Upgrading from Chrome 32 bit to Chrome 64 bit halves the time it takes to restart a 20 tab browsing session
I'm running Windows 8.1 on my ThinkPad W520 laptop, equipped with 16GB of memory and a 256GB SSD. Pretty run of the mill these days. In this video, I use Task Manager to determine that a given set of 20 tabs open in my 32 bit Chrome use up about 1.8GB of memory, and takes about 40 seconds to load.
I then upgrade to 64 bit Chrome, which just came out of beta today actually, and into the stable channels, available to everybody.
To my amazement, my same set of 20 tabs now opens in just 20 seconds. That's right. Twice as fast. I'd say that's a pretty nice result! The gotcha is that it now takes about 2.5GB for the same set of tabs.
These informal speed tests were highly repeatable, with consistent measurements on multiple runs. I realize much of that data is coming from the local SSD cache, not the network. But still. It's faster. Much faster. I realize my experience is only one data point and usage scenario for you to consider. Only after days of heavy use of this new 37.0.2062.94 version will I be confident I'm happier. If any big gotchas arise in the coming weeks, I'll go ahead and add updates to this article.
Meanwhile, please help reassure (or scare) everybody else reading this article by dropping a public comment about your experience with 64 bit Chrome below, no login required.
Download the 64 bit Google Chrome for Windows version here:
https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/?platform=win64
alternatively, you can use the traditional link that comes up on top of Google searches for "download chrome":
https://www.google.com/chrome
but you then have to be very sure to click on the little "Windows 64-bit" link, as pictured above.
See also
Chrome's Faster, More Stable 64-Bit Builds Now Available on Windows
http://lifehacker.com/chrome-releases-faster-more-stable-64-bit-builds-for-w-1585324834/1627012965/+whitsongordon
Google Chrome going 64 bit breaks vSphere 5.x Web Client Integration Plug-In
TinkerTry.com/google-chrome-going-64-bit-breaks-vsphere-5-x-web-client-integration-plug-in
64 bits of awesome: 64-bit Windows Support, now in Stable!
http://blog.chromium.org/2014/08/64-bits-of-awesome-64-bit-windows_26.html?m=1
64-bit Chrome offers many benefits for speed, stability and security. Our measurements have shown that the native 64-bit version of Chrome has improved speed on many of our graphics and media benchmarks...almost twice as stable as 32-bit engines when handling typical web content...At this point 64-bit will remain opt-in, so to take advantage of the improvements click on the new “Windows 64-bit” link on the Chrome download page. Currently, the only significant known issue is the lack of 32-bit NPAPI plugin support. The 32-bit channel will remain fully supported for the foreseeable future and we will continue to support 32-bit plugins until NPAPI is removed from Chrome.
