Google makes beta 64-bit version Chrome available for Windows

Google has released the beta of the 64-bit version of its Chrome browser for public use. According to the developer, the version provides an average improvement of 25 percent in terms of rendering multimedia content compared to the 32-bit version.

At the beginning of June, Google already released the 64-bit version of Chrome to developers, but there is now a public release for Windows 7 and 8 users. An upgrade to the new version will retain all settings and favorites, Google promises, but it will remain a test version, intended to detect bugs.

The version brings speed improvements, especially when rendering graphics content, because 64-bit processing can use optimizations of processors and compilers and because of the more modern instruction set, Google said earlier. In addition, security is improved because OS functionality such as High Entropy ASLR on Windows 8 can now be used. Furthermore, the 64bit browser would crash half as much during rendering than the 32bit version.

Google is not the first with a 64-bit browser. A 64-bit version of Internet Explorer has been available since version 7 in 2006, and Opera also already offers a 64-bit version of its browser for Windows. Apple’s Safari moved to 64bit processing in 2009 along with OS X Snow Leopard. Google itself also already has 64-bit Chrome offerings for Linux. Mozilla is still in the test phase of 64bit Firefox: a version is available as a nightly build, but it is not yet explicitly pushed forward. In the past, development of that Firefox version has been put on the back burner, but Mozilla plans to release the browser in due course.