Are all Mac Pro's 64 Bit?

Park My Car · Park My Car #1 (**permalink**)

04-05-2011, 09:46 PM

With news of Apple's Mac OS X Lion being 64 Bit only, and my iMac being 32 Bit, 5 years old, and how I am an iOS Dev. I want to purchase a Mac Pro from eBay. But first would like to know if every Mac Pro is 64 Bit. I want to go for a Mac Pro because I have multiple monitors and one is currently running off of USB which gets laggy, but if I would get better performance or a better performance to money ratio with a different mac (iMac, MacBook, ect.), please let me know.

Thanks
-Park My Car

chscag · chscag #2 (**permalink**)

04-05-2011, 10:36 PM

I'm fairly certain they are. However, one of our Mac Pro experts should be along to answer soon enough.

pigoo3 · pigoo3 #3 (**permalink**)

04-05-2011, 10:53 PM

Yes...all Mac Pro's are 64-bit. Here's an article from back in 2006 (when the 1st gen. Mac Pro's were released)...where the title of the article actually say's it's 64-bit:

AppleInsider | Apple unveils quad-core 64-bit Mac Pro desktops

Thus all "newer" Mac Pro's are also 64-bit.

HTH,

- Nick

harryb2448 · harryb2448 #4 (**permalink**)

04-05-2011, 11:22 PM

A somewhat confusing question to new Mac users.

Mac Pro first gen, 1.1, are 64 bit for sure, BUT they have a 32 bit EFI, or Boot Rom, and will run accordingly. What will happen with OS X.7 Lion's release? Maybe, and it is a pretty big maybe, the EFI will be updated to 64 bit. If you do a Google on making a 1.1 Mac Pro 64 bit there are work arounds.

http://ahatfullofsky.comuv.com/Engli...s/SMS/SMS.html

MikeM · MikeM #5 (**permalink**)

04-06-2011, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryb2448

A somewhat confusing question to new Mac users.

Mac Pro first gen, 1.1, are 64 bit for sure, BUT they have a 32 bit EFI, or Boot Rom, and will run accordingly. What will happen with OS X.7 Lion's release? Maybe, and it is a pretty big maybe, the EFI will be updated to 64 bit. If you do a Google on making a 1.1 Mac Pro 64 bit there are work arounds.

Startup Mode Selector

Wow, reading up on this stuff, It seems to be a bit of a Charlie Foxtrot that Apple has created with the 32bit EFI situation. My gut is telling me that Apple will not cut off all the users with systems even as new as 2010 that apparently cannot (or won't) run 64bit Snow Leopard but who knows what their support model will truly be.

Everymac.com list of systems EFI version

-MikeM

baggss · baggss #6 (**permalink**)

04-23-2011, 01:17 PM

That link was quite helpful. There is a link in there to an App called "Startup Selector" that will tell you what your machine is running now (32 or 64) and will allow you to boot to either.

While my Macbook will only boot in 32, my iMac WILL boot in 64 and runs quite a bit faster than it does in 32 AND utilizes RAM far more effectively for everyday use. For example, in 32 bit mode my machine used an average of 3Gb or RAM for the OS, Mail, Safari and other background Apps I always run. In 64 bit mode it's averaging a bit over 1Gb of RAM use for the same Apps.

chscag #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Jan 23, 2008 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 32,386 Mac Specs: 21.5" iMac 2.5 GHz i5, iPad 3rd Gen., 3 iPods	04-05-2011, 10:36 PM I'm fairly certain they are. However, one of our Mac Pro experts should be along to answer soon enough. Community Guidelines
	QUOTE Thanks

harryb2448 #4 (permalink)
Member Since: Nov 28, 2007 Location: Nambucca Heads Australia Posts: 14,265 Mac Specs: iMac i5 2.7GHz OS X.8.3	04-05-2011, 11:22 PM A somewhat confusing question to new Mac users. Mac Pro first gen, 1.1, are 64 bit for sure, *BUT* they have a 32 bit EFI, or Boot Rom, and will run accordingly. What will happen with OS X.7 Lion's release? Maybe, and it is a pretty big maybe, the EFI will be updated to 64 bit. If you do a Google on making a 1.1 Mac Pro 64 bit there are work arounds. http://ahatfullofsky.comuv.com/Engli...s/SMS/SMS.html *Hang on to those original install discs like grim death! Using OS X.7 or later make a bootable USB thumb drive before running Installer!* Last edited by harryb2448; 04-05-2011 at 11:27 PM.
	QUOTE Thanks

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Are all Mac Pro's 64 Bit?

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Park My Car #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 05, 2011 Posts: 1	04-05-2011, 09:46 PM With news of Apple's Mac OS X Lion being 64 Bit only, and my iMac being 32 Bit, 5 years old, and how I am an iOS Dev. I want to purchase a Mac Pro from eBay. But first would like to know if every Mac Pro is 64 Bit. I want to go for a Mac Pro because I have multiple monitors and one is currently running off of USB which gets laggy, but if I would get better performance or a better performance to money ratio with a different mac (iMac, MacBook, ect.), please let me know. Thanks -Park My Car
	QUOTE Thanks

baggss #6 (permalink)
Member Since: Oct 10, 2004 Location: Margaritaville Posts: 10,306 Mac Specs: 27" 3.4 Ghz i7 iMac-13" C2D Macbook-OSX 18.8.2-64Gb iPad 2-32 Gb iPhone 5-ATV 2-14Tb of Storage	04-23-2011, 01:17 PM That link was quite helpful. There is a link in there to an App called "Startup Selector" that will tell you what your machine is running now (32 or 64) and will allow you to boot to either. While my Macbook will only boot in 32, my iMac WILL boot in 64 and runs quite a bit faster than it does in 32 AND utilizes RAM far more effectively for everyday use. For example, in 32 bit mode my machine used an average of 3Gb or RAM for the OS, Mail, Safari and other background Apps I always run. In 64 bit mode it's averaging a bit over 1Gb of RAM use for the same Apps.
	QUOTE Thanks

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