"https is faster on amd64?"

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Sunday 06 February 2011 10:14:34 kellyremo wrote:
> http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2011/01/31/dispelling-th
> e-new-ssl-myth.aspx
> 
>  according to the "SSL Performance" table it says that the transactions per
> second is 2-3 times better using 64bit kernels opposite to 32bit kernels?
> 
>  is this true, or i am just misunderstanding something

Why do you sound so surprised? It seems only natural that a 64bit processor 
will be roughly twice as fast compared to 32bit processor, for most computing-
intensive tasks like encryption and such.

The fact that a typical 64bit desktop machine does not appear significantly 
faster than an equivalent 32bit machine in a typical everyday desktop usecases 
is another matter. It has to do with the fact that the performance of the rest 
of the hardware (hard disk, graphics card, etc.) is identical in both 64bit 
and 32bit environments, coupled with the fact that a typical desktop usecase 
does not involve too much number-crunching to begin with. In a typical desktop 
machine the cpu is idling most of the time (waiting for user interaction), so 
the difference in power between the two architectures is not visible.

But when you start doing some serious computations, the difference becomes 
visible. SSL {en|de}cryption is one of the examples.

HTH, :-)
Marko