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.
I want a Macbook... do I wait for a 64 bit?
- Thread starter omernisar
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Whether to wait or not probably depends on the amount of use that is expected of the laptop, and what types of apps you are plan on running.
64 bit is a non-issue for non-professionals. 64 bit computing allows a single app to address more than 4 GB of ram...so people doing HEAVY photoshop, or video editing, or CAD programs, would benefit most from 64 bit.
I don't think I would wait for the simple fact of getting a 64. But I would give the macbook some time and make sure all the kinks are worked out.
Just my thoughts on new stuff.....
But then again, it would be great to get the "newest" gad and be the first on the block! Of course, something new is always right around the corner!
Just my thoughts on new stuff.....
But then again, it would be great to get the "newest" gad and be the first on the block! Of course, something new is always right around the corner!
OSX - 64 bit features for G5. Who knows for x86. Not that we can use the just announced 64-bit AMD dual cores anyway.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/64bit/
It seems like there's already a bit of a wait for the macbook, do you really want to add goodness knows how long for a product based on an unannounced chip from Intel?
Of course if you just want the fastest Mac out there right now, there's the Quad G5:
"The Quad G5 got the highest score we've ever seen on the CPU-stressing CineBench rendering test: 1,104. The Pentium EE840 overclocked to 3.6 GHz recently got a 667, and an Athlon 64 4800+ overclocked to 2.7 GHz scored 775. CineBench is a multithreaded app, so the more cores or threads your system can handle, the more efficiently your workload gets done." - from PCmag.com review
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1904636,00.asp
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/64bit/
It seems like there's already a bit of a wait for the macbook, do you really want to add goodness knows how long for a product based on an unannounced chip from Intel?
Of course if you just want the fastest Mac out there right now, there's the Quad G5:
"The Quad G5 got the highest score we've ever seen on the CPU-stressing CineBench rendering test: 1,104. The Pentium EE840 overclocked to 3.6 GHz recently got a 667, and an Athlon 64 4800+ overclocked to 2.7 GHz scored 775. CineBench is a multithreaded app, so the more cores or threads your system can handle, the more efficiently your workload gets done." - from PCmag.com review
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1904636,00.asp
omernisar said:
Well if you need to have the latest and greatest you'll have to buy a new computer every 1/2 year anyway, so I see no reason to wait. For the tasks you describe here a 1ghz G4 would be enough, so no need to wait for 64 bit Core Duos either.
Since you can't put more than 2 GB on new iMac nor MacBook Pro, there's no inherent advantage to going 64-bit (unless you are in a specialized field doing heavy number crunching). I don't know if Mac OS X supports 4 GB maximum RAM capacity afforded by 32-bit Core Duos (aka "Yonah"). If it does, I would like to know whether two new Macs can accomodate not-yet-announced 2 GB PC5300 DDR2.
omernisar said:
the 64bit intel machine will come first to replace the PowerMac line. I don't think that 64 bit macbook will come any time soon. the iMac downwards from 64bit to 32bit suggest so.