Because it can utilize more of your hardware, the 64-bit version processes DAX queries and data refreshes significantly faster.
Ask yourself three questions:
You see two files: pbidesktopsetup-x64.exe and pbidesktopsetup.exe (sometimes labeled similarly but without the specific architecture tag). pbidesktopsetup-x64.exe vs pbidesktopsetup.exe
Before comparing the two, let's decode the nomenclature. Because it can utilize more of your hardware,
If you install pbidesktopsetup-x64.exe on a machine that lacks 64-bit ODBC drivers for your data source, you will see errors like: you will see errors like: