So in some cases, the difference in performance between a 32 and 64 bit version is small.

I agree, of course, when it comes to processor performance. However, the difference in performance between 4 GB RAM (all that's available to 32-bit applications) and 64 GB RAM (available to 64-bit applications) can be tremendous, to say the least.