title: Python speed 32 v 64 bit Windows issue
body: <p>I've been having performance issues when moving apps between 32 bit windows 7 and 64 bit windows server 2008, both with similar processors.  I wrote a trivial program to test memory allocation performance to see the difference.  It shows that making lists on 64 takes almost 10 times as long as 32 bit windows.  Using python 2.6.5 on 32 and 2.6.6 on 64.  What could be causing the problem?  I wrote a little 'c' program to do the same thing and it showed the 64 bit server going faster.  So what is going wrong?</p>
  
  <pre><code>#silly python memory allocation test
  from datetime import datetime
  import random
  
  d = datetime.now()
  listo = [1] * 300000
  del listo
  print datetime.now()-d
  d = datetime.now()
  listo = [1] * 3000000
  del listo
  print datetime.now()-d
  d = datetime.now()
  listo = [1] * 30000000
  print datetime.now()-d
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>result on 32</p>
  
  <pre><code>0:00:00.002000
  0:00:00.024000
  0:00:00.166000
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>result on 64</p>
  
  <pre><code>0:00:00.031000
  0:00:00.156000
  0:00:02.672000
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there some outstanding problem with Python and memory peformance on 64 bit windows?</p>
  
  <p><strong>64 Windows 2008 R2 Server setup</strong></p>
  
  <p>4 CPU, 16GB Memory, 20GB C drive, 10GB/s Network Xeon X5570 @ 2.93GHz</p>
  
  <p><strong>32 Windows 7 pc</strong></p>
  
  <p>2 CPU, 2GB Memory, 500gb C drive, 1 Gb/s network Core 2 duo @ 3.00ghz</p>