And James I pretty much have heard that the average user wouldn't notice a real bump in speed any way and really won't benefit from 64- bit as well. The whole point is building the underpinnings of the os for the next generation of software/hardware etc. A real bump in speed will come from having solid state drives that can send/receive data at the cpu's speed and even then how fast is fast. On Aug 30, 2009, at 1:28 PM, James Dempsey wrote:
> Fonzie, > > There's are two different things involved when talking about 64- > bit. First is whether individual applications are running as 64- > bit. If you have a 64-bit processor, then any application that is > 64-bit capable will run 64-bit. 32-bit applications continue > running as 32-bit. This happens automatically, and it depends on > whether the individual program supports 64-bit. > > An application that is 64-bit can use more than 4GB of RAM, and also > 64-bit Intel apps tend to perform better than 32-bit Intel apps. > > On SnowLeopard, just about every application that ships with > SnowLeopard is 64-bit. You can check this yourself by launching > Activity Monitor which is in the Utilities folder. Activity Monitor > has a table of running programs. The "Kind" column in the table > will say "Intel (64-bit)" for programs running in 64-bit, and just > plain "Intel" for programs running in 32-bit. > > Everything that I described above happens without you doing a > thing. If an app supports running as 64-bit, it does so > automatically. If an app only supports 32-bit, it runs 32-bit > automatically. > > The second thing involved is whether the Mac OS X kernel itself is > running as 64-bit or 32-bit. According to this AppleCare article > (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2937 > ): > > "Third-party software (such as a virtualization engine) or hardware > (such as a PCIe card) that relies on a kernel extension which was > compatible with Mac OS X Server v10.5 may not work on servers that > use the 64-bit kernel in Mac OS X Server v10.6." > > My guess is that there are enough kernel extensions out there that > are not yet 64-bit, that it made sense to keep the kernel running in > 32-bit, to prevent lots of users from having things stop working. > > Note that regardless of whether the low-level kernel code is running > at 32 or 64 bit, you still get the advantages of applications > running as 64-bit. > > So, that's the long answer to your question. The short answer to > your question: > > "Should I worry about booting into 64 bit mode?" > > is no, you shouldn't worry about it. You are already, > automatically, getting all the 64-bit benefits that are described > for SnowLeopard here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology. > > -James > ---------------- > James Dempsey > demp...@mac.com > > > On Aug 30, 2009, at 8:51 AM, Fonzie wrote: > >> >> Hi everyone, I hope your morning/afternoon, or whatever time it is >> goes well. >> >> I noticed that.... Snow Leopard boots in 32 bit mode. >> >> I check the list of supported 64 bit Macs, and mine is surely on the >> list. >> >> Should I worry about booting into 64 bit mode? >> >> If so, how would you make it so that it boots into 64 bit mode every >> time, and not one that you would have to tell it too. >> >> Right now, the only way I know of to boot into 64 bit mode, is to >> start up, and hold 6 and 4 keys down. >> >> Take care. >> >> Fonzie >> >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
