64bit Vista drivers for iMac?

[vampyr]

I think I'm going to try installing 64bit Vista on my iMac (mostly because I just bought the Enhanced Edition of The Witcher that is enhanced for 64bit and multi core).

Anyways... does the OS cd include 64bit drivers? Are there any driver issues?

Thanks!

 

[Chris.]

Unfortunately, Apple only officially supports Windows Vista x64 in there Mac Pro and Macbook Pro products, therefore drivers aren't included on the cd.

I'm not sure if drivers from the Mac Pro/Macbook Pro would work with the iMac.

Chris.

 

[nick9191]

Unfortunately, Apple only officially supports Windows Vista x64 in there Mac Pro and Macbook Pro products, therefore drivers aren't included on the cd.

I'm not sure if drivers from the Mac Pro/Macbook Pro would work with the iMac.

Chris.

And you've tried it?

The iMac is the most recent Mac to be updated so I'd be quite surprised if it didn't.

 

[Chris.]

And you've tried it?

The iMac is the most recent Mac to be updated so I'd be quite surprised if it didn't.

(not sure if you are referring to if the drivers will work from the Mac Pro/Macbook Pro or if I have tried installing Windows x64 on my iMac )

No, however according to the Apple knowledge base it is only supported in the following products:

MacPro (Early 2008)
MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2008)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2008)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846

 

[swagi]

Running Vista x64 on Penryn iMac

Unfortunately, Apple only officially supports Windows Vista x64 in there Mac Pro and Macbook Pro products, therefore drivers aren't included on the cd.

I'm not sure if drivers from the Mac Pro/Macbook Pro would work with the iMac.

Chris.

The MacPro-Drivers Disk works like a charm on the iMac. The iMac install CD does NOT include 64-bit drivers. I don't know, why Apple chose to not put 64-bit drivers on the iMac-disk.

Nevertheless Vista 64-bit won't work without hickups if you don't have access to the MacPro drivers disk. Maybe you know *cough* a friend *cough* with the Install DVD.

 

[vampyr]

Well... I understand that Vista 64 will at least install on the iMac, but getting the drivers off the internet is what I'm after.

I wasn't sure if someone has a link to where I can find them? Or could I just run Windows Update and install whatever it finds?

 

[Stridder44]

Well... I understand that Vista 64 will at least install on the iMac, but getting the drivers off the internet is what I'm after.

I wasn't sure if someone has a link to where I can find them? Or could I just run Windows Update and install whatever it finds?

There was actually a discussion on this not long ago. Someone posted the drivers via Rapidshare. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/418220/

Finally finished uploading the whole Drivers folder (stupid residence bandwidth limit). This contains all Apple and non-Apple drivers and the install file BootCamp64.exe under Drivers/Apple/. This is really only required if you're doing a fresh install and don't have the required non-Apple drivers already. I had to RAR it into 4 pieces due to upload limits.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I can only assume Apple's neglect on this subject is going to be remedied in Snow Leopard; meaning there will be 64-bit Boot Camp drivers for all Macs.

 

[vampyr]

I've read that somewhere as well... that Snow Leopard should have 64-bit drivers for Windows Vista on their CD/DVD.

Isn't Snow Leopard supposed to come out this winter (thus the name)?

 

[Chris.]

I was reading another thread there and someone pointed out there install cd came with 64bit drivers, so I decided to have a look in my iMac Install disk 1 and 64-drivers seem to be included:

D:\Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple\x64 - Drivers

D:\Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple\ - BootCamp64.msi

The CD comes with "Mac OSX 10.5.2" and the iMac was bought in august.

So I would recommend having a look around your install disk 1 for the x64 drivers.

I'm deciding if I should buy a copy of Windows Vista x64 SP1. However, I believe there may be problems booting because of sp1?

 

[silentsage]

I purchased a new 24" iMac three weeks ago, and loaded Vista 64 on it. Here's what I learned in the process:

You need the 64-bit drivers from the Mac Pro. You can get them from the website listed in a previous note. My daughter has a Macbook Air, and I started with those, but it didn't have the full set of drivers needed for the iMac. Since it is a laptop, it didn't have (for example) the driver for the aluminum keyboard. The Mac Pro disc has everything that is needed.

You'll need to start with a 64-bit OS, not a 32-bit OS. For whatever reason, if a 32-bit OS is loaded first (e.g., XP 32, or Vista 32), you can't get the upgrade to a 64-bit OS to work with Boot Camp. In my case, I started with XP-64 (full install) and then used a Vista 64 upgrade disk.

The process I used was:

1. Run Boot Camp and load XP-64 first.
2. Install Vista-64 upgrade.
3. Load the individual 64-bit drivers from the Mac Pro disc.
4. Finally, run the latest Boot Camp upgrade for Vista 64 (available on the Apple website.

I've had no problems at all with Vista on the iMac. We only use Vista to run games (Microsoft Flight Simulator, Crysis, Oblivion). Our iMac is a 3.06 with the nVidia 8800 GS video card, and it runs those games very well.

By the way, if you do gaming on the iMac, be aware that the nVidia card is seriously underclocked. You can boost the clock speed using a utility called "Rivatuner" and get much better performance. No doubt this increases the temperature of the nVidia card, but we haven't had any problems.