Google has released the 64-bit version of the Chrome web browser for Windows 7 and 8 into its stable channel, after first releasing a version in its development channels earlier this summer.
This means that Windows users who have opted to get the 64-bit versions of the OS can now run a version of Chrome that is fully optimized for their system. The 64-bit version is shown as an optional download on the main Chrome website.
In a blog post, Google had this to say about the launch of Chrome for Windows 64-bit:
"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. For example, the VP9 codec that's used in High Definition YouTube videos shows a 15% improvement in decoding performance. Stability measurements from people opted into our Canary, Dev and Beta 64-bit channels confirm that 64-bit rendering engines are almost twice as stable as 32-bit engines when handling typical web content. Finally, on 64-bit, our defense in depth security mitigations such as Partition Alloc are able to far more effectively defend against vulnerabilities that rely on controlling the memory layout of objects."
In addition, the regular version of Chrome 37 is now available in the stable channel as of today. This new release adds DirectWrite support for the Windows version "for improved font rendering", along with some "new apps/extension APIs" and "lots of under the hood changes for stability and performance."
If you own a Windows 7 or 8 64-bit PC, will you be checking out the new version of Chrome today?
Source: Chrome download site, Chrome blog, Chromium blog
