04-23-2005, 03:39 PM

Is it similar to windows XP 64 where there must be 64 bit drivers?

I only ask because i just got a new power mac G5, and i can only use 1 monitor. I have an old ATI Rage XL i threw in my G3 to get the second monitor. OSX.2 supported it no problem. I assume osx.3 will, but what about osx.4?

I sure hope it does, i hate single monitor setups!

I need to buy a better video card anyways. What kinds can be successfully flashed to mac bios with full functionality?

Thanks in advance.

04-24-2005, 11:08 AM

No... as far as I know, Tiger will support 32 and 64 bit drivers, most of them remaining 32-bit for now.

Tiger has more 64-bit extensions, and has 64-bit memory addressing, but I believe it's still mostly 32 bit. The same OS installs on 32-bit G4 and well as 64-bit G5 so the difference is not as much as you'd think.

Windows XP x64 is a whole different build and is pretty much 64-bit through and through, with a little bit of 32-bit backwards compatibility for existing apps.

Keep in mind that 64-bit doesn't automatically mean faster/better. Programs compiled for 64-bit instructions would be more efficient, but 64-bit instructions and pointers take up twice the memory space so you need more memory to begin with. I would think that you need 64-bit drivers for any hardware that needs to access system memory if the OS uses 64-bit memory access, but then again I'm not a hardware driver developer. I think I've seen one or two people on this board who are more knowledgeable in that area.

The jump from 32 to 64 bit isn't as dramatic as the jump from 16 to 32 bit processing.

04-24-2005, 01:47 PM

well tiger SHOULD support it....as osx.3 SHOULD support my old ATI XCLAIM PRO....it didnt...osx.2 did..

i read somewhere you might be able to take the kext from the older OS and make it run in the newer os? basically the screen shows up greyscale, 640x480, totally unuseable