Is My MacBook A 64bit Machine?

vansmith · Aug 25, 2009

XJ-linux said:
I'll be happy with quicker boot times, and Exchange support for my work email. Other than that 10.6 is kind of a yawn to me. I'm too lazy to hold down the 6 and 4 keys every time I boot.

You may not have to hold down those keys. Word on the street is that you should be able to edit com.apple.Boot to have OS X default to a 64-bit kernel.

ericg2000 said:
i have a black Macbook, i believe it is Model Identifier: MacBook3,1. i currently have 4 gig of ram. after i load snow leopard, will i be able to increase to maybe 6 gigs of ram, or more?

thanks

64-bit support will let you use more RAM but maximum capacity for memory is still limited by the motherboard. So, regardless of the increased support for more memory, you may not be able to use more than 4GB. That said, it is reported that the MacBook3,1 can support up to 6GB (though Apple only specifies 4GB as the max). Even though this is possible, you likely won't need that much and I'm sure cost will deter you from going to 6GB.

XJ-linux · Aug 25, 2009

vansmith said:
Even though this is possible, you likely won't need that much and I'm sure cost will deter you from going to 6GB.

Word. Even if my Late 2008 MBP physically and logically supported 8GB or 80GB, it's way to pricey for the negligible gains. 4GB of RAM is about $90 now, so when 8GB gets to be ~$180, I may bite.

thomasconnor · Aug 27, 2009

hi,

i don't really understand the 32 - 64 bit thing, so try not to use 'tech speak'

these are the specs of my macbook:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB11.0061.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.4f12
Serial Number (system): 4H62962GU9B
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CBCDFE86
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

I'm pretty sure this means i have a 32 bit machine. If so, should i get snow leopard and should i boot it as a 64 bit?

thanks

XJ-linux · Aug 27, 2009

Core Duo = 32bit and Core 2 Duo = 64 bit; It won't matter a hill of beans for most folks, at least not for a while.

DragonLance · Aug 27, 2009

you should run it in 32 bit, regardless of processor or anything else.
There will be no advantage to running in 64 bit until Hardware improves drastically.

In the meantime, you'll still get the advantages of 64bit when it's available!

Zeptogram · Aug 27, 2009

"Are 64 bit versions of Microsoft XP and Vista supported?

64 bit versions of Microsoft XP are not supported using Boot Camp. 64 bit versions of Microsoft Vista are supported on certain Intel based Macintosh computers using Boot Camp 2.0 or later. See document HT1846 for more information."

Straight from Apple. I looked at the said document, and I don't believe my MacBook is able to boot a 64 bit OS with BootCamp. Or at least Windows XP or Vista.

cwa107 · Aug 27, 2009

Zeptogram said:
"Are 64 bit versions of Microsoft XP and Vista supported?

64 bit versions of Microsoft XP are not supported using Boot Camp. 64 bit versions of Microsoft Vista are supported on certain Intel based Macintosh computers using Boot Camp 2.0 or later. See document HT1846 for more information."

Straight from Apple. I looked at the said document, and I don't believe my MacBook is able to boot a 64 bit OS with BootCamp. Or at least Windows XP or Vista.

Boot Camp's driver package is updated occasionally. That information may be out of date.

chscag · Aug 27, 2009

cwa107 said:
Boot Camp's driver package is updated occasionally. That information may be out of date.

Interesting article on ZDNet about the new Boot Camp 3.0 included with Snow Leopard. Good reading and info.

Link

Regards.

Zeptogram · Aug 27, 2009

chscag said:
Interesting article on ZDNet about the new Boot Camp 3.0 included with Snow Leopard. Good reading and info.

Link

Regards.

Looks promising! I'm upgrading to Snow Leopard tomorrow, and I will be picking up a copy of Windows 7 upon its release, so this is good to hear!

Thanks!

norbo17 · Aug 28, 2009

The MacBook and MacBook Pro need a 64 EFI to run Snow Leopard in 64 bit. To find out if you have a 32 bit EFI or a 64 bit EFI run the following command in a terminal:

ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi

Here is the link to where I found this information:

Snow Leopard GM not booting into 64-bit mode automatically, fix here | 9 to 5 Mac

Hope this helps.

Zeptogram said:
I have been doing a little searching, and I'm actually not sure!

It's something I would really like to know, so hopefully someone here could help me out.

I did try the search feature, and I didn't dig up anything, but if I missed it, I apologize, and would greatly appreciate a link.

Here's what I got:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB21.00A5.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.13f3
Serial Number (system): W871243BWGM
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F2D5DE41
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

jbrooke · Oct 8, 2009

First generation core duo machines are 32bit and will not gain much improvement on Snow Leopard. It would be better stick with Leopard.

cwa107 · Oct 8, 2009

jbrooke said:
First generation core duo machines are 32bit and will not gain much improvement on Snow Leopard. It would be better stick with Leopard.

Not true. 64-bit doesn't mean "twice as fast", it means being able to address additional memory above 4GB, which very few applications need to do. Snow Leopard was optimized for multi-core processors and Intel machines - any Intel machine should benefit from it. And of course, everyone will benefit from the smaller overall footprint.

Apple themselves said that they wanted all Intel Leopard users to upgrade to Snow Leopard - that's why they kept the price so low.

Mac Masta · Oct 8, 2009

So I am assuming that this means that I have a 64 bit EFI.

Last login: Thu Oct 8 16:06:31 on console
jakes-macbook-pro:~ Jake$ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi
| | "firmware-abi" = <"EFI64">
jakes-macbook-pro:~ Jake$

Is My MacBook A 64bit Machine?

vansmith

Senior Member

XJ-linux

thomasconnor

XJ-linux

DragonLance

Zeptogram

cwa107

chscag

Well-known member

Zeptogram

norbo17

jbrooke

cwa107

Mac Masta

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