Why were there so many 64-bit consoles at a time? When majority of computing was 32-bit?

Why were there so many 64-bit consoles at a time? When majority of computing was 32-bit?
What was the benefit? Nobody used 64-bit computers or an 64-bit OS if they didn't have more than 4GB of RAM, those consoles didn't even get close to those amounts.

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docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/memory/memory-limits-for-windows-releases#physical-memory-limits-windows-server-2008
youtu.be/U2uuH_ICRks
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

>dog walks by
>resets your game

*crack*
*sip*
ahh only 90s kids will understand

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Larger strings, variable, and more potential addresses. Not having to break data in to chunks as often, etc.

>Nobody used 64-bit computers or an 64-bit OS

No one in the personal computing space on x86...

None of the consoles you're talking about used x86 processors.

>Why were there so many 64-bit consoles at a time?
Marketing.

The nintendo 64 has lots of technology from sgi workstations inside, and those used a 64bit CPU architecture
You don't need 64bit for 4GB RAM by the way, that's just a limitation on home editions of windows because some third party drivers can't handle PAE.

why they didn't use CD's like the PS is a better question

because God said 64 bit

Slightly lost here, I've seen several threads and asked myself too, what's the benefit of 64-bit and everybody says it's just support for larger amount of memory, no other performance or related benefits. Even though I've seen myself that generic benchmarks score better on a 64-bit machine running a 64-bit OS than same computer running the 32-bit variant of said OS.

>You don't need 64bit for 4GB RAM by the way, that's just a limitation on home editions of windows because some third party drivers can't handle PAE.
Windows without PAE could use 3.5GB of RAM, while with PAE it could use 4GB. Isn't it same for every OS?

Server editions can use much more than 4GB with PAE.
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/memory/memory-limits-for-windows-releases#physical-memory-limits-windows-server-2008

Lower Load times ... and look at that optical media is dead rn

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Dumb marketing.

Still doesn't explain why consoles with only a few MB of memory would need to be 64-bit?

Because they used an architecture that happened to be 64bit
Didn't matter anyway since most games were using 32bit only, but it also helped market it against the 32bit psx and saturn

"Happened to be"? But there were several and not just the N64. As I've seen it, they specifically wanted to be 64-bit?

Nothing. Very few N64 games ever used 64-bit code.

Nintendo thought that the price of cartridges was going to go down, which would give them a higher profit margin and cheaper games for consumers. Of course that never happened and instead you ended up with goldeneye cost $90.

If you look it up the N64 mainly operated in 32 bit mode on a 64 bit processor. That all happened because of DEC's 200MHz 64-bit Alpha processor revealed in 1991. The other RISC vendors rushed to compete despite it not being necessary at the time. And MIPS did really well in that era, ending up in a lot of different PCs and workstations.

>Very few N64 games ever used 64-bit code.
For what? It didn't even have enough memory for it to be useful?

Marketing. More bits sounds better.

How about the SGI workstations!? Don't they support 64-bit?

They also support +4GB of RAM.

quicker maffs

u r dumb. The graphics where 64 bit not the CPU, that was still 32 bit.

The 64-bit mode of the VR4300 was seldom used due to slow execution speed (the console had a 32-bit data bus so 64-bit operations took twice as many clock cycles to complete) and larger memory footprint when the N64 had limited space. Not much other than the firmware for the 64DD used 64-bit code.

A hold over from the 8 bit and 16 bit era marketing.

Most N64 titles ran in 32 bit mode.

The CPU was a MIPS R4200, so it was in fact 64-bit.

Linux and Haiku OS can do up to 8GB with PAE.

Windows server can do 64GB

For anyone interested in the N64 inner workings

youtu.be/U2uuH_ICRks

AMD64 was years away (2003, also worth mentioning that x86 is a 16-bit architecture with a 32-bit instruction set tacked on with a 64-bit instruction set tacked on) but the RISC architectures used in the consoles had been designed with 64-bit in mind from the start and it had already been implemented. Not to mention that 64's twice as large of a number as 32.

>16-bit CPU with a bunch of ISA's extending its functionality
That's why we have all these hidden processor exploits in the x86 design. Goes to show how a little preperation prevents piss poor performance.

Just shows that we should abandon x86 once and for all.

Everyone always forgets Itanium.

Yeah, I guess backwards compatibility was that important, why 32-bit long mode was tacked on top of 16-bit real mode.

Fantasy:
>Larger strings, variable, and more potential addresses.

Reality:
>Memory: 4 MB Rambus RDRAM (8 MB with Expansion Pak)

Support for those 64 bit operations is not free. If they only use 32 bit, the company is making the console unnecessarily more expensive.

I actually intended to mention it

What was the problem with maintaining physical 64bits?
What made x86_64 to be more used than PHY64?

Yes, type for ARM and RISC-V to dominate

why did the PS and N64 more popular than the DreamCast is an even better question