Last year Apple was talking about how wonderful was to have the G5 being a 64 bit processor and the OSX a 64 bit native OS.... What's going on with the new Intel Duo and OSX in the Mac today? Does anyone knows?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
64 Bit Mac?
- Thread starter Ricard
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Ricard said:
Apple have never claimed OSX is 64bit native. It isn't. Even on a G5 ALL graphical processes are 32bit. To access the 64bit libraries the graphical front-ends interface with a command-line tool running in a separate process space which is linked against the 64bit libraries.
Unless you need more than 4Gb of RAM you will not notice any difference going to 64bit.
JFreak said:
Not likely. The AppKit (the GUI part of Cocoa) runs slower in 64bit mode than 32 (at least it did when it was part of NeXT).
But...
Mac OS X Tiger delivers the power of 64-bit computing to your Mac. Build and run a new generation of 64-bit applications that address massive amounts of memory, without compromising the performance of your existing 32-bit applications.
Bridge the Generation Gap
With the 64-bit features of Mac OS X Tiger, you can build and run a new generation of 64-bit applications that address up to four billion times as much memory as 32-bit applications.
Tiger also provides access to as much physical memory as you can install in PowerMac G5 and Xserve G5 systems, as well as highly optimized 64-bit math support for all PowerPC G5 systems. Even 32-bit applications benefit from the systems ability to access large amounts of RAM: The system can manipulate data in multiple applications entirely in RAM for maximum performance.
and if you do a search on Apple's website:
http://searchcgi.apple.com/cgi-bin/sp/nph-searchpre11.pl
you'll get a ton of articles claiming it!
So, it is just a marketing move?
Mac OS X Tiger delivers the power of 64-bit computing to your Mac. Build and run a new generation of 64-bit applications that address massive amounts of memory, without compromising the performance of your existing 32-bit applications.
Bridge the Generation Gap
With the 64-bit features of Mac OS X Tiger, you can build and run a new generation of 64-bit applications that address up to four billion times as much memory as 32-bit applications.
Tiger also provides access to as much physical memory as you can install in PowerMac G5 and Xserve G5 systems, as well as highly optimized 64-bit math support for all PowerPC G5 systems. Even 32-bit applications benefit from the systems ability to access large amounts of RAM: The system can manipulate data in multiple applications entirely in RAM for maximum performance.
and if you do a search on Apple's website:
http://searchcgi.apple.com/cgi-bin/sp/nph-searchpre11.pl
you'll get a ton of articles claiming it!
So, it is just a marketing move?
Ricard said:
intel doesnt have a 64 bit chip yet. . . this thread discusses the intel duo 2 chips and intel duo 2 extreme, which are the portable and desktop versions of the 64 bit dual core chips. they are supposed to be shipping this summer. so as this thread says, the desktop version will probably be in the new PowerMac (or whatever those will be called) and hopefully the portable version will make its way into the mini, iMac, and MacBook Pros
it's quite annoying, to have irregular cpu schedule. it's supposed to be 32 bit, then smoothly to 64 bit. with performance going up linearly as well.
now, it's like 32 bit (g4), 64 bit (g5), back down to 32 bit multicore (Core duo), and then later go back to 64 bit later this year. that's apple's timeline. it does bug me, even though performance still goes up.
intel and AMD have also being inconsistant too. they have 32 bit, then have this pseudo 64 bit chip, and this fast 32 bit, and this new multicore 32 bit, and it just scrambles what's supposed to be an organized transistion from 32 to 64 bit.
i mean, i remember watching the powermac g5 intro video, saying that 64 bit cpus are the future...
now, it's like 32 bit (g4), 64 bit (g5), back down to 32 bit multicore (Core duo), and then later go back to 64 bit later this year. that's apple's timeline. it does bug me, even though performance still goes up.
intel and AMD have also being inconsistant too. they have 32 bit, then have this pseudo 64 bit chip, and this fast 32 bit, and this new multicore 32 bit, and it just scrambles what's supposed to be an organized transistion from 32 to 64 bit.
i mean, i remember watching the powermac g5 intro video, saying that 64 bit cpus are the future...