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.
Does a Mac run faster in 64-bit?
- Thread starter KnowNol
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
So you're not anymore specific with what you want, especially the pluralized singular?
Software that is 64 bit can foremost address more than 2GB of RAM and in some cases is a bit slower than its 32 bit equivalent.
Btw, you had four months and haven't found any other information yet?
And why has my post more words in it than the entire thread?
PS: Something to read for the next four months. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/26/road_to_mac_os_x_10_6_snow_leopard_64_bits.html
PPS:
11. Bumps.
Posts that bring a thread to the top of the New Posts list but add no content to the thread (bumps) are not permitted. This applies not only to posts that say "bump" but to those with the intent to bump, e.g. posts saying "anyone?" or the equivalent.
from those nasty rules I don't even read, or I would have known that sometimes we have to hit the vote to save an edit.
It runs "faster" only if the applications you are running use more than 3-4GB of Ram AND if your system has more than 4GB of physical Ram installed.
So in all likelihood it won't run mail, Safari, iTunes, TextEdit faster as they probably won't ever use more than 3-4GB of Ram.
If you are running something along the likes of Maya, Photoshop and Logic Pro and are doing something particularly resource intensive, having a 64bit system (hardware and software) with plenty of Ram won't slow down the machine when the applications exceed a 3-4GB Ram footprint as the computer won't have to resort to using very slow HD based swap-files to make up for the lack of Ram storage.
The loading of programs won't really be affected all that much unless said program exceeds the 3-4GB 32-bit limit.
So in all likelihood it won't run mail, Safari, iTunes, TextEdit faster as they probably won't ever use more than 3-4GB of Ram.
If you are running something along the likes of Maya, Photoshop and Logic Pro and are doing something particularly resource intensive, having a 64bit system (hardware and software) with plenty of Ram won't slow down the machine when the applications exceed a 3-4GB Ram footprint as the computer won't have to resort to using very slow HD based swap-files to make up for the lack of Ram storage.
The loading of programs won't really be affected all that much unless said program exceeds the 3-4GB 32-bit limit.
Not exactly. You do get a small speed boost from doubling the number of available registers (minus the overhead for using 64-bit pointers). IIRC, the number is in the 5%-20% range (but don't quote me on this), depending on the application of course. A program that spends most of its time waiting for data will get a smaller (if any) boost compared to one that is constantly number crunching.
