Q:

Are there any advantages to compiling an assembly as x64?

Suppose I have a .Net Framework 3.5 SP1/CLR 2.0 application which needs to run on both x86 and x64 platforms. Suppose as well that for whatever reason, I need to create separate x86 and x64 installation programs.
As I have an x64-specific installer anyway, would there be any benefit to recompiling the application itself as x64 rather than targeting "AnyCPU"?
Does setting the target to x64 change anything at all besides the header information of the generated assembly?

A:

If you specify x64 it changes some default memory settings for the program, making it slightly more performant in programs with a large memory pressure. Larger thread stacks are allocated when compiling with x64 (link)

